In
November of 1876, twenty-one year old
Joseph Haworth played the role of
Cromwell opposite Anna Dickinson in
her own play Crown
of Thorns at the Euclid
Avenue Opera House in Cleveland,
Ohio. Miss Dickinson, the play and
young Haworth were well received by
local critics and theatergoers. Miss
Dickinson had preceded this engagement
with a successful run of the play in
Boston the previous May.
In March of 1877,
Miss Dickinson decided to make her New
York debut as actress and playwright
with Crown of Thorns. She
remembered young Haworth’s work and
engaged him to repeat his role. Eagle
Theatre manager Josh Hart wanted
to shift from music hall to legitimate
offerings and booked Miss Dickinson
for a six week run.
Technical
difficulties and cast changes caused a
postponement in the play’s opening
night, during which the publicity mill
ground out ads calling Crown of
Thorns an "acknowledged
masterpiece of the stage" and
"The Greatest Success of the
Century." By the time the play
opened expectations were high. Crown
of Thorns in no way lived up to
this hyperbole and the opening night
audience was disappointed, and at
times laughed ironically and
derisively.
The March 5, 1877
New York Times, along with every other
newspaper, roasted the play and its
leading actress. After a lengthy
barrage of criticism, the review
concluded: "It were a waste of
space to go further into the subject,
for Miss Dickinson, as an actress and
dramatist, has not the slightest claim
upon public attention." Joseph
Haworth was spared, although the New
York Herald said that Cromwell’s
costume was ludicrous.
Miss Dickinson
lashed back and announced that on
March 9, 1877, she would answer her
critics. On that night, she gave a
post-performance speech that lasted
over an hour. To an audience that was
less than one third filled, she told
how triumphantly her performance had
been received in Boston. The March 10,
1877 New York Times summarized:
"She did not object to being
called ugly, old, vile, and atrocious.
She did not object to her acting being
called bad and her play denounced as
wretched, but she did object to such a
falsification of facts as the
statement that her Boston audience
regarded her as a failure."
Despite Miss
Dickinson’s valiant efforts, Crown
of Thorns folded after only a few
more performances. The Eagle
management hastily substituted The
Hunchback and Macbeth to
take its place, and Joseph Haworth was
retained to play Sir Thomas Clifford
and Malcolm respectively. A the end of
this engagement, the prestigious Daly’s
Theatre hired Joe to play Benvolio
in Romeo and Juliet and
Guiderius in Cymbeline in
support of the great Adelaide
Nielson. Following this taste of
New York, Joe returned to Cleveland
for a final season at John
Ellsler’s Euclid Avenue Opera
House.
Joseph Haworth
seldom spoke of this early experience
in New York theatre. He was in very
few failures in his thirty year
career. Also, these were the only
occasions when New York audiences saw
Haworth in anything less than leading
roles.
