199-647: The Richard Rodgers Theatre (formerly Chanin's 46th Street Theatre and the 46th Street Theatre ) is a Broadway theater at 226 West 46th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1925, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for Irwin Chanin . It has approximately 1,400 seats across two levels and is operated by the Nederlander Organization . Both
398-418: A cornice supported by terracotta modillions . The roof of the auditorium has a terracotta balustrade with urns that divide it into bays. The center three bays of the balustrade have latticework while the outer bays have shields and foliate decorations. Another brick parapet, with terracotta coping , runs behind the terracotta balustrade. The stage-house wing is utilitarian in design. The first story of
597-522: A coved ceiling . The walls are decorated with wooden paneling with windows above, an unusual design for Broadway theaters, and there is an elliptical proscenium arch at the front of the auditorium. The stage house to the south is shared with the Shubert Theatre , and a gift shop occupies some of the former dressing rooms. The Shubert brothers developed the Booth and Shubert theaters as their first venues on
796-494: A frontage of 126 feet (38 m) on 44th and 45th Streets and 200.83 feet (61 m) on Shubert Alley to the east. The Booth Theatre building takes up 90 feet (27 m) of the Shubert Alley frontage. The Booth is part of the largest concentration of Broadway theaters on a single block. The adjoining block of 45th Street is also known as George Abbott Way , and foot traffic on the street increases box-office totals for
995-479: A stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium is wider than its depth. According to the Shubert Organization, the theater has 800 seats; meanwhile, The Broadway League gives a figure of 766 seats and Playbill cites 770 seats. The physical seats are divided into 514 seats in the orchestra, 252 on the balcony, and 12 in the boxes. There are 22 standing-only spots, as well as 30 removable seats in
1194-494: A stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium space is designed with plaster decorations in low relief . According to the Nederlander Organization, the auditorium has 1,319 seats; meanwhile, The Broadway League cites a capacity of 1,400 seats and Playbill cites 1,321 seats. The original configuration had 1,500 seats, composed of 640 in the orchestra and 850 in the balcony, as well as eight boxes. The theater
1393-501: A $ 625,000 loan the following January, and the Chanins finalized their lease that month. Krapp designed the 46th Street Theatre with ornate decorations, including theatrical masks, in sharp contrast to simpler brick-faced theaters that he had designed for the Shuberts. The 46th Street, as the theater was called, officially opened on February 8, 1925, with a production of Is Zat So? . Most of
1592-472: A 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. "curtain". The afternoon " matinée " performances are at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. This makes for an eight-performance week. On this schedule, most shows do not play on Monday and the shows and theatres are said to be "dark" on that day. The actors and the crew in these shows tend to regard Sunday evening through Monday evening as their weekend. The Tony award presentation ceremony
1791-487: A Dream in 2013. In 2013, the Richard Rodgers underwent a $ 3.5 million renovation conducted by EverGreene Architectural Arts . Up to 20 layers of paint were removed, and light-gray wall patterns and proscenium murals were installed. In addition, all 1,319 seats were replaced and a second arch in front of the original proscenium was removed. The first production at the renovated theater was Romeo and Juliet , which had
1990-638: A Small Planet opened the next February, starring Cyril Ritchard and Eddie Mayehoff for a year. Subsequently, William Gibson 's two-person play Two for the Seesaw opened in January 1958 and ran until late 1959. Paddy Chayefsky 's play The Tenth Man launched at the Booth in November 1959 and lasted for 623 performances over the next year. The play Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe with Claudette Colbert closed after its single performance in January 1961, but
2189-827: A Theater Advisory Council, which included Papp. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , Broadway theaters closed on March 12, 2020, shuttering 16 shows that were playing or were in the process of opening. The Broadway League shutdown was extended first to April, then to May, then June, then September 2020 and January 2021, and later to June 1, 2021. Then-governor Andrew Cuomo announced that most sectors of New York would have their restrictions lifted on May 19, 2021, but he stated that Broadway theatres would not be able to immediately resume performances on this date due to logistical reasons. In May 2021, Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters would be allowed to reopen on September 14, and
SECTION 10
#17328512820462388-505: A Wife , which opened the next year, featured Henry Fonda in his Broadway premiere alongside Margaret Hamilton . After Cole Porter 's Anything Goes was staged at the 46th Street in 1935, the theater hosted short-lived productions for several years. Olsen and Johnson 's hit revue Hellzapoppin opened at the 46th Street in 1938, succeeded by Porter's DuBarry Was a Lady in 1939. Porter produced another musical, Panama Hattie , which opened in 1940 and ran for 501 performances. During
2587-449: A booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory." Kenrick notes that "the late 1960s marked a time of cultural upheaval. All those changes would prove painful for many, including those behind the scenes, as well as those in the audience." Of the 1970s, Kenrick writes: "Just when it seemed that traditional book musicals were back in style,
2786-663: A cast. There are still, however, performers who are primarily stage actors, spending most of their time "on the boards", and appearing in screen roles only secondarily. As Patrick Healy of The New York Times noted: Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, as Nathan Lane has for The Addams Family . In 2010, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments. According to Mark Shenton, "One of
2985-434: A challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only limited competition. By the end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer were presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if cinema would replace live theatre altogether. While live vaudeville could not compete with these inexpensive films that featured vaudeville stars and major comedians of the day, other theatres survived. The musicals of
3184-526: A company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia , and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist . The company moved to New York in 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida . During the Revolutionary War , theatre was suspended in New York City. But after
3383-555: A competition for the best play on an American subject by an American writer; he awarded the $ 10,000 prize to Alice Brown 's play Children of Earth , which was shown at the Booth in January 1915. That April, the theater hosted The Bubble with Louis Mann , which had 176 performances. The Booth hosted numerous moderately successful plays by notable playwrights in the late 1910s. Among these were George Bernard Shaw 's Getting Married in 1916, featuring Henrietta Crosman and William Faversham . Another successful play arrived at
3582-552: A discount of 20 to 50%. The TKTS booths are located in Times Square , in Lower Manhattan , and at Lincoln Center . This service is run by Theatre Development Fund . Many Broadway theatres also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theatres are as full—and their grosses as high—as possible. According to The Broadway League , total Broadway attendance
3781-896: A few exceptions, compared with London runs, until World War I . A few very successful British musicals continued to achieve great success in New York, including Florodora in 1900–01. In the early years of the twentieth century, translations of popular late-nineteenth century continental operettas were joined by the "Princess Theatre" shows of the 1910s, by writers such as P. G. Wodehouse , Guy Bolton , and Harry B. Smith . Victor Herbert , whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas ( The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), and Naughty Marietta (1910)). Beginning with The Red Mill , Broadway shows installed electric signs outside
3980-527: A larger theatre. Other productions are first developed through workshops and then out-of-town tryouts before transferring to Broadway. Merrily We Roll Along famously skipped an out-of-town tryout and attempted to do an in-town tryout—actually preview performances —on Broadway before its official opening, with disastrous results. After, or even during, successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with new casts and crew for
4179-545: A limited engagement; it was succeeded by If/Then in 2014. As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2014, the Nederlanders agreed to improve disabled access at their nine Broadway theaters, including the Richard Rodgers. Miranda's musical Hamilton opened at the theater in 2015 and has performed there since then. All Broadway theaters temporarily closed on March 12, 2020 , due to
SECTION 20
#17328512820464378-568: A limited run. Afterward, the Booth is scheduled to host the play John Proctor is the Villain . Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. Bette Midler set a box-office record in I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers with a gross of US$ 865,144 in May 2013. The Elephant Man , starring Bradley Cooper , topped Midler's record by grossing US$ 1,058,547 for an eight-performance week ending December 28, 2014. The record as of 2023
4577-629: A luncheon to benefit the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts , the Nederlanders renamed the theater to honor the composer Richard Rodgers. The first production to be staged at the renamed theater was Alexander H. Cohen and Hildy Parks 's Accomplice , and the musical Oh, Kay! was revived later in 1990. The Neil Simon play Lost in Yonkers opened in 1991, ultimately running 780 performances. The Boys Choir of Harlem appeared at
4776-481: A memorial for lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II during 1962. The 46th Street then hosted Do I Hear a Waltz? , which opened in 1965 and was the only collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Stephen Sondheim . The theater's late-1960s hits were I Do! I Do! , a 1967 play that featured only Mary Martin and Robert Preston , and 1776 , a musical that opened in 1969. After 1776 moved to another theater,
