ABSTRACT
The Merry Widow, like the operettas of its day, was not conceived to become a lasting franchise. It was written in the hopes of pleasing Viennese audiences enough that it could play for a respectable fifty performances in its initial run. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Austro-Hungarian empire’s belated industrialization was catching up with its population as the sudden onslaught of factory work heralded a wave of immigrants. By 1905, Irish, Jewish, and German immigrants in New York City made up a significant portion of the theatergoing public. The art world was in flux and The Merry Widow, upon its American premiere at the New Amsterdam Theatre on October 21, 1907, seemed to appease those seeking old fashioned entertainment as well as those looking for something modern and new.
