Adelaide Neilson - American Stage

American Stage

By 1872 she had gained great popularity and, after making a successful tour of British cities and giving a series of farewell performances in London, she came to America, where her agent was Edwin F. De Nyse. She made her first appearance in that country on 18 November 1872, at Booth's Theatre, New York, as Juliet. She was praised by American critics who echoed the acclaim she had received from London theatrical audiences. She made subsequent American tours through the 1870s. She played Amy Robsart, heroine of Sir Walter Scott, in May 1873. She is noted for a fine engagement staged in Brooklyn, New York the same year. Her farewell at Booth's Theatre came on 2 May 1874. Neilson accepted an engagement at the Lyceum in the autumn of the same year. She performed in Cymbeline by William Shakespeare at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York on 14 May 1877. She not only achieved distinction on the American stage, but accumulated a considerable fortune. The parts that she acted in America included Juliet, Rosalind, Viola, Beatrice, Imogen and Isabella, from Shakespeare and Amy Robsart, Julia, Pauline and Lady Teazle, from other authors.

In 1877 she obtained a divorce from her husband and did not marry again. The story told some time later of her marriage to Edward Compton, an English actor, proved to be untrue.