The Walter Kerr Theatre, previously the Ritz Theatre, is a
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
theater at 219 West 48th Street in the
Theater District A theater district (also spelled theatre district) is a common name for a neighborhood containing several of a city's theatres.
Places
*Theater District, Manhattan, New York City
*Boston Theater District
*Buffalo Theater District
*Cleveland Theater ...
of
Midtown Manhattan in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The theater was designed by
Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the
Shubert brothers
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...
in 1921. The venue, renamed in 1990 after theatrical critic
Walter Kerr
Walter Francis Kerr (July 8, 1913 – October 9, 1996) was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, genera ...
, has 975 seats across three levels and is operated by
Jujamcyn Theaters
Jujamcyn Theaters LLC , formerly the Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation, is a theatrical producing and theatre-ownership company in New York City. For many years Jujamcyn was owned by James H. Binger, former Chairman of Honeywell, and his wife, Virg ...
. The
facade is plainly designed and is made of patterned brick. The auditorium contains
Adam-style detailing, two balconies, and murals.
The Shuberts developed the Ritz Theatre after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
as part of a theatrical complex around 48th and 49th Streets. The Ritz Theatre opened on March 21, 1921, with the play ''Mary Stuart'', and it was leased to
William Harris Jr., who operated it for a decade. After many unsuccessful shows, the theater was leased to the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
's
Federal Theatre Project from 1936 to 1939, then served as a
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
and
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
broadcasting studio. The Ritz briefly hosted
legitimate shows in 1942 and 1943, and it again functioned as a studio for
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
until 1965. The Ritz was abandoned for several years until Eddie Bracken took over in 1970, renovating it and hosting several short-lived shows from 1971 to 1973. During the 1970s, the Ritz variously operated as a pornographic theater, vaudeville house, children's theater, and poster-storage warehouse. Jujamcyn took over in 1981 and reopened it two years later following an extensive restoration. The theater was renovated again in 1990 and renamed after Kerr.
Site
The Walter Kerr Theatre is on 219 West
48th Street, on the south sidewalk between
Eighth Avenue and
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, in the
Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.
The rectangular
land lot covers , with a
frontage of on 49th Street and a depth of . The Walter Kerr shares the block with the
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
The Eugene O'Neill Theatre, previously the Forrest Theatre and the Coronet Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 230 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and ...
to the north and
Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan
The Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan (originally the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan) is a hotel at 1601 Broadway, between 48th and 49th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The hotel is operated by thi ...
to the east. Other nearby buildings include
One Worldwide Plaza
One Worldwide Plaza is the largest tower of Worldwide Plaza, a three-building commercial and residential complex in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), One ...
and
St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church to the northwest, the
Ambassador Theatre and the
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as t ...
to the northeast, the
Morgan Stanley Building
1585 Broadway, also the Morgan Stanley Building, is a 42-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and Emery ...
to the southeast, the
Longacre Theatre
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Henry B. Herts and was named for Longacre Square, now known a ...
and
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theater at 241 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1928, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles ...
to the south, and the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, formerly the Biltmore Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 261 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1925, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the neo-Renai ...
to the southwest.
Design
The Walter Kerr Theatre (previously the Ritz Theatre) was designed by
Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed in 1921 for the Shubert brothers.
It is part of a group of six theaters planned by the Shuberts after World War I, of which four were built.
Edward Margolies was the general contractor who built the theater.
Facade
The facade is simple in design, especially when compared with Krapp's other works for the Shubert family.
The Ambassador and Ritz theaters, in particular, were designed in patterned brick, with the only ornamentation being in the arrangement of the brick. This sparse ornamentation may be attributed to the lack of money in the years after World War I.
Theatrical historian William Morrison described the design scheme as "utilitarian in the extreme", decorated only by fire escapes in front of the facade, as well as brickwork laid in a diamond pattern.
A marquee hangs above the entrance at ground level, and a large sign is mounted on the right side of the facade, facing east.
Auditorium
The auditorium is accessed by a lobby decorated with fake-granite walls and a burgundy ceiling.
The Walter Kerr Theatre has an orchestra level and two balconies.
