The History of Theater Riots

BRUCE MCCONACHIE: The tradition of rioting in the theater goes back to the eighteenth century in the United States, and it comes directly over from England.

People would riot for all kinds of reasons. Often they didn't like the choice of plays, sometimes they didn't like the choice of music. Sometimes it was an English actor who was attempting to do a play or even enact a part of a play—even a scene from a play—that was not to the liking of the crowd, that the crowd took offense to. So they would start a riot.

It wasn't so much about Shakespeare, it was about nationalistic self-image and it was often about social antagonism as well. But there are all kinds of riots up to the Astor Place riot. Then they tend to tail off. It has to do less with class antagonism, which continues. But it has to do more with the increasing power of municipal police departments.