9 - “Legitimate” and “Illegitimate” Theater around the Turn of the Century

Summary

While decorum was well established as the norm in legitimate theaters by the last quarter of the century, complaints about audience behavior indicate that it was not always honored. The nature of the complaints had changed, however. Drama theater had subdivided along class lines, and criticism was directed mostly at the affluent audiences of legitimate theater for their inattention and lack of taste. At the same time, working-class audiences at popular and ethnic theaters were rambunctious and voluble, though not violent as before. Writers no longer disapproved of these audiences, but rather described them largely in sympathetic terms. This chapter will explore the peculiar inversions of cultural and class hierarchies in the discourse on legitimate theater audiences, and examine the continuing participative traditions among working-class audiences of popular theaters.

Around the turn of the century, aesthetic guardians replaced moral guardians as the critics of theater. Sacrilege against “Art,” not against God, was the sin. Dramatic criticisms typically advocated high culture against the commercialism of theater. They described American drama theater at the turn of the century as commercially successful but artistically bankrupt: plays were second rate, acting was histrionic, and independent producers devoted to art had been driven out by the Theater Syndicate.