The interior layout was similar to Krapp's earlier
Broadhurst and
Plymouth (now Gerald Schoenfeld) theaters, but the Ritz had fewer seats than either the Broadhurst or the Plymouth, with only about 975 total at the time of opening.
The Broadway League
The Broadway League, formerly the League of American Theatres and Producers and League of New York Theatres and Producers, is the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry based in New York, New York. Its members include theat ...
cites the theater as having 945 seats,
while ''
Playbill'' gives a figure of 918 seats.
Only the orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible; the other seating levels can only be reached by steps.
The main restrooms are placed on the first balcony level, but there are wheelchair-accessible restrooms on the orchestra level.
Like Krapp's other Broadway houses, the auditorium's interior is decorated in the Adam style.
The interior color scheme was originally purple, vermillion, and gold.
The Shubert family's design studio oversaw the decorative scheme. A contemporary newspaper article said the interior used a
gold leaf design that was "suggestive of the Italian Renaissance".
In 1983, the theater was redecorated in pink, mauve, and gray.
The
proscenium arch
A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...
at the front of the auditorium was tall and wide.
Above the proscenium arch is a mural that was restored in a 1983 renovation.
This mural depicts
Diana with two hounds; it is unknown who originally designed the mural. Two other murals had been planned for the Ritz when it opened, but they were not installed until the 1980s.
The theater also contains
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
chandeliers, lights, and
sconces, which date from 1983.
History
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and
the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. During the 1900s and 1910s, many theaters in Midtown Manhattan were developed by the
Shubert brothers
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...
, one of the major theatrical syndicates of the time. The Shuberts originated from
Syracuse, New York, and expanded
downstate into New York City in the first decade of the 20th century.
The brothers controlled a quarter of all plays and three-quarters of theatrical ticket sales in the U.S. by 1925.
After World War I, the Shuberts contemplated the construction of six theaters along 48th and 49th Streets, just north of Times Square. Of these, only four were built, and only three (the Ambassador, O'Neill, and Kerr) survive.
Original Broadway run
1920s
The Shuberts announced plans for their six new theaters in September 1920. The brothers believed that the sites on 48th and 49th Streets could be as profitable as theaters on
42nd Street, which historically was Times Square's legitimate theatrical hub. A site on 48th Street was selected in addition to three on 49th Street, and Krapp was hired to design the theaters. That February, the Shuberts announced that the theater on 48th Street would be called the Ritz and that it would open the next month.
Only 66 days had elapsed from the start of construction to the theater's completion,
which the ''
New-York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...
'' called a "world's record".
The theater opened on March 21, 1921, with
John Drinkwater's ''Mary Stuart''.
The next month, William Harris Jr. leased the Ritz Theatre for ten years,
and he immediately brought the
Porter Emerson Browne play
''The Bad Man'' to the Ritz.
Later that year, the theater hosted its first hit:
[; ] the play ''
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
''Bluebeard's Eighth Wife'' is a 1938 Paramount Pictures American romantic comedy film directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. The film is based on the 1921 French play ''La huitième femme de Bar ...
'', featuring
Ina Claire
Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress.
Early years
Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893 in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow b ...
.
The Ritz mostly hosted short runs of plays in its early years,
such as ''Madame Pierre'' in 1922 with
Roland Young
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
.
The next year, the theater hosted ''
The Enchanted Cottage'' with
Katharine Cornell,
as well as ''In Love with Love'' with
Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne (; 6 December 1887 – 30 July 1983) was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End theatre, West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred i ...
.
The play ''
Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
'', with
Margalo Gillmore
Margaret Lorraine "Margalo" Gillmore (31 May 1897 – 30 June 1986) was an English-born American actress who had a long career as a stage actress on Broadway. She also appeared in films and TV series, mostly in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Family ...
,
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Vanity Fair'' and was one o ...
, and
Alfred Lunt
Alfred David Lunt (August 12, 1892 – August 3, 1977) was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway and West End productions. After th ...
, opened at the Ritz in January 1924.
That July,
Hassard Short
Hubert Edward Hassard Short (15 October 1877 – 9 October 1956), usually known as Hassard Short, was an actor, stage director, set designer and lighting designer in musical theatre Kenrick, JohnWho's Who in Musicals: Short, HassardMusicals101. ...
leased the theater for his Ritz Revue,
which opened in September and was the theater's first musical production.
