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. 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. In 1753, actor and director
Lewis Hallam expanded the theatre, describing the new structure as "very fine, large and commodious." ==References==