Who first brought magic into the realm of bona fide Theatre?

Houdin and Hermann

? Shakespeare and Marlowe had magicians and supernatural characters in their plays.

There are difficulties in storytelling when permitting the trickster too much time with the audience (See Gaiman's Midsummer Night's Dream Sandman issue 17) or in making the magic meaningful to the audience when it's entirely within the frame of a dramatic work as discussed in Maskylye & Devant's book Our Magic. With that in mind I don't know if the formats of "demonstrate the latest wonders" or its more recent offspring "nostalgia on parade" can be get very far into the realm of theater (meaning dramatic arts) beyond the level of vignettes and sketch comedy.

@jaynet - not sure which Hermann you are referenceing and the other guy's family name was Robert-Houdin.

And what of certain effects in ancient Greek and Roman theatre?

Magic Lantern?

Oracle of Delphi?

The Eleusinian Mysteries ?

I think when panlives asked "Who first brought magic into the realm of bona fide Theatre" he was inquiring about who first introduced magic as a theatrical entertainment art form. IIRC the use of magic effects in classical Greece and Rome was not for entertainment purposes, but to convince the masses that the Oracle of Delphi really and truly spoke with and acted as the intermediary between mortals and the god Apollo.

There were magicians who brought magic into "legitimate theater" before Robert-Houdin, among them I think Joseph Pinetti. Robert-Houdin is usually believed to be the first because (to use a cliche) he had a better publicist--namely himself by virtue of both his autobiography and his book _Comment on devient sorcier : les secrets de la prestidigitation et de la magie_. If Pinetti had been better at self-promotion, he might have been a contender for the honor of bringing "legitimacy" to the art of magic.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez