[1] It was a two-story wooden structure, owned by merchant and former governor Rip Van Dam, and it opened on December 11, 1732, with a performance of The Recruiting Officer.
[2] In 1750, shortly after Van Dam's death, it hosted New York's first-known performance of a musical, The Beggar's Opera, presented by a London-based traveling troupe, Murray & Kean's.
This was also the first record of professional actors in New York; previously all productions had been amateur affairs.
[3] In 1753, actor and director Lewis Hallam expanded the theatre, describing the new structure as "very fine, large and commodious.
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