Where may you find the oldest theater in America? It’s not New York or Chicago, but Philadelphia: The Walnut Street Theatre has been in operation for over two hundred years, and the building in which actors now perform is a National Historic Landmark. The list of actors who have performed at the Walnut Street Theatre reads like a who’s who of American and British theatrical royalty: Edwin Booth, Edmund Kean, George M. Cohan, the Barrymores, Will Rogers, The Marx Brothers, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, Sidney Poitier, George C. Scott, Lauren Bacall, Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Robert Redford… and even William Shatner.
The theater opened to the public in February of 1809, and within its walls audiences were entertained by acts of vaudeville, live theater, the circus, opera, music, dance, lectures, and movies. The first show was an equestrian circus, with teams of horses riding round a dirt ring. Three years later, the building had an eighty foot dome, the tallest in Philadelphia, and the circus was gone, replaced by live, legitimate theater.
The first play performed was titled The Rivals, and President Thomas Jefferson attended. Installed in 1837, it was the first theater to put in gas footlights; in 1855, the theater added air conditioning. Copyright laws that protect American plays had its origin at the Walnut Theatre. The idea of curtain calls, based in part on ancient Greek notions of releasing the audience from the spell of the story, is said to have begun in America at the Walnut with the appearance of the famed actor, Edmund Kean. Some years later, in 1863, the theater was purchased by Edwin Booth, whose family had deep and well known theatrical roots. Unfortunately, his brother happened to be John Wilkes Booth who assassinated President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C.; despite the bad publicity, Edwin Booth kept the Walnut Theatre running for years afterwards.
Over the many decades, the theatre has had many renovations, and was eventually bought by the Shubert Organization. It became a place for Broadway shows to try out the effectiveness of their stories before debuting on Broadway; therefore, a Philadelphia audience would see a number of famous actors as well as the work of famous playwrights, such as Neil Simon when the first Broadway play he wrote, Come Blow Your Horn, made its theatrical debut.
If you’ve come to the City of Brotherly Love, certainly spend some time exploring its patriotic and historical roots and stay in its luxury hotels. Philadelphia , though, also has cultural and entertainment possibilities, you might not have considered; you should definitely see what’s playing now at the oldest theater in America.