and one devotee wrote: "America has produced nothing more national, more distinctly its own, than these plays of the Irish in New York". People spoke of Ned Harrigan as the American Molière.

Although the Theatre Comique was eventually shut down for financial reasons, Harrigan announced in 1881 that they would build a fresh and elegant "New Theatre Comique" several blocks further north on Broadway. The building they renovated was originally the home of the Church of the Messiah