Grand Theatre (New York City)

Grand Theatre

Adler's Grand Theatre
The Grand Theatre, some time before 1906
Address	255 Grand Street, at Chrystie Street New York City
Opened	February 1903
Closed	1930

The Grand Theatre was a theatre in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan in New York City built for Yiddish productions, the first of its kind.^[1]

Background

On March 12, 1902, Sophia Karp, with Jacob Fischel and playwright Joseph Lateiner, founded the Grand Theatre in New York City. The city's first theatre built specifically for Yiddish productions,^[2] the Grand was typical of Yiddish theatres of the time by being largely artist-managed. Besides Karp and Lateiner, the directors included leading man Morris Finkel, comedian Bernard Bernstein, L. S. Gottlieb, and composer Louis Friedsell. It opened in February 1903.^[3]

Two events in 1904 symbolized the decline of the serious stage. Jacob Gordin failed as the director of his own theater and Jacob Adler, the leading exponent of Gordin's dramas, opened the Grand Theater – the first structure built specifically for the Yiddish stage. In 1912 T[h]omashefsky's new National Theater on Houston Street even surpassed the Grand in the magnificence of its appointments. The National compared favorably with Broadway palaces and offered similar enjoyments subject to the same commercial will-o'-the-wisp.^[2]

Italian performances also were done at the theatre.^[4]

References

1. Rosenfeld, Lulla Adler. The Yiddish theatre and Jacob P. Adler, p. 299 (1988)
2. Moses Rischin, The promised city: New York's Jews, 1870–1914
3. (1 February 1903). A New Jewish Theatre, The New York Times
4. Aleandri, Emelise. The Italian-American Immigrant Theatre of New York City, p. 45 (1999)

Coordinates: 40°43′05″N 73°59′38″W / 40.718184°N 73.99386°W