4975-521: A more experimental, challenging, and intimate performance than is possible in the larger Broadway theatres. Some Broadway shows, however, such as the musicals Hair , Little Shop of Horrors , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Rent , Avenue Q , In the Heights , Fun Home , A Chorus Line , Dear Evan Hansen , and Hamilton , began their runs Off-Broadway and later transferred to Broadway, seeking to replicate their intimate experience in
5174-439: A motif of a spiral leaf. There is a cartouche above the middle of the proscenium. Backstage, the theater was designed with 16 private rooms and five triple-sized rooms, connected to the stage by an elevator. A sounding board curves onto the ceiling above the proscenium arch, separated from the proscenium and the ceiling by a pair of ribs. The sounding board is decorated with low relief plasterwork and latticework. The ceiling has
5373-539: A negative COVID-19 test (PCR within 72 hours or antigen within six hours of the performance start time). Beginning November 8, those ages 5–11 also had the option to provide proof of at least one vaccination shot. Effective December 14, in accordance with NYC's vaccination mandate, guests ages 5–11 were required to have at least one vaccination shot until January 29, 2022, where they had to be fully vaccinated. The vaccine mandate lasted until April 30, and attendees were also required to wear face masks until July 1. During
5572-1128: A new age of American playwright with the emergence of Eugene O'Neill , whose plays Beyond the Horizon , Anna Christie , The Hairy Ape , Strange Interlude , and Mourning Becomes Electra proved that there was an audience for serious drama on Broadway, and O'Neill's success paved the way for major dramatists like Elmer Rice , Maxwell Anderson , Robert E. Sherwood , Clifford Odets , Tennessee Williams , and Arthur Miller , as well as writers of comedy like George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart . Classical revivals also proved popular with Broadway theatre-goers, notably John Barrymore in Hamlet and Richard III , John Gielgud in Hamlet , The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing , Walter Hampden and José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac , Paul Robeson and Ferrer in Othello , Maurice Evans in Richard II and
5771-485: A newcomer to the Broadway theater industry, so he hired Herbert Krapp, an experienced architect who had designed multiple Broadway theaters for the Shubert brothers. Krapp designed the theater's facade in a more ornate manner than his previous commissions. Irwin Chanin, who built the theater with his brother Henry, wished to lure visitors with architecture because they did not have the booking chain or an established reputation in
5970-429: A pair and are the oldest theaters on the block. The site was previously occupied by several houses on 44th and 45th Street. The adjacent Shubert Alley, built along with the Shubert and Booth theaters, was originally a 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) fire escape passage. Shubert Alley's presence not only allowed the theaters to meet fire regulations but also enabled the structures to be designed as corner lots. Originally,
6169-500: A rate acceptable to the producers, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers—with the permission of their unions—take reduced salaries, to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend money to
Richard Rodgers Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
6368-659: A revival of The Playboy of the Western World . Among the Booth's productions in 1947 were the Norman Krasna play John Loves Mary , which featured Tom Ewell , Nina Foch , and William Prince . The following year, Molnár's comedy The Play's the Thing was revived, featuring Louis Calhern and Faye Emerson . James B. Allardice 's At War with the Army was presented in 1949 with Gary Merrill , and The Velvet Glove opened at
6567-431: A run of 253 performances. The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook , which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and
6766-460: A shallow dome surrounded by a molded band. There are bands within the dome itself, dividing the dome's surfaces into panels. The center of the dome has a plasterwork medallion at the center, from which hangs a chandelier. The rest of the ceiling, surrounding the dome, is divided into panels by moldings. These panels contain grilles as well as medallions in low relief. Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and
6965-453: A short run of Baby Mine . The 46th Street's first hit was Laurence Schwab 's musical Good News , which opened in September 1927 and ran 551 performances. Schwab and his collaborators staged another hit in 1929, the golf-themed Follow Thru , with 401 performances. The decade ended with Top Speed , which featured Ginger Rogers in her Broadway debut. The early 1930s opened with two hits:
7164-481: A show to keep it running. Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season— Lincoln Center Theatre , Roundabout Theatre Company , Manhattan Theatre Club , and Second Stage Theater are the four non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for several reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of
7363-456: A stake in the operation of the 46th Street in 1984. This was followed by Neil Simon 's Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1985, then Joseph Kesselring 's Arsenic and Old Lace in 1986. August Wilson 's play Fences opened in 1987 and ran for 526 performances. The 46th Street then hosted revivals of Born Yesterday and The Merchant of Venice in 1989. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) started to consider protecting
7562-410: A technical booth at the rear of the balcony. At the front of the balcony level is a box on either side, supported by brackets. The underside of the balcony contains wood paneling. The front railing of the balcony and boxes contains paneled sections with strapwork patterns; a light box is installed in front of the balcony railing. The orchestra has paneled wooden side walls, which curve inward toward
7761-565: A venue for plays under the name Burton's Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery Theatre objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper-class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper-middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for
7960-401: Is raked , sloping down toward an orchestra pit in front of the stage. The balcony is also raked, and the rear of the balcony contains a promenade, similar to that on the orchestra. The balcony promenade is demarcated by a frieze on its ceiling, which contains brass-and-crystal chandeliers. Archways, flanked by columns, lead between the balcony promenade and the balcony seating. There is also
8159-546: Is a Broadway theater at 222 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way ) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1913, the theater was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts in the Italian Renaissance style and was built for the Shubert brothers . The venue was originally operated by Winthrop Ames , who named it for 19th-century American actor Edwin Booth . It has 800 seats across two levels and
Richard Rodgers Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
8358-413: Is a segmentally arched wall section with four boxes, arranged in two tiers. The fronts of the boxes are curved outward and contain molded wave decorations and friezes with foliate motifs. The undersides contain molded decorations with light fixtures. Above each arch is a medallion with swags. Next to the boxes is an elliptical proscenium arch. The archway is surrounded by a molded rounded band, containing
8557-436: Is a window above the frieze, which is flanked by scrolls and console brackets. The window has a broken pediment with swags draped from a theatrical mask in the center. The top of the corner section has a cornice, above which is a metal sign. On Shubert Alley, the facade is divided into the stage house to the left (south) and the auditorium to the right (north). The auditorium section contains one set of glass-and-metal doors at
8756-470: Is an internationally prominent tourist attraction in New York City . According to The Broadway League , shows on Broadway sold approximately US$ 1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022-2023 and the 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each. Most Broadway shows are musicals . Historian Martin Shefter argues that "Broadway musicals, culminating in
8955-403: Is on 226 West 46th Street, on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway , near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . The square land lot covers 11,295 sq ft (1,049.3 m). The theater has a frontage of 112 ft (34 m) on 46th Street and a depth of 100 ft (30 m). The Richard Rodgers shares the block with
9154-531: Is operated by The Shubert Organization . The facade and parts of the interior are New York City landmarks . The Booth's facade is made of brick and terracotta , with sgraffito decorations designed in stucco . Three arches face north onto 45th Street, and a curved corner faces east toward Broadway . To the east, the Shubert Alley facade includes doors to the lobby and the stage house. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, one balcony, box seats, and
9353-484: Is the highest-grossing week for any show in Broadway history. Broadway theatre Broadway theatre , or Broadway , is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters , each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway , in Midtown Manhattan , New York City . Broadway and London 's West End together represent
9552-567: Is usually held on a Sunday evening in June to fit this schedule. In recent years, some shows have moved their Tuesday show time an hour earlier to 7:00 pm. The rationale for this move was that since fewer tourists take in shows midweek, Tuesday attendance depends more on local patrons. The earlier curtain makes it possible for suburban patrons to get home by a reasonable hour after the show. Some shows, especially those produced by Disney , change their performance schedules fairly frequently depending on
9751-597: The American Theatre Wing , a service organization. While the League and the theatrical unions are sometimes at loggerheads during those periods when new contracts are being negotiated, they also cooperate on many projects and events designed to promote professional theatre in New York. Of the four non-profit theatre companies with Broadway theatres, all four ( Lincoln Center Theater , Manhattan Theatre Club , Roundabout Theatre Company , and Second Stage Theatre ) belong to
