Lyceum Theatre (Boston)

The Lyceum Theatre was in Boston, Massachusetts, located at 661–667 Washington Street, at the corner with Boylston Street. It opened as the Boylston Museum (also called the New Boylston Museum) in 1875 at 667 Washington Street. It operated as both a theatre and a dime museum. Its founder, George E. Lothrop, acquired the adjacent properties and greatly expanded the theatre. This expanded facility opened as the World's Museum (also called World's Theatre and the World's Museum, Menagerie and Aquarium) in 1885. In 1892, the theatre ceased to be a dime museum and was renamed the Lyceum Theatre after undergoing significant alterations. It was demolished in June 1908. The Gaiety Theatre was built on the same site in 1908.

Boylston Museum (1875–1885)

The Boylston Museum was founded by George E. Lothrop in 1875, at 667 Washington Street adjacent to Boylston Market. Lothrop was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School who left a career as a physician to pursue a career in theatre management. A dime museum as well as a theatre, a review in The Boston Globe on May 14, 1875, described the site as a "cozy little theatrum" and that the museum contained a "collection of curiousities [that are] large and interesting". It also described the theatre as offering daily afternoon and evening performances with both dramas and variety entertainments as offerings. The Boylston Museum operated primarily as a variety theatre during the vaudeville era. The theatre sat 930 people and it charged 10 to 50 cents for tickets to its performances. The actor Horace Lewis (1854–1905) made his professional debut at the Boylston Museum during its first year of operation, starring as Mr. Primrose in an 1875 production of A Tight Place. Singer Maggie Cline was also an early performer at the theatre who began her career on the Boylston stage. By 1876 advertisements for the Boylston Museum began referring to the museum as the New Boylston Museum and its theatre as the Star Novelty Theatre. For the Christmas 1877 season the actress Sadie Martinot was engaged for performances. Martinot became a favorite performer for Boston audiences in minstrel shows staged at the Boylston. George M. Cohan's father, Jere Cohan, worked as a stage manager at the Boylston Museum, and the Four Cohans sometimes gave six shows a day at the Boylston's theatre. Denman Thompson performed a highly popular sketch at the theatre, "Uncle Josh", which he later developed into the longer play The Old Homestead, which for a period held the record for the longest-running play in the history of the American theatre. Other vaudeville entertainers to appear at the Boylston Museum included comedian Neil Burgess; actors Charles L. Davis (1870–1920) and Charles H. Yale; and acrobat and singing actress Carrie Swain. The museum and theatre stopped operating in April 1885 in order to expand and transform the enterprise into the World's Theatre.

World's Museum (1885–1892)

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