Flappers & Fiction

Edwin Booth didn’t just build a club; he created a sanctuary in Gramercy Park where the actor might finally rest his mask. We are invited past the heavy stone porch into a world of quiet luxury, from the grill room with its silver ale-mugs and Shakespearean inscriptions to the library where twelve thousand volumes wait in the hush. It is a place where gossip is forbidden and the gentle temperament of its founder lingers in every corner. This is more than a tour of a mansion; it is a rare glimpse into the private heart of the nineteenth-century stage.

They tell us the modern age demands realism, that we have lost the patience for poetry and moonlight. Of course, Mr. Augustin Daly begs to differ. In this spectacular revival of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he challenges the skeptics by transforming the stage into a living painting, complete with electric fireflies and a sunrise that actually glows. It is a daring experiment in pure beauty. The question, you see, isn’t whether the play can survive the nineteenth century, but whether our imaginations are still vivid enough to meet Shakespeare halfway.