9950-558: The Arnold Bennett play The Great Adventure with Lyn Harding and Janet Beecher ; it closed after 52 performances. At the time, there were just two other theaters on the surrounding blocks: the Little Theatre and the now-demolished Weber and Fields' Music Hall . The first successful production at the Booth was Experience with William Elliott , which opened in late 1914 and continued for 255 performances. Ames also hosted
10149-510: The Bernard B. Jacobs , and John Golden Theatres to the southwest. Prior to the theater's construction, the site was occupied by six brownstone residences. The Richard Rodgers Theatre, originally the 46th Street Theatre, was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the neo-Renaissance style and was constructed in 1924 for the Chanin brothers. The exterior and interior designs were particularly ornate, even when compared with other Broadway theaters, because
SECTION 50
#173285128204610348-715: The COVID-19 pandemic . The Richard Rodgers reopened on September 14, 2021, with performances of Hamilton . The Richard Rodgers Theatre has housed 11 Tony Award -winning Best Plays and Best Musicals , more than any other Broadway theater. In order of when the productions won, these are Guys and Dolls ( 1951 Best Musical ), Damn Yankees ( 1956 Best Musical ), Redhead ( 1959 Best Musical ), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ( 1962 Best Musical ), 1776 ( 1969 Best Musical ), Raisin ( 1974 Best Musical ), Nine ( 1982 Best Musical ), Fences ( 1987 Best Play ), Lost in Yonkers ( 1991 Best Play ), In
10547-525: The Cooper Union . He subsequently recalled that he had been "humiliated" by having to use a separate door whenever he bought cheap seats in an upper balcony level. Chanin acquired the residences at 226 to 236 West 46th Street in January 1924. Two months later, the Chanin Construction Company filed plans for the construction of a new theater on 46th Street, to cost $ 1.1 million. Irwin Chanin was
10746-567: The League of Resident Theatres and have contracts with the theatrical unions which are negotiated separately from the other Broadway theatre and producers. ( Disney also negotiates apart from the League, as did Livent before it closed down its operations.) The majority of Broadway theatres are owned or managed by three organizations: the Shubert Organization , a for-profit arm of the non-profit Shubert Foundation, which owns seventeen theatres;
10945-744: The Music Box Theatre to the south, the Imperial Theatre to the west, and the New York Marriott Marquis to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Paramount Hotel (including Sony Hall ) and Lena Horne Theatre to the northwest; the Hotel Edison and Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to the north; One Astor Plaza to the southeast; the Booth and Gerald Schoenfeld Theatres to the south; and
11144-427: The Nederlander Organization , which controls nine theatres; and ATG Entertainment , which owns seven Broadway houses. Both musicals and straight plays on Broadway often rely on casting well-known performers in leading roles to draw larger audiences or bring in new audience members to the theatre. Actors from film and television are frequently cast for the revivals of Broadway shows or are used to replace actors leaving
11343-468: The Roaring Twenties , borrowing from vaudeville, music hall , and other light entertainment, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs. Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. Typical of
11542-706: The Shuberts , and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the 46th Street, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States , but the designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. On March 27, 1990, at
11741-409: The facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks . The facade is divided into two sections. The eastern section, containing the auditorium, is designed in the neo-Renaissance style with white brick and terracotta . The auditorium's ground floor has an entrance under a marquee , above which is a loggia of three double-height arches, as well as a entablature and balustrade at
11940-409: The 1920s were lighthearted productions such as Sally ; Lady Be Good ; Sunny ; No, No, Nanette ; Harlem ; Oh, Kay! ; and Funny Face . Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards from George Gershwin , Cole Porter , Jerome Kern , Vincent Youmans , and Rodgers and Hart , among others, and Noël Coward , Sigmund Romberg , and Rudolf Friml continued in
12139-518: The 2010s. These included Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2012, I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers and The Glass Menagerie in 2013, and The Velocity of Autumn and The Elephant Man in 2014. Hand to God was the most successful production during this time, opening in 2015 and running for 337 performances. Other plays at the Booth included Hughie , An Act of God , and Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 2016; Significant Other and Meteor Shower in 2017; and The Boys in
SECTION 60
#173285128204612338-449: The 46th Street Theatre as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated the 46th Street's facade and interior as landmarks on November 17, 1987. This was part of the commission's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. The Nederlanders,
12537-609: The 46th Street Theatre from the City Investing Company, having already acquired the Eugene O'Neill Theatre from City Investing. After short runs of Christine and a revival of Finian's Rainbow , the theater continued to produce major musicals into that decade. These included Tenderloin , which opened in 1960 and starred Maurice Evans . The next hit was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying , which opened in 1961 and ran for 1,417 performances. The theater also hosted
12736-926: The 46th Street hosted the revival of No, No, Nanette with Ruby Keeler in 1971, which ran for 855 performances. The theater subsequently hosted Clare Boothe Luce 's The Women in 1973, followed the same year by Raisin , the latter of which ran for 847 performances. Next was a revival of the Noël Coward play Private Lives in 1975; the musical Chicago was also revived later that year, lasting 898 performances. The theater hosted Working briefly in 1978, and that production's producers Stephen R. Friedman and Irwin Meyer bought Osterman's ownership stake. The 46th Street then staged The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , an off-Broadway transfer, until early 1982. Meyer and Friedman had placed
12935-418: The 46th Street was the first theater developed by Irwin Chanin . Since 1990, the theater has been named after composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979). It is operated by the Nederlander Organization . The facade consists of two sections. The eastern section is wider and is symmetrical, containing the auditorium entrance. It is made of glazed white brick with white terracotta decorations. The upper stories of
13134-581: The 46th Street's early runs consisted of shows that were transferred from other theaters, including Is Zat So? , which had transferred from the 39th Street Theatre . The Greenwich Village Follies was staged at the 46th Street in December 1925, after which Is Zat So? returned to the theater to complete its run. Following this were John Colton 's The Shanghai Gesture in 1926 and an eight-week long engagement by Sacha Guitry and his wife Yvonne Printemps later that year. The Spider premiered in 1927, followed by
13333-450: The Band and American Son in 2018. The Booth hosted Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus during early 2019, followed later the same year by a limited run of Freestyle Love Supreme . The theater closed on March 12, 2020 , due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City . A revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , which had only played previews at the Booth before the shutdown,
13532-448: The Booth entirely, and the Shuberts took over. In 1934, the theater hosted some moderate successes such as No More Ladies , The Shining Hour , and The Distaff Side . The Booth's plays in 1935 included J. B. Priestley 's Laburnum Grove ; John Gearon and Louis Bromfield 's short-lived De Luxe ; Edward Chodorov 's Kind Lady with Grace George ; and James Warwick 's Blind Alley with George Coulouris . This
13731-402: The Booth in early 1917 with the opening of Clare Kummer 's A Successful Calamity with William Gillette , Estelle Winwood , and Roland Young . De Luxe Annie opened later the same year, featuring Jane Grey and Vincent Serrano . The play Seventeen , based on a Booth Tarkington novel, opened at the Booth in 1918 with Ruth Gordon and Gregory Kelly . This was followed in 1919 by
13930-441: The Booth's interior as being "unusually good in design, tasteful, quiet and charming". The orchestra is accessed from doors on the rear, or east. The rear of the orchestra contains a promenade. Paneled piers support the balcony level and separate the promenade from the orchestra seating. The top of the orchestra promenade's walls contain a Doric -style frieze. Brass lanterns hang from the promenade's ceiling. The orchestra level
14129-488: The Booth's original design within three weeks; at the time, Kahane characterized the theater as a "sad old sack". Kahane removed some design details such as French chandeliers, as she believed they were incompatible with the theater's design scheme. The auditorium was redecorated with a beige and brown color scheme. In addition, three former dressing rooms were converted into the One Shubert Alley store. The Booth ended
14328-536: The Broadway national tour, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country. Sometimes when a show closes on Broadway, the entire production, with most if not all of the original cast intact, is relaunched as a touring company, hence the name "Broadway national tour". Some shows may even have several touring companies out at a time, whether the show is still running in New York or not, with many companies "sitting down" in other major cities for their own extended runs. For Broadway national tours of top-tier cities,
14527-603: The Broadway orchestra is governed by an agreement with the musicians' union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians) and The Broadway League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be eighteen, while at the Music Box Theatre it is nine. Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that
14726-526: The COVID-19 shutdown, the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization, and Jujamcyn had pledged to increase racial and cultural diversity in their theaters, including naming at least one theater for a Black theatrical personality. The August Wilson Theatre , owned by Jujamcyn, had been renamed after Black playwright August Wilson in 2005. The Shuberts announced in March 2022 that the Cort Theatre , which
