Globe Theatre (Boston, 1871)

Not to be confused with Globe Theatre, Boston (1903).

The Globe Theatre (est.1871) was a playhouse in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. It was located at 598 Washington Street,^[1] near the corner of Essex Street.^[2] Arthur Cheney oversaw the Globe until 1876.^[3][4] From 1871 to 1873 it occupied the former theatre of John H. Selwyn.^[4] After a fire in May 1873, the Globe re-opened on the same site in December 1874.^[5] Architect Benjamin F. Dwight designed the new building.^[6] From 1877 to 1893 John Stetson served as proprietor;^[7][8] some regarded him as "a theatrical producer with a reputation for illiteracy in his day such as Samuel Goldwyn has achieved" in the 1960s.^[9] The theatre burned down in January 1894.^[10]

Programme for performance of H.A. Rendle's "Chesney Wold," 1873

Detail of 1886 map of Boston, showing Globe Theatre

Seating chart, 1883

Horatio J. Homer, Boston's first African-American police officer, worked as a janitor at the Globe Theatre before being hired by the Boston Police Department.^[1]

Performances

1870s

• H.A. Rendle's Chesney Wold, with Madame Janauschek^[11]
• Henry VIII starring Charlotte Cushman as Katherine Queen of England
• Fox's Humpty Dumpty^[12]
• Augustin Daly's Pique, with Miss Jeffries-Lewis^[13]
• E.A. Sothern as Lord Dundreary^[13]
• "Sea of Ice" with Miss Maud Granger as Ocarita and Mr. George Boniface as Carlos, Monday, January 28, 1878 ^[14]
• Eliza Weathersby's Froliques^[15]
• The Scouts of the Prairie, with Buffalo Bill Cody, Texas Jack Omohundro, Ned Buntline, and Giuseppina Morlacchi, week of March 5, 1873.^[16]
• Miss Kate Claxton in Two Orphans

1880s

• "Rice's new extravaganza combination in the opera comique Calino"^[17]
• Othello, starring Salvini^[18]
• L.R. Shewell's Debt of Honor^[18]
• Oscar Wilde lecture June 2, 1882^[19]
• Oedipus^[9]
• 14 Days, with Charles Wyndham^[20]
• We, Us & Co., with Mestayer-Vaughn^[21]
• Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado, with Helen Lamont and Signor Brocolini^[22]
• As in a Looking-Glass, with Mrs. Langtry^[23]
• The Hanlons in "Fantasma"^[23]
• Princess Ida^[24]
• Ibsen's A Doll's House, with Beatrice Cameron^[25]
• The Oolah (1889)^[26]

1890s

• The Lion Tamer, with Francis Wilson^[27]
• Ali Baba, with American Extravaganza Co.^[28]
• The Crust of Society^[29]
• Prince Karl, with Richard Mansfield^[30]
• Hanlon Brothers' "mechanical fairy spectacle Superba"^[31]
• La Cigale, with Lillian Russell^[32]