Although British actors made successful tours of the United States, not all foreign performers were wholeheartedly embraced. In May 1849 crowds at the Astor Place Opera-House in New York City rioted, attacking British tragedian William Charles Macready in the name of his rival, the American actor Edwin Forrest. Both men were performing Macbeth in New York that month, Forrest at the Broadway Theatre and Macready at the Astor. Forrest's emotional, melodramatic style was cheered; Macready's more restrained performance was booed, and the audience threw eggs, apples, potatoes, lemons, and finally chairs at the British actor. When the theater was forcibly closed, rioters paraded through the streets reciting bits of the play's witches' chorus. Ready to leave town, Macready was urged to stay in New York by more "respectable" citizens, including Washington Irving and Herman Melville, who convinced him not to give in to...