14925-564: The Cakewalk (1898), and the highly successful In Dahomey (1902). Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s made up of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley involving composers such as Gus Edwards , John Walter Bratton , and George M. Cohan ( Little Johnny Jones (1904), 45 Minutes From Broadway (1906), and George Washington Jr. (1906)). Still, New York runs continued to be relatively short, with
15124-588: The Caveman by Rob Becker (later replaced by Michael Chiklis ). David Mamet 's set of three one-act plays, The Old Neighborhood , ran 197 performances at the Booth in late 1997 and early 1998. The revue An Evening with Jerry Herman and Sandra Bernhard 's stand-up routine I'm Still Here... Damn It! were staged in 1998, followed by David Hare 's Via Dolorosa and Barry Humphries 's Dame Edna: The Royal Tour in 1999. Lily Tomlin performed her solo show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in
15323-601: The Clowns in 1938, as well as the Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis revue One for the Money in 1939. Another Pulitzer-winning play, The Time of Your Life , opened at the Booth in late 1939. The Booth's productions in the 1940s generally lasted for longer than in the previous decade. In 1940, Hamilton and Lewis brought to the Booth the revue Two for the Show , a sequel to One for
15522-451: The Erlanger syndicate. During this time, the play Lightnin' by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon became the first Broadway show to reach 700 performances. From then, it would go on to become the first show to reach 1,000 performances. Lightnin' was the longest-running Broadway show until being overtaken in performance totals by Abie's Irish Rose in 1925. The motion picture mounted
15721-533: The Estate ran for only one and a half months in late 2008, and the musical The Story of My Life had five performances in 2009. The musical Next to Normal opened at the Booth in April 2009 and ran until January 2011. After a seven-performance run of the play High at the theater in April 2011, a longer run of Other Desert Cities premiered later that year. Generally, the Booth hosted straight plays during
15920-469: The Fleischmann Bros. Company was selected the following month to construct both of the new theaters. The project encountered several delays and disputes over costs. Documents indicate that the Fleischmann Bros. had expressed concerns of imprecise drawings and fired several workers. Further delays occurred when Ames requested several changes to the Booth's design in mid-1912; Herts said this would require
16119-449: The Golds had a short run in late 1993, as did Arthur Miller 's Broken Glass in 1994. At the end of 1994, the Booth hosted a limited run of A Tuna Christmas . The next year, the Booth hosted Emily Mann 's production of Having Our Say , which ran for 308 performances. The Booth next hosted two solo shows: Love Thy Neighbor by Jackie Mason in 1996, as well as Defending
16318-536: The Great Depression . During the 1900s and 1910s, many theaters in Midtown Manhattan were developed by the Shubert brothers , one of the major theatrical syndicates of the time. The Chanin brothers developed another grouping of theaters in the mid-1920s. Though the Chanins largely specialized in real estate rather than theaters, Irwin Chanin had become interested in theater when he was an impoverished student at
16517-484: The Heights ( 2008 Best Musical ), and Hamilton ( 2016 Best Musical ). Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. Hamilton achieved the box office record for the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The production grossed $ 4,041,493 for the week ending December 30, 2018, with a top ticket price of $ 849 and 101.87% of the theatre's gross potential. Hamilton's gross for the week of December 30, 2018,
16716-454: The LPC's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. The Shuberts, the Nederlanders , and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Booth, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which
16915-454: The League confirmed that performances would begin to resume in the fall season. Springsteen on Broadway became the first full-length show to resume performances, opening on June 26, 2021, to 1,721 vaccinated patrons at the St. James Theatre . Pass Over then had its first preview on August 4, and opened on August 22, 2021, becoming the first new play to open. Hadestown and Waitress were
17114-557: The Money that featured many of the same performers. This was followed in February 1941 by the Rose Franken play Claudia with Dorothy McGuire , Frances Starr , and Donald Cook , running for one year. The Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit , featuring Mildred Natwick , Clifton Webb , and Peggy Wood , moved to the Booth in May 1942 and ran until the next June. Another long run
17313-592: The Opera at the Majestic Theatre became the longest-running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtaking Cats . The Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway on April 16, 2023, soon after celebrating its 35th anniversary, after a total of 13,981 performances. Attending a Broadway show is a common tourist activity in New York. The TKTS booths sell same-day tickets (and in certain cases, next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at
17512-531: The Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy". Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ( The Mulligan Guard Picnic ) and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham . These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from
17711-489: The Rainbow Is Enuf , and The Elephant Man . The Booth Theatre is on 224 West 45th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue , near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . It shares a land lot with the Shubert Theatre directly to the south, though the theaters are separate buildings. The lot covers 25,305 square feet (2,350.9 m ), with
17910-601: The Richard Rodgers Gallery, a space with to memorabilia of the composer. This was followed in 2007 by Cyrano de Bergerac , then by Lin-Manuel Miranda 's musical In The Heights from 2008 to 2011. The theater's other productions of the early 2010s included Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo in 2011; Porgy and Bess and Lewis Black 's Running on Empty in 2012; and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Rascals: Once Upon
18109-443: The Richard Rodgers in 1993, followed the same year by Fool Moon . Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor , which also opened in late 1993, lasted for 320 performances. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying returned to the Richard Rodgers in 1995 and had 548 performances. This was followed by two musicals with scores by John Kander and Fred Ebb : a revival of Chicago in 1996 and Steel Pier in 1997. During late 1997,
18308-518: The Shubert Theatre) is simpler in design, being made mainly of brick in English cross bond. The ground floor has doorways, metal panels, and sign boards. A band of quoins separates the stage house from the Shubert auditorium to the left and the Booth auditorium to the right. The second to fourth floors have one-over-one sash windows , while the fifth floor has a terracotta shield at the center. The top of
18507-453: The Universe in 2000, followed by another solo show in 2002, Bea Arthur 's Bea Arthur on Broadway . A 2002 revival of I'm Not Rappaport closed after 51 performances, and Thornton Wilder 's play Our Town was revived the same year. The Retreat from Moscow opened in 2003 for a 148-performance run, and Eve Ensler 's solo The Good Body flopped after a month in 2004. Next was
18706-499: The adjacent alley in 1948, with murals depicting eight productions at the theater. The theater hosted Love Life in 1948 and Regina in 1949, both produced by Cheryl Crawford . In 1950, the 46th Street Theatre hosted Arms and the Girl , featuring Nanette Fabray , for 134 performances. Frank Loesser 's musical Guys and Dolls opened the same year, with about 1,200 performances over the next three years. The next production to be staged
18905-436: The arches are rectangular sign boards topped by broken segmental-arched pediments . Within the archways above the doors are sgraffito paintings, which depict figures. These paintings are partially obscured by a modern marquee that is cantilevered from the wall above. The archways are surrounded by rusticated voissoirs . Above the archways, the theater's facade is made of brick. The words "The Booth Theatre" are placed above
19104-446: The arches in metal letters. The brick section of the facade is surrounded by a stucco band of sgraffito decorations, which is painted beige and contains bas reliefs of classical-style foliate ornamentation. The extreme left (east) and right (west) ends of the facade contain vertical sequences of terracotta quoins ; they have Corinthian -style capitals that are decorated with motifs of griffins and shields. The sgraffito band wraps along
19303-451: The arches is a fire stair and a brick wall with terracotta lyres , swags , and bellflowers . The outer bays contain white-brick wall sections, which are topped by swags and rectangular panels with masks. There are pilasters next to each of the outer bays, and a sign with the theater's name is suspended from the easternmost bay. Running above the facade is a entablature , containing a frieze with panels, shields, and rinceaux , as well as
19502-474: The auditorium-entrance section are designed as a colonnade with a central loggia . The western section, which contains the stage house , is seven stories high and contains a buff-brick facade. Early sources cite the theater facade as also containing limestone . The first story of the auditorium facade is symmetrically arranged, though the eastern section is shorter than its width. There is a water table made of terrazzo , above which are rusticated blocks. On
19701-488: The authors and also in numerous unlicensed productions). They were imitated in New York by American productions such as Reginald Dekoven 's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa 's El Capitan (1896), along with operas, ballets, and other British and European hits. Charles H. Hoyt 's A Trip to Chinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion when it surpassed Adonis and its 603 total performances in 1893, holding
19900-402: The balcony promenade contains plasterwork panels, as at orchestra level. A technical booth is also installed on the rear wall. The plasterwork panels continue onto the walls. The balcony's underside has light fixtures, moldings, and plasterwork panels. The front railing has molded wave decorations and friezes with foliate motifs; these are obscured by light boxes. On either side of the proscenium
20099-435: The beginning of the nineteenth century, the area that now comprises the Theater District was owned by a handful of families and comprised a few farms. In 1836, Mayor Cornelius Lawrence opened 42nd Street and invited Manhattanites to "enjoy the pure clean air." Close to 60 years later, theatrical entrepreneur Oscar Hammerstein I built the iconic Victoria Theater on West 42nd Street. Broadway's first "long-run" musical
20298-476: The biggest changes to the commercial theatrical landscape—on both sides of the Atlantic—over the past decade or so is that sightings of big star names turning out to do plays has [sic] gone up; but the runs they are prepared to commit to has gone down. Time was that a producer would require a minimum commitment from his star of six months, and perhaps a year; now, the 13-week run is the norm." The minimum size of
20497-537: The bill was not passed. The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts to supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a registered historic district . In December 1983, Save the Theatres prepared "The Broadway Theater District, a Preservation Development and Management Plan", and demanded that each theater in the district receive landmark designation. Mayor Ed Koch ultimately reacted by creating
20696-490: The block. It opened on October 16, 1913, with Arnold Bennett 's play The Great Adventure . Ames leased the theater and showed many of his own productions until 1932, when the Shuberts took over. Many of the Booth's initial productions had short runs, particularly in the 1930s, but longer runs began to predominate by the 1940s. Long-running productions have included Luv , Butterflies Are Free , That Championship Season , For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When
20895-472: The center of the Theater District, many of these shows were short-lived or relocated from other venues. One of the more notable short runs was Elmer Harris 's A Modern Virgin in 1931, in which Margaret Sullavan performed for the first time on a Broadway stage. This was followed in 1932 by Another Language , starring John Beal , Margaret Hamilton , Dorothy Stickney , and Margaret Wycherly for 348 performances. That year, Ames gave up his management of
21094-515: The center of the block. The Shubert was the larger house, intended to be suitable for musicals, and the Shubert family's offices were placed above the auditorium there. By contrast, the Booth was intended to be smaller and more intimate. The Booth Theatre is operated by The Shubert Organization . The facades of the two theaters are similar in arrangement, being designed in an Italian Renaissance style . The structures both have curved corners facing Broadway , since most audience members reached
21293-403: The center three openings; it replaced the original marquee, which has since been removed. The auditorium's second and third stories contain outer bays that flank a loggia with three arches. Each arch has a keystone with a console bracket , and they are flanked by pilasters with Corinthian -style capitals with terracotta swans. The bottoms of the central bays contain an iron railing. Behind
21492-543: The central ceiling panel. Four chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The dressing rooms are separated from the stages of each theater by a heavy fireproof wall. The two theaters are separated from each other by a 2-foot-thick (0.61 m) wall. A gift shop called One Shubert Alley opened between the Shubert and Booth theaters in 1979, within three of the Booth's former dressing rooms. The emergency exits of both theaters were composed of "fire- and smoke-proof towers" rather than exterior fire escapes . Times Square became
21691-521: The comedy A Shot in the Dark was more successful the same year, starring Julie Harris , Walter Matthau , Gene Saks , and William Shatner . A comedy by Murray Schisgal , Luv , opened in 1964 and featured Alan Arkin , Anne Jackson , and Eli Wallach ; it ran for about 900 performances. The comedy duo Flanders and Swann performed their revue At the Drop of Another Hat at the Booth in 1966, following
21890-591: The comedy The Patsy with Claiborne Foster . The next year, Ames produced a short-lived version of Philip Barry 's comedy White Wings . The Booth finally had another hit in early 1927 with the Maxwell Anderson comedy Saturday's Children with Beulah Bondi , Ruth Gordon , and Roger Pryor , which had 310 performances. Also that year, Leslie Howard and Frieda Inescort returned in Ames's production of John Galsworthy 's Escape . The revue Grand Street Follies
22089-401: The corner of 45th Street and Shubert Alley, the northeast corner of the facade is curved. This corner section has a doorway at the center, containing glass-and-metal doors; these are shielded by a canopy that extends to the curb on 44th Street. A sign board is to the west of the doorway. There are stucco bas-relief panels on either side of the doorway, which contain foliate decorations. Above
22288-522: The cornice. The western wall is plain and has a fire escape. A critic for Architecture magazine wrote that Herts had "discovered an excellent motive for a single facade", although it "would perhaps have been more amusing" if the two theaters had contained different facades. According to the New-York Tribune , the theaters' use of hand-carved sgraffito for decoration made Herts "the first man to have used sgraffito for this purpose". The sgraffito
22487-422: The decade ended with critics and audiences giving mixed signals." Ken Bloom observed that "The 1960s and 1970s saw a worsening of the area [Times Square] and a drop in the number of legitimate shows produced on Broadway." By way of comparison, in the 1950 to 1951 season (May to May) 94 productions opened on Broadway; in the 1969 to 1970 season (June to May) there were 59 productions (fifteen were revivals). In
22686-440: The decade with a transfer of Bernard Pomerance 's off-Broadway play The Elephant Man , which opened in 1979 and stayed for 916 performances. Bill C. Davis 's play Mass Appeal transferred to the Booth from off-Broadway in 1981, starring Michael O'Keefe and Milo O'Shea . The Royal Shakespeare Company presented the C. P. Taylor play Good with Alan Howard in 1982, and Larry Atlas 's Total Abandon flopped
22885-455: The doors is an entablature with a fluted panels and a broken pediment shaped like a segmental arch . The center of the broken pediment has an urn, while the sides of the pediment have carvings of dolphins. A brick wall rises from the doorway. Like on 45th Street, there are vertical quoins with Corinthian capitals on the left and right. At the top of the brick wall, there is a stucco frieze that originally contained sgraffito decorations. There
23084-437: The drama The Pillowman and a revival of Edward Albee 's Seascape in 2005, then revivals of Faith Healer and Butley in 2006. Joan Didion 's solo play The Year of Magical Thinking and Conor McPherson 's drama The Seafarer both had runs of several months in 2007, and Laurence Fishburne also headed the solo drama Thurgood for over a hundred performances in 2008. By contrast, Horton Foote 's Dividing
23283-525: The early 1940s, the 46th Street hosted productions including Junior Miss (1941), Beat the Band (1942), and Sons o' Fun (1943). Also in 1943, the United States Army staged a single performance of five plays written and performed by soldiers, which raised $ 100,000 for charity. One Touch of Venus appeared at the 46th Street in 1944, running 567 performances, and the hit Dark of the Moon followed
23482-426: The eastern side of the ground-floor facade, a double metal door connects to a service alley. To the right, or west, are three glass-and-aluminum double doors connecting with the box office lobby. Next to that, terrazzo steps lead to emergency-exit doors from the auditorium. The westernmost opening consists of a metal stage door. The ground story has wooden display boxes and is topped by a cornice . A marquee hangs over
23681-656: The effort. At Papp's behest, in July 1982, a bill was introduced in the 97th Congress , entitled "H.R.6885, A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site". The legislation would have provided certain U.S. government resources and assistance to help the city preserve the district. Faced with strong opposition and lobbying by Mayor Ed Koch's Administration and corporate Manhattan development interests,
23880-426: The end of that year with Grace George and Walter Hampden . William Inge 's play Come Back, Little Sheba opened in 1950, featuring Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer ; it was Inge's first Broadway production. Another hit was Beatrice Lillie 's revue An Evening with Beatrice Lillie in 1952, which ran for 278 performances. Afterward, the Booth hosted the world premiere of the film Caesar in 1953,
24079-432: The entablature at the top of the auditorium's walls. The coved ceiling is interrupted at several points by the arched openings on the side walls and at the rear of the balcony seating. At these locations, there are groined ceiling sections with molded borders. The primary section of the ceiling has a wide band of latticework , which is interrupted by four semicircles with plasterwork borders. The latticework band surrounds
24278-435: The entire Broadway production is transplanted almost entirely intact and may run for many months (or years) at each stop. For example, the first U.S. tour of The Phantom of the Opera required 26 53-foot-long (16.1 m) semi-trailers to transport all its sets, equipment, and costumes, and it took almost 10 days to properly unload all those trucks and install everything into a theater. Booth Theatre The Booth Theatre
24477-526: The epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression . Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during the first decade of the 20th century. From 1901 to 1920, forty-three theaters were built around Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, including the Shubert Theatre. The venue was developed by the Shubert brothers of Syracuse, New York , who expanded downstate into New York City in
24676-456: The everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high-quality professional singers ( Lillian Russell , Vivienne Segal , and Fay Templeton ), instead of the amateurs, often sex workers, who had starred in earlier musical forms. As transportation improved, poverty in New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night,
24875-507: The far right. Like the elevations on 45th Street and at the northeast corner, the right side of the auditorium facade contains vertical quoins topped by a Corinthian capital. Also similar to the 45th Street elevation, there is a brick wall section above the first floor, surrounded by a stucco sgraffito band with bas-reliefs. At the top of the brick wall is a stucco wall section, containing sgraffito decorations alternating with three octagonal terracotta panels. The stage house section (shared with
25074-425: The first decade of the 20th century. After the death of Sam S. Shubert in 1905, his brothers Lee and Jacob J. Shubert expanded their theatrical operations significantly. The brothers controlled a quarter of all plays and three-quarters of theatrical ticket sales in the U.S. by 1925. Meanwhile, Winthrop Ames , a member of a wealthy publishing family, did not enter the theatrical industry until 1905, when he
25273-463: The first musicals to resume performances on September 2, 2021. The 74th Tony Awards were also postponed; the Tony nominations were announced on October 15, 2020, and took place on September 26, 2021. On July 30, 2021, it was announced that all Broadway theaters required attendees to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination . The rule applied to guests ages 12+. Those under age 12 were required to provide
25472-461: The first non- legitimate production in t he theater's history. The Booth's next success was a ten-month run of Jerome Chodorov 's Anniversary Waltz with Macdonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle , which had relocated from the Broadhurst, starting in late 1954. Ralph Berkey and Henry Denker 's Korean War drama Time Limit opened in 1956 and ran for 127 performances. Gore Vidal 's comedy Visit to
25671-776: The highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world . While the Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified with Times Square . Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: Broadway Theatre , Palace Theatre , and Winter Garden Theatre . The rest are located on the numbered cross streets, extending from the Nederlander Theatre one block south of Times Square on West 41st Street, north along either side of Broadway to 53rd Street , and Vivian Beaumont Theater , at Lincoln Center on West 65th Street. While exceptions exist,
25870-531: The inner lobby contains a niche with a bust of actor Edwin Booth , the theater's namesake. This is a copy of a bust that was installed in the Players Club , where Booth was a member. The west wall contains brass lighting sconces and doors to the auditorium. At the top of the walls is a Doric frieze . The inner lobby contains a coffered ceiling , with chandeliers hanging from each ceiling section. The auditorium has an orchestra level, one balcony, boxes , and
26069-496: The middle-class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle-class." The plays of William Shakespeare were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth who was internationally known for his performance as Hamlet . Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865 (with
26268-406: The musical Side Show was staged at the Richard Rodgers; it flopped despite positive reviews. Conversely, Footloose opened the next year, and it ran 737 performances over two years, despite negative reviews. Seussical , which opened in 2000, ended up closing after six months at a $ 10 million loss. In 2001, several Broadway performers and directors launched a celebration of Rodgers's work at
26467-509: The mystery The Woman in Room 13 and the W. Somerset Maugham comedy Too Many Husbands . In 1920, the Booth hosted the melodrama The Purple Mask with Leo Ditrichstein ; the play Not So Long Ago with Eva Le Gallienne , Sidney Blackmer , and Thomas Mitchell ; and a dramatization of Mark Twain 's The Prince and the Pauper with Ruth Findlay and William Faversham . The next year,
26666-420: The next sixteen years. However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, and Off-Broadway was well established by the end of the nineteenth century. A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans in a Broadway theatre (inspired largely by the routines of the minstrel shows ), followed by the ragtime -tinged Clorindy: The Origin of
26865-466: The next year after its single performance. This was followed in 1984 by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine 's Pulitzer-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters . The Herb Gardner play I'm Not Rappaport relocated to the Booth from off-Broadway in November 1985, staying for 890 performances until early 1988. The final hit of the decade
27064-555: The next year and a half. Subsequently, in 1974, the Booth hosted a transfer of Terrence McNally 's off-Broadway play Bad Habits , as well as the Schisgal play All Over Town . The next year, Papp announced that he would produce five plays at the Booth under the auspices of the New York Shakespeare Festival , offering tickets at low prices. Papp canceled the program due to a lack of money, and only one production
27263-423: The next year. The theater was sold to Robert W. Dowling 's City Investing Company in early 1945, but the Shuberts successfully sued to block the City Investing Company from acquiring the theater until Dark of the Moon closed. The 46th Street's next production was a transfer of the operetta The Red Mill . Finian's Rainbow opened in 1947, ultimately running for 725 performances. A smoker's promenade opened in
27462-552: The number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. As in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women. Gilbert and Sullivan 's family-friendly comic opera hits, beginning with H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, were imported to New York (by
27661-453: The orchestra contains a promenade with decorative bands on its ceiling. The orchestra is raked , but its rear rows contain stadium seating that is more steeply sloped than the front rows. While the front rows are at ground level, the rearmost level is almost one story higher, allowing the entrance foyer to be placed under the rear of the orchestra. This stadium seating configuration was supposedly used to improve visibility and acoustics, though
27860-536: The orchestra pit. Originally, the orchestra had 445 seats while the balcony had 223. The theater contains restrooms in the basement and on the orchestra level, as well as water fountains. The orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible, but the balcony is not. The original decorative scheme was described as being gray and "rich mulberry". The interior was also decorated with Booth memorabilia such as his favorite armchair, as well as posters and playbills of shows in which Booth had appeared. Architecture magazine cited
28059-412: The orchestra's side walls, which contain shallow pilasters and moldings. The balcony is cantilevered over the orchestra, reducing obstructed views from the rear rows of the orchestra. The balcony level is similarly divided into front and rear sections by an aisle halfway across the depth. There are decorative iron railings surrounding the double staircase from the orchestra to the balcony. The rear wall of
28258-556: The performers, or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007's August: Osage County , 2009's God of Carnage , 2012's Newsies , and 2022's Take Me Out . Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e., non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of
28457-567: The planning stages, the Booth Theatre on 45th Street was named the Ames Theatre. In September 1912, Ames indicated that he would call the theater the Gotham; the name was in use until at least August 1913. Ultimately, Ames named his 45th Street theater after Booth because Ames's father had worked directly for Booth at the old theater. Documents indicate that several architects were consulted for
28656-424: The plans to be completely redone, while J. J. Shubert believed the changes were superficial. Ames wanted to operate the new theater as an intimate venue that was "large enough to make possible the usual scale of orchestra and balcony prices". The Booth was supposed to open on October 10, 1913, but its opening was postponed by six days because a heavy rain flooded the basement. The theater opened on October 16 with
28855-459: The play The Green Goddess opened with George Arliss , staying for 440 performances. A. A. Milne 's play The Truth About Blayds opened at the theater in 1922, featuring O. P. Heggie , Leslie Howard , Frieda Inescort , and Ferdinand Gottschalk . Seventh Heaven premiered later the same year, running for 683 performances. In 1924, the Booth hosted Dancing Mothers with Helen Hayes , Mary Young , and Henry Stephenson . This
29054-464: The plays of George Bernard Shaw , and Katharine Cornell in such plays as Romeo and Juliet , Antony and Cleopatra , and Candida . In 1930, Theatre Guild 's production of Roar, China! was Broadway's first play with a majority Asian cast. As World War II approached, a dozen Broadway dramas addressed the rise of Nazism in Europe and the issue of American non-intervention. The most successful
29253-423: The production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows need not make a profit immediately; should they make their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or lose money at
29452-640: The productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein , became enormously influential forms of American popular culture " and contributed to making New York City the cultural capital of the world . New York City's first significant theatre was established in the mid-18th century, around 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan , which held about 280 people. They presented William Shakespeare 's plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera . In 1752, William Hallam sent
29651-441: The proscenium arch are continuations of the wall paneling on the lowest two-thirds of the auditorium. The top of the proscenium opening contains a plasterwork, which is a continuation of the top third of the auditorium walls. The depth of the auditorium to the proscenium is 29 feet 9 inches (9.07 m), while the depth to the front of the stage is 33 feet 4 inches (10.16 m). The coved ceiling rises above
29850-498: The rear rows have poor visibility as a result of the steep slope. There is a double staircase to the balcony level from the center of the orchestra's rear section. A partial cross-aisle and a wrought-iron railing separate the orchestra's front and rear portions. There are exit doors from the partial wide aisles. Two aisles lead from the orchestra's front to the rear, connecting with the exit doors. The orchestra and its promenade contain walls with plasterwork paneling. There are arches along
30049-448: The recent playhouses commonplace in appearance". At ground level, the 45th Street elevation contains a tall water table of painted stone, above which is a band with rusticated blocks of terracotta. There are three arches at the center of the facade, which provide an emergency exit from the lobby. Each archway originally contained a pair of paneled wooden triple doors, but these have since been covered with posters. On either side of
