Anthony Street Theatre

The first performance was The Way to Get Married, followed by "grand feats of horsemanship by Mr. Breschard and Company", and a farce called The Spoild Child.

[2][3][4] By July 1812 the theatre came under the management of actor-manager William Twaits, along with Alexander Placide (but who died on July 26) and Breschard (who was still managing the horses);[5] Twaits and Placide had come to New York after the disastrous Richmond Theatre fire in Richmond, Virginia, where they had been co-managers.

Under Twaits, the Olympic was due to open with a production led by Charlotte Melmoth and Twaits, but while travelling to fulfil this engagement Melmoth was involved in a carriage accident, resulting in a severe fracture to her arm that failed to heal, forcing her to give up her acting career.

With this company Edmund Kean made his first appearance to much acclaim in New York in November 1820 in Richard III.

His strange manner surprises them, but his style gains more converts every night and before he leaves us I expect they will be unanimous in calling him, as they express it, the greatest creation they ever saw.