AustLit

Considered one of the most influential men in American theatre during his lifetime, John Augustin Daly's career saw him work as a drama critic, theatre manager, playwright, director and producer. He had his first and greatest success as a dramatist in 1867 with the sensation melodrama, Under the Gaslight, and went on to write morew than a hundred other plays. It was as a theatrical manager and producer, however, that he is best remembered. His career in this area began in 1869 when he became the manager of the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City. Ten years later he built and opened Daly's Theatre at Broadway. He opened another Daly's Theatre in London in 1893.

Some of Daly's plays were produced in the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century. Others were adapted and/or burlesqued during the same period.