30248-553: The revue Sweet and Low in 1930 and You Said It the next year. With the Chanins experiencing financial trouble, the Shuberts acquired the fee to the theater's site in January 1931 for about $ 1.2 million. The Chanins' name was removed from the theater in 1932, and Margaret Sullavan appeared in the drama Happy Landing the same year. This was followed by two transfers: Of Thee I Sing and Autumn Crocus . The 46th Street then staged Howard Lindsay 's comedy She Loves Me Not in 1933, which had 367 performances. The Farmer Takes
30447-531: The run ending just a few months before Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln ), and would later revive the role at his own Booth's Theatre (which was managed for a time by his brother Junius Brutus Booth Jr. ). Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving , Tommaso Salvini , Fanny Davenport , and Charles Fechter . Theatre in New York moved from Downtown gradually to Midtown Manhattan , beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. At
30646-467: The season. This is done in order to maximize access to their target audience. Most Broadway producers and theatre owners are members of The Broadway League (formerly "The League of American Theatres and Producers"), a trade organization that promotes Broadway theatre as a whole, negotiates contracts with the various theatrical unions and agreements with the guilds, and co-administers the Tony Awards with
30845-538: The site had been cleared, when Ames announced he would build the Little Theatre (now the Hayes Theater) across 44th Street. The New Theatre's founders cited the difficulty of finding a director for the new New Theatre, as well as possible competition with Ames's Little Theatre. In April 1912, Winthrop Ames and Lee Shubert decided to lease the site of the new New Theatre from the Astor family. Two theaters would be built on
31044-583: The site, along with a private alley to their east. Shubert's theater was to be the larger venue, being on 44th Street, while Ames's theater would be on 45th Street and would have half the seating capacity. The larger theater was known as the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, in memory of Lee's late brother, while the smaller one was named after Edwin Booth. The Booth Theatre became the second New York City venue to bear Booth's name, after Booth's Theatre at 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue , completed in 1869 for Booth himself. In
31243-573: The southeast; and the Hayes Theater and St. James Theatre one block south. The Broadhurst, Schoenfeld (originally Plymouth), Booth, and Shubert theaters were all developed by the Shubert brothers between 44th and 45th Streets, occupying land previously owned by the Astor family . The Shuberts bought the land under all four theaters from the Astors in 1948. The Shubert and Booth theaters were developed as
31442-461: The stage for 657 performances. Chinatown itself was surpassed by the musical Irene (1919) in 1921 as the longest-running Broadway musical, and even earlier, in March 1920, by Lightnin' (1918) as the longest-running Broadway show. In 1896, theatre owners Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger formed the Theatrical Syndicate , which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for
31641-501: The stage house contains a parapet , above which is a sgraffito panel surrounded by bricks. The stage door is within this section. The theater contains both a ticket lobby and a rectangular inner lobby. The use of two lobbies, rather than a single space leading directly to the auditorium, was intended to reduce the air drafts and noise that entered the auditorium. The inner lobby's east wall contains exits with molded doorways, above which are exit signs with cornices. The north wall of
31840-500: The stage house contains a water table made of terrazzo. There are openings for the stage door, as well as larger doors to transport sets and other large items. On the upper stories, there are four window openings on each floor, as well as brick pilasters. Above the stage house's seventh floor is a cornice with modillions; it is made of sheet metal and decorated in the Adam style . The auditorium has an orchestra level, one balcony, boxes , and
32039-485: The stage. The paneled walls at orchestra level continue at balcony level, up to the height of the proscenium arch (about two-thirds of the auditorium's height ). Above the paneling is a Doric-style frieze and cornice. At the top of the balcony walls are elliptical arches with casement windows above paneling; there are three such windows on each wall. Between these arches are wall sections, which contain wall sconces flanked by engaged columns . An entablature runs across
32238-588: The success of At the Drop of a Hat . The next year, Harold Pinter 's play The Birthday Party was staged at the theater. After several relatively short runs, the Booth hosted the Leonard Gershe play Butterflies Are Free , which had 1,128 performances through 1972. The Booth's first new production of the 1970s was Joseph Papp 's version of Jason Miller 's Pulitzer-winning play That Championship Season . The show moved from The Public Theater in September 1972 and ran for 844 performances over
32437-434: The term "Broadway theatre" is used predominantly to describe venues with seating capacities of at least 500 people. Smaller theaters in New York City are referred to as off-Broadway , regardless of location, while very small venues with fewer than 100 seats are called off-off-Broadway , a term that can also apply to non-commercial, avant-garde , or productions held outside of traditional theater venues. The Theater District
32636-410: The theater for sale by 1980, and they sought to rename the theater after Ethel Merman , but this did not happen. Both the Shubert Organization and the Nederlander Organization were interested in acquiring the theater. In 1981, the Nederlanders purchased a half-interest in the 46th Street. The musical Nine opened at the theater the next year and ran until February 1984. Jerry Weintraub also purchased
32835-466: The theater's founders saw the venue, on the Upper West Side , as being too large and too far away from Times Square. The New Theatre's founders acquired several buildings at 219–225 West 44th Street and 218–230 West 45th Street in March 1911, for the construction of a "new New Theatre" there. The theater would have contained a private alley to the east. The project was canceled in December 1911, after
33034-402: The theater, a year before what would have been his 100th birthday. The same year saw the premiere of another Simon hit, 45 Seconds from Broadway . This was followed in 2002 by a run of Private Lives and a comparatively much longer run of Movin' Out , which ran for four years. The musical Tarzan appeared at the Richard Rodgers in 2006, and the theater was renovated with the addition of
33233-572: The theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States , but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. In October 1990, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty 's musical Once on This Island launched at the Booth, running for 469 performances. This was followed in 1992 by Frank Loesser 's The Most Happy Fella for 221 performances, as well as Frank McGuinness 's play Someone Who'll Watch Over Me for 216 performances. Jonathan Tolins 's play The Twilight of
33432-516: The theaters faced the Hotel Astor , now the location of One Astor Plaza, across the alley. Another private alley runs to the west, between the Booth/Shubert and Broadhurst/Schoenfeld theaters. The Broadhurst and Schoenfeld were also built as a pair, occupying land left over from the development of the Shubert and Booth; these too are designed with curved corners facing Broadway. The Booth Theatre
33631-469: The theaters from that direction. The Booth's facade is made of white brick, laid in English-cross bondwork , as well as terracotta . An early source described the theaters' facades as being made of white marble, with stucco and faience panels. The main section of the theater is topped by a cornice with sheet-metal brackets designed to resemble theatrical masks. A balustrade used to run above
33830-577: The theaters there. The Booth adjoins six other theaters: the Majestic and Broadhurst to the southwest; the John Golden , Bernard B. Jacobs , and Gerald Schoenfeld to the west; and the Shubert to the south. Other nearby structures include the Row NYC Hotel to the west; the Music Box Theatre , Imperial Theatre , and Richard Rodgers Theatre to the north; One Astor Plaza to the east; 1501 Broadway to
34029-579: The theaters' design, including Clarence H. Blackall , before the Shuberts hired Henry B. Herts for the job. An "ice palace" was also planned on the site now occupied by the Broadhurst and Schoenfeld theaters. Work on the two theaters started in May 1912. The next month, the new-building application for the New Theatre (which had been filed in 1911) was withdrawn, and two new-building applications for Shubert's and Ames's theaters were filed. Herts began accepting bids for construction contractors that July, and
34228-522: The theatres. Since colored bulbs burned out too quickly, white lights were used, and Broadway was nicknamed "The Great White Way". In August 1919, the Actors' Equity Association demanded a standard contract for all professional productions. After a strike shut down all the theatres, the producers were forced to agree. By the 1920s, the Shubert Brothers had risen to take over the majority of the theatres from
34427-444: The theatrical industry. The New York Times quoted Irwin as saying: "We hope with this particular theater to carry out the new modern thought in the art of the theatrical world." The Chanins had no experience in operating theaters, and they hired Andrew J. Cobe to lease the theater to an operator. In October 1924, the Shuberts leased Chanin's 46th Street Theatre for twenty-one years at a cost of $ 2 million. The theater's owners received
34626-474: The theatrical producer and director who established The Public Theater , led the "Save the Theatres" campaign. It was a not-for-profit group supported by the Actors Equity union to save the theater buildings in the neighborhood from demolition by monied Manhattan development interests. Papp provided resources, recruited a publicist and celebrated actors, and provided audio, lighting, and technical crews for
