According to theater scholar Nancy Guy, Mei’s close collaborator Qi Rushan had studied the kinds of Peking operas that most appealed to the foreigners who saw them in China, and Mei, Qu, and their opera company geared their performances to appeal to American audiences.
The theater was torn down in 1940, however, and today 235 W 49th is home to the Pearl Hotel (right).Īlthough Peking opera is stylistically and musically quite different than Western operas and American musical theater, New Yorkers packed Mei’s performances, and scalpers charged several times their tickets’ face value. He and his troupe began their New York run in February 1930, performing at the 49th Street Theater (left), which producers J.J. Mei’s specialty was young female roles, which male actors routinely played in Chinese operas well into the 20th century. In early 1930, theater-goers in New York City enjoyed an unusual oppor-tunity: Mei Lan-fang, the most famous Peking opera actor in China, visited the city as part of a US tour to showcase his art and to make a case for his homeland’s culture.
The Pearl Hotel, which sits on the former site of the 49th Street Theater.
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