By a company of comedians from London, at the New Theatre in Nassau Street, the present evening, being the 17th of September (1753), will be performed a comedy called
Young Bevel Mr. Rigby. Mr. Sealand Mr. Malone. Sir John Bevel Mr. Bell. Myrtle Mr. Clarkson. Cimberton Mr. Miller. Humphry Mr. Adcock. Daniel Master L. Hallam. Tom Mr. Singleton. Phillis Mrs. Becceley. Mrs. Sealand Mrs. Clarkson. Lucinda Miss Hallam. Isabella Mrs. Rigby. Indiana Mrs. Hallam.
To which will be added the Ballet Farce of
Arcas Mr. Bell. Ogon Mr. Rigby. Korydon Mr. Clarkson. Cymon Mr. Miller. Damon Mr. Adcock. Phillida Mrs. Becceley.
A new occasional prologue to be spoken by Mr. Rigby.
An epilogue (addressed to the ladies) by Mrs. Hallam.
Prices.—Box, 8_s._; Pit, 6_s._; Gallery, 3_s._
No person whatever to be admitted behind the scenes.
N. B.—Gentlemen and ladies that choose tickets may have them at the new printing-office in Beaver Street.
The days of performance, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and continued so for half a century.
The city of Philadelphia was the next move by this company on the checker-board of the mimic world.
The Nassau Street, New York, closed on the 18th of March, 1754, and Hallam accepted a pressing invitation from a number of gentlemen in Philadelphia, and opened on the 15th of April, 1754, in a sail-loft or warehouse belonging to William Plumstead, Esq.,[31] situated in Water Street, southeast corner of the first alley above Pine. This building extended to the wharf. This was certainly a most curious locality: yet at that period the neighborhood of its site was almost _aristocratical_, for “Society Hill,” extending all along Front Street to Almond, was the theatre of as much fashionable parade and display as Chestnut Street is now. There stood at that period several finely-built houses, and its proximity to the “Loxley House” and “White Hall” gave it a character it certainly could not claim at the present day: we mean, of course, for its locality as a theatre. There is also another, and perhaps a paramount one; and that is, it was the only place they could get. It was here, on this lone spot, the first regular company of comedians opened their Philadelphia campaign. The play was the “Fair Penitent,” and “Miss in her Teens.”