'', 1888 The Casino Theatre, designed in
Moorish Revival style by architects
Francis Hatch Kimball and Thomas Wisedell, was the first theatre in New York to be lit entirely by electricity. It was built in 1882 more than 15 blocks north of where the theatre district was then centered, 23rd Street. It originally seated approximately 875 people, however the theatre was enlarged in 1894 and again when it was rebuilt in 1905 after a fire in 1903. The redesigned Casino seated 1,300. In 1891, it premiered
Cavalleria Rusticana in America, and in 1894 it presented the first Broadway
revue,
The Passing Show. In 1898, it was host to the premiere of
Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk, the first African-American musical to be presented before a white audience. by 1930, most of the theatres had moved even further north, to the West 40s. The last performance was the opera
Faust presented by the American Opera Company on January 18, 1930 with tenor
Charles Kullman in the title role and soprano
Nancy McCord as Marguerite. The theatre was demolished a month later. ==Notable productions==