The Broadway of the 1860s in New York City began at Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan, and extended all the way to Tarrytown. During this period concert saloons entertained a sizeable portion of the Broadway night life. Variety entertainments were performed in converted theatres amid a barroom atmosphere, where patrons were attended by "pretty waiter girls." Taken from the pages of the New York Clipper, these contemporaneous pieces describe a world of entertainment long forgotten. Complete with index and notes.

In this book, Chloë Rae Edmonson analyzes performance sites from throughout U.S. history to reveal the material ways that drinking culture is performative, immersive performance is intoxicating, and how alcohol shapes performance space and practice. Combining archival research with firsthand accounts of immersive spaces, this study demonstrates how social drinking and performance in themed spaces often collude to reify power dynamics latent to mainstream American culture, such as patriarchal values, racial and wealth inequality, and labor exploitation. Yet there are also examples of how performers, designers, and consumers creatively subvert such dominant attitudes in pursuit of their own creative expression and fulfillment. Part I examines historic bars and clubs that are immersive by design, while Part II explores immersive theatre productions from the 1980s to today. At the heart of all these American examples, of course, is alcohol, its associated cultures of immersive consumption, and the wide range of influence it can have on the bodies and minds of performers and participants. In addition to its pop cultural appeal, this study will be relevant to scholars and university students interested in immersive theatre and performance, drinking culture, and American studies.