Also that year,
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...
's Coolidge-Dawes Theatrical League was established at the theater,
and the venue staged the
John Galsworthy play ''Old English'' with
George Arliss
George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...
.
The play ''The Kiss in the Taxi'' opened at the Ritz in 1925 with
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...
,
and ''Young Blood'' with
Helen Hayes opened later that year. This was followed in 1927 by ''Bye, Bye, Bonnie'' with
Ruby Keeler
Ethel Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly '' 42nd Street'' (1933). From ...
,
''
The Legend of Leonora
''The Legend of Leonora'' is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was featured on Broadway at the Empire Theatre in January 1914 and starred Maude Adams, running for 136 performances. The play first appeared briefly in London in September 1913 under the ...
'' with
Grace George
Grace George (December 25, 1879 – May 19, 1961) was a prominent American stage actress, who had a long career on Broadway stage and also appeared in two films.
Biography
Grace George was born on December 25, 1879. She married producer Willi ...
,
and ''The Thief'' with
Alice Brady
Alice Brady (born Mary Rose Brady; November 2, 1892 – October 28, 1939) was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in ...
and
Lionel Atwill
Lionel Alfred William Atwill (1 March 1885 – 22 April 1946) was an English stage and screen actor. He began his acting career at the Garrick Theatre. After coming to the U.S., he subsequently appeared in various Broadway plays and Hollywood f ...
.
A. H. Woods leased the Ritz later that year to show his play ''The First of These Gentlemen''. The play ''Excess Baggage'' opened at the end of 1927, featuring
Frank McHugh
Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor.
Early years
Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...
and
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.
Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' T ...
,
and lasted through mid-1928.
The next production was also a success: ''Courage'' with
Janet Beecher
Janet Beecher (born Janet Meysenberg; October 21, 1884 – August 6, 1955) was an American stage and screen actress.
Early years
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Von Meysenburg, Beecher was born in Jefferson City, Missouri. Her sister was ...
, which opened in October 1928
and ran until the following June.
Subsequently, the theater hosted ''Broken Dishes'', which opened in November 1929 and featured
Donald Meek and
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
.
The same month, the popular comedy ''Mendel, Inc.'' opened with
Smith and Dale
Smith and Dale were a famous American vaudeville comedy duo. They consisted of Joe Smith (born Joseph Sultzer on February 17, 1884February 22, 1981) and Charlie Dale (born Charles Marks on September 6, 1881November 16, 1971), who both grew up in ...
, running through the next year. By the end of the 1920s, the Shuberts had taken over the Ritz Theatre's bookings from Harris after several
flop
In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...
runs.
1930s
Many of the Ritz Theatre's productions in the 1930s were short-lived.
Among these shows was a version of the English play ''Nine till Six'' with an all-female cast in late 1930.
The next year saw a two-week run of the
Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''
Alison's House'',
as well as
Elliott Lester's ''
Two Seconds
''Two Seconds'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne and Preston Foster. It was based on a successful Broadway play of the same name by Elliott Lester. The title ...
''.
Additionally,
Ruth Draper
Ruth Draper (December 2, 1884December 30, 1956) was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama. Her best-known pieces include ''The Italian Lesson'', ''Three Women and Mr. Cliff ...
performed a series of
character sketch
In literature, a character sketch, or character, is a rough-and-ready rendering and thumbnail portrayal of an individual, capturing, in brief, that person's physical characteristics, psychological attributes, and the like. The brief descriptions ...
es at the Ritz in late 1932.
The Elizabeth McFadden melodrama ''Double Door'' occupied the Ritz during late 1933,
while
Mildred Natwick
Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.
Early life
Natwick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Mildre ...
and
Frank Lawton
Frank Lawton Mokeley (30 September 1904 – 10 June 1969) was an English actor.
His parents were stage players Daisy May Collier and Frank Lawton (I). His first major screen credit was ''Young Woodley'' (1930). In the mid-1930s, Lawton appe ...
starred the next year in ''The Wind and the Rain''.