34825-461: The time, the average age of theatergoers was 40.4; nearly two-thirds of the audience were women; and 29% identified as a racial minority. The classification of theatres is governed by language in Actors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible for a Tony, a production must be in a house with 500 seats or more and in the Theater District, which are the criteria that define Broadway theatre. Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows often provide
35024-415: The top of the brick wall. Above that is a stucco wall section with sgraffito decorations, which depict grotesques holding swags and human figures holding urns and staffs. These sgraffito decorations alternate with octagonal terracotta panels. At the center of the stucco wall section is a terracotta aedicule with a heraldic cartouche , above which is a broken pediment. Due to the theater's location at
35223-458: The top. The facade's western section, comprising the stage house, is seven stories high and is faced in buff-colored brick. The auditorium contains neo-Renaissance detailing, steep stadium seating in the orchestra level, a large balcony, and a shallow domed ceiling. Due to the slope of the seats, the rear of the orchestra is one story above ground. There are also box seats near the front of the auditorium on two tiers. Chanin's 46th Street Theatre
35422-558: The twenties, there were 70–80 theaters, but by 1969, there were 36 left. During this time, many Broadway productions struggled due to low attendance rates, which resulted in perceived mediocrity among such plays. For this reason, the Theatre Development Fund was created with the purpose of assisting productions with high cultural value that likely would struggle without subsidization, by offering tickets to those plays to consumers at reduced prices. In early 1982, Joe Papp ,
35621-560: The vein of Victor Herbert. Live theatre has survived the invention of cinema. Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind and taking the drama a step forward, Show Boat premiered on December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld Theatre . It represented a complete integration of book and score, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting, and movement, woven together more seamlessly than in previous musicals. It ran for 572 performances. The 1920s also spawned
35820-490: The venue in 1981 and renamed it to honor the composer Richard Rodgers in 1990. Over the years, the Richard Rodgers has hosted eleven Tony Award -winning productions: Guys and Dolls , Redhead , How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying , 1776 , Raisin , Nine , Fences , Lost in Yonkers , In the Heights , and Hamilton . Other long-running shows at the theater have included Panama Hattie and One Touch of Venus . The Richard Rodgers Theatre
36019-411: The wall sections and above the rear of the balcony seating. The use of casement windows above paneled walls is an uncommon design feature among Broadway theaters. Next to the boxes is an elliptical proscenium arch, which is surrounded by molded decorations. The proscenium opening measures about 36 feet 2 inches (11.02 m) wide and 25 feet 1 inch (7.65 m) tall. The sides of
36218-685: The war's end, theatre resumed in 1798, when the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street on present-day Park Row . A second major theatre, Bowery Theatre , opened in 1826, followed by others. By the 1840s, P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premier nightspots. The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmo's Opera House opened and presented opera for only four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as
36417-620: Was Ondine in 1954, followed the same year by On Your Toes and The Bad Seed . The three subsequent productions at the 46th Street Theatre, from 1955 to early 1960, all featured singer and dancer Gwen Verdon , who won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for all of these productions. These were Damn Yankees in 1955, New Girl in Town in 1957, and Redhead in 1959. Three short-lived productions were staged between New Girl in Town and Redhead . In March 1960, Lester Osterman bought
36616-408: Was Shirley Valentine , which opened in 1989 and had 324 performances. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started to consider protecting the Booth as an official city landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated both the Booth's facade and part of the Booth's interior as landmarks on November 4, 1987. This was part of
36815-507: Was Lillian Hellman 's Watch on the Rhine , which opened in April 1941. After the lean years of the Great Depression , Broadway theatre had entered a golden age with the blockbuster hit Oklahoma! , in 1943, which ran for 2,212 performances. According to John Kenrick 's writings on Broadway musicals, "Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand,
37014-408: Was The Two Mrs. Carrolls , which opened in 1943 with Elisabeth Bergner , Victor Jory , and Irene Worth and had 585 performances. Ralph Nelson 's drama The Wind Is Ninety appeared at the Booth in 1945, followed by Tennessee Williams and Donald Windham 's comedy You Touched Me! . The next year, the theater hosted a revival of The Would-Be Gentleman ; the mystery Swan Song ; and
37213-539: Was 14.77 million in 2018–2019, compared to 13.79 million in 2017–2018. The average age of the Broadway audience in the 2017–18 theater season was 40, the lowest it had been in nearly two decades. By 2018, about 20% of Broadway tickets were sold to international visitors, although many visitors reported not being able to use their tickets. In 2022–2023, the first full season since the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters sold 12.3 million tickets, of which 35% were to local residents and 17% to international visitors. At
37412-524: Was 34 years old. After being involved in the development of two large venues, Boston's Castle Square Theatre and New York City's New Theatre , Ames decided to focus on erecting smaller venues during the Little Theatre Movement . As the Shuberts were developing theaters in the early 1910s, Ames was planning to build a replacement for the New Theatre. Though the New had been completed in 1909, Ames and
37611-634: Was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square , and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square . Theatres arrived in the Times Square area in the early 1900s, and the Broadway theatres consolidated there after a large number were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene 's "musical burletta" The Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with
37810-444: Was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts and constructed in 1913 for the Shubert brothers . Herts was an experienced theatrical architect and had previously led the firm of Herts & Tallant , which designed such theaters as the Lyceum , the New Amsterdam , and the Liberty . The Shubert and Booth theaters are within separate buildings and differ in their interior designs and functions, although they have adjacent stage areas near
38009-480: Was followed in 1936 by the Chinese drama Lady Precious Stream ; Sweet Aloes , where Rex Harrison premiered on Broadway; and the wrestling farce Swing Your Lady . George Kaufman and Moss Hart 's You Can't Take It with You , with Josephine Hull and Henry Travers , premiered in December 1936 and stayed for 837 performances, winning a Pulitzer Prize . It was followed by Patricia Collinge 's drama Dame Nature and Philip Barry 's drama Here Come
38208-438: Was followed shortly thereafter by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber 's play Minick , as well as the Theatre Guild 's version of Ferenc Molnár 's play The Guardsman with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne . Many productions at the Booth in 1925 and 1926 were flops . Among the Booth's productions in 1925 were Horace Liveright 's revival of Shakespeare's Hamlet with Basil Sydney and Helen Chandler , as well as
38407-421: Was initially decorated in red and gold. The auditorium's orchestra level and balcony are both accessed from the same lobby. This layout was part of an effort by Irwin Chanin to "democratize" the seating arrangement of the theater. For a similar reason, the Richard Rodgers was designed with a single balcony rather than the typical two, since Chanin perceived second balconies to be too distant. The rear (east) end of
38606-442: Was presented at the Booth in 1928 and 1929, with James Cagney and Dorothy Sands. Ames announced his retirement from producing in October 1929, though he said he would continue to control the Booth Theatre. The same month, the play Jenny opened at the theater, featuring Jane Cowl and Guy Standing . The Booth hosted about fifty productions in the 1930s. Though the theater was always quickly rebooked because of its location in
38805-420: Was staged, the short-lived The Leaf People . This was followed by the Jerome Kern musical Very Good Eddie at the end of 1975. Another hit was For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf , which opened in 1976 and ran for 742 performances over the next two years. In 1979, the Shuberts hired Melanie Kahane to redesign the Booth Theatre. The project involved restoring
39004-484: Was the first Broadway theater developed by Irwin S. Chanin , and it was immediately leased to the Shubert brothers when it opened. The Shuberts bought the building outright in 1931 and renamed it the 46th Street Theatre. In 1945, the theater was taken over by Robert W. Dowling of the City Investing Company. In 1960, it was purchased by the producer Lester Osterman , who sold it to producers Stephen R. Friedman and Irwin Meyer in 1978. The Nederlander Organization purchased
39203-416: Was then canceled. The Booth reopened on October 7, 2021, with a limited run of Freestyle Love Supreme , which closed after three months. A short-lived revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf opened at the Booth in April 2022, followed by Kimberly Akimbo from November 2022 to April 2024. The play The Roommate opened at the Booth in September 2024 for
39402-458: Was under renovation at the time, would be renamed after actor James Earl Jones . In June 2022, the Nederlanders announced that the Brooks Atkinson Theatre would be renamed after Lena Horne , The James Earl Jones Theatre was rededicated in September 2022, while the Lena Horne Theatre was rededicated that November. Although there are some exceptions, shows with open-ended runs generally have evening performances Tuesday through Saturday, with
39601-410: Was used because of New York City building codes that prevented decorations from projecting beyond their lot lines. These decorations were colored light-gray, placed on a purple-gray background. The sgraffito on the two theaters is one of the few such examples that remain in New York City. A contemporary source said the theaters' facades were "free from much of the gaudy trappings that has made some of
#45954