dance for a future audience: the offer was accepted, although the management, in its advertisements, requested that the audience behaved with proper decorum "as the persons who have condescended to contribute to their entertainment are of rank and consequence in their own country". The theatre was forced to temporarily close in 1774 when the Continental Association banned the performance of stage plays, considering them to be "extravagance and dissipation". The American Company returned to the West Indies, where it had been founded. In 1777, after the British forces captured New York during the American War of Independence, the city's British garrison took over the theatre and renamed it "Theatre Royal". The troops, under the direction of the infamous Major John André (who was eventually hanged for his part in the Benedict Arnold affair), staged plays to maintain morale during the British occupation. André was particularly known at the theatre for his scene-painting, which was much admired. The British withdrew in 1783 and two years later The American Company returned to John Street Theatre, under the direction of Hallam Jr.. Beginning with small "entertainments" the company was soon performing full-scale productions at the theatre again. During this period, the theatre gave New York its first productions of As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, The School for Scandal and The Critic. As well as Hallam, the theatre's regular cast included such well-known actors of the day as John Henry, Thomas Wignell, Elizabeth Walker Morris and Charlotte Melmoth. In 1787, the theatre produced Ryall Tyler's The Contrast, in which a character, Jonathan, visits John Street Theatre, and mistakes a scene acted on the stage for a real-life family party. The play also includes a description of the theatre. George Washington visited the theatre three times in 1789, watching The School for Scandal, The Clandestine Marriage and William Dunlap's Darby's Return. Shortly before its closure, the theatre produced what is considered to be America's earliest musical - The Archers (subtitled The Mountaineers of Switzerland). Written by Dunlap and Benjamin Carr, and based on the legend of William Tell, it ran for three performances from April 18 to 22, 1796. Final years and closure John Hodgkinson, an English actor newly arrived in New York, joined the American Company in 1792. He soon became extremely popular with the public, alienating the theatre's managers and current stars, John Henry and Lewis Hallam Jr, leading to