Other shows of the period included ''Petticoat Fever'' in 1935 with
Leo G. Carroll
Leo Gratten Carroll (25 October 1886 – 16 October 1972) was an English actor. In a career of more than forty years, he appeared in six Hitchcock films including ''Spellbound'', '' Strangers on a Train'' and ''North by Northwest'' and in thre ...
and
Dennis King
Dennis King (born Dennis Pratt, 2 November 1897 – 21 May 1971) was an English actor and singer.
Early years
Born on 2 November 1897 in Coventry, Warwickshire, or Birmingham, England, King was the son of John and Elizabeth King Pratt. He ...
,
[; ] as well as ''Co-Respondent Unknown'' in 1936 with
Peggy Conklin and
Ilka Chase
Ilka Chase (April 8, 1905 – February 15, 1978) was an American actress, radio host, and novelist.
Biography
Born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France, Chase was the only child ...
.
In December 1936, the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(WPA)'s
Federal Theatre Project hosted a week-long run of its dance program, ''The Eternal Prodigal'', at the Ritz after eleven months of preparation.
The theater hosted ''Power'', a show produced as part of the WPA's ''
Living Newspaper
Living Newspaper is a term for a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience. Historically, Living Newspapers have also urged social action (both implicitly and explicitly) and reacted against naturali ...
'' series, the following February;
it lasted for five months.
In November 1937, the Surry Players presented their revival of Shakespeare's ''
As You Like It'' at the Ritz.
Next,
Gilbert Miller
}
Gilbert Heron Miller (July 3, 1884 – January 3, 1969) was an American theatrical producer.
Born in New York City, he was the son of English-born theatrical producer Henry Miller and Bijou Heron, a former child actress. Raised and educated i ...
's production of the
T. S. Eliot play ''
Murder in the Cathedral
''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writin ...
'' opened at the Ritz in February 1938,
running for six weeks.
The WPA then premiered the musical ''Pinocchio'' at the Ritz in January 1939,
but the production closed that May after the Federal Theatre Project was dissolved.
Playhouse
Broadcasting studio
Lee Shubert
Lee Shubert (born Levi Schubart; March 25, 1871– December 25, 1953) was a Lithuanian-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the eldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, the so ...
leased the Ritz to
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
in October 1939.
Consequently, the Ritz became known as CBS Theater No. 4, supplementing three other broadcast studios at 141 West 45th Street, 251 West 45th Street, and
1697 Broadway.
CBS quickly put Theater No. 4 into use for the taping of ''
The Gay Nineties Revue
''The Gay Nineties Revue'' was an American variety series that aired live on ABC Television from August 11, 1948 to mid-1949 on Wednesdays at 8pm ET. The host was songwriter Joseph E. Howard, who was reportedly age 71 at the time he hosted the ...
'' and
Walter O'Keefe
Walter O'Keefe (August 18, 1900 – June 26, 1983) was an American songwriter, actor, syndicated columnist, Broadway composer, radio legend, screenwriter, musical arranger and TV host.
Biography
O'Keefe was born in Hartford, Connecticut. H ...
's ''Tuesday Night Party''.
The Ritz had served as a CBS theater for only a few months when
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
signed a 25-week lease for the theater in January 1940.
Among other things, the NBC studio was used for taping the TV program ''21 Men and a Girl'',
as well as a speech by
1940 U.S. presidential candidate
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
.
NBC's lease on the Ritz expired at the beginning of 1942, and the theater returned to legitimate use with the opening of the revue ''Harlem Cavalcade'' in May 1942.
Leonard Sillman's ''New Faces of 1943'' opened that December.
This was followed in 1943 by a revival of the long-running play ''
Tobacco Road''.
[; ]
The
Blue Network leased the Ritz Theatre in late 1943, initially using the theater for public-relations broadcasts.
The Blue Network studio was used to broadcast ''Radio Hall of Fame'', the first regular-network show to be recorded by television cameras,
as well as such events as a concert recital by
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...
.
The Hattie Hill estate sold the theater to the Simon brothers in March 1945; at the time, it was a broadcast studio for WJZ-TV (later
WABC-TV
WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...
).
That November, the Shubert brothers acquired the theater from Leonard H. Burns, Margaret F. Doyle, and Harriet P. Stieff.
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, which operated WJZ-TV, