A riot sparked by dueling performances of Macbeth? Hard to believe, but it happened 160 years ago in Astor Place. Today, skate rats are the most menacing crowd you’ll find there.
But in 1849, things were different. Top U.K. actor William Charles Macready, a favorite of New York City’s upper crust, was booked to perform Macbeth at the refined Astor Place Opera House on May 10.
That same night, American-born Edwin Forrest (at left, a daguerreotype by Mathew Brady), who started his career in theaters on the nearby Bowery for working-class crowds, was also scheduled to play Macbeth a few blocks away. Once friendly, the actors were now rivals.
On May 7, Forrest’s fans—whipped up by newspaper stories and anti-English sentiment—arrived at Macready’s opening performance and proceeded to bombard the stage with eggs and shoes.
Macready wanted to go back to Britain, but prominent New Yorkers, like Herman Melville and Washington Irving, persuaded him to stay.
Before the May 10 performance, Forrest’s fans went into riot mode. About 20,000 men amassed outside the opera house, tossing rocks through windows and attempting to set it on fire. While police tried to quell the crowd outside, Macready finished the show and took off.
The rioters did not. National Guardsmen were called in to restore order. They fired on rioters as well as innocent bystanders. After it was finally brought under control, the riot had claimed 22 lives.
Tags: Astor Place Opera House, Astor Place Riots, Astor Place Theater, Bowery theater in the 19th century, Edwin Forrest, Famous Riots, Macbeth, New York in the 19th Century, Riots in New York City, William Charles Macready
September 14, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
[…] 160 years ago, a riot that claimed 22 lives started in Astor Place over dueling performances of “Macbeth.” [Ephemeral New […]
September 15, 2009 at 2:32 am |
Imagine what the Dead Rabbits, Plug Uglies or Bowery Boys would do in response to the invasion of bridge and tunnel hipsters and fraternity types. I wish they were here now to see their response.
September 15, 2009 at 3:12 am |
@malcontent:
Yeah because 22 lives are really worthless, no matter who they are, right?, right?!… geez…. people should really think before saying things….
September 15, 2009 at 5:35 pm |
[…] 1849, riots in Astor Place over Macbeth claimed twenty-two lives. It spawned from two dueling actors booked the same night at different […]
May 4, 2011 at 3:54 am |
[…] Astor Place, Astoria, and Astor Row in Harlem all bear his name. […]
September 10, 2011 at 4:25 am |
astoria queens. is that what they mean?
May 11, 2012 at 1:29 am |
Reblogged this on Big Apple Dayze.
August 13, 2012 at 12:16 am |
[…] city has had its share of senseless riots: Astor Place, the Draft Riots, Tompkins […]
August 13, 2014 at 2:29 pm |
[…] Smith Woodhull (1949-51), who ineffectively looked on during the Astor Place Riots, was a landowner in Miller Place on the north shore and is buried nearby at Ceder Hill Cemetery […]
January 14, 2015 at 3:15 am |
[…] Smith Woodhull (1949-51), who ineffectively looked on during the Astor Place Riots, was a landowner in Miller Place on the north shore and is buried nearby at Ceder Hill Cemetery […]
November 27, 2017 at 8:13 am |
[…] York’s theater scene followed the growth of the city northward, centering around Astor Place in the 1840s before relocating to 14th Street and inching up Broadway to Longacre Square by the turn of the […]
March 6, 2023 at 4:03 am |
[…] House, Astor Place, The Astor Theater—all were named for this German immigrant and Astor family patriarch. In the 1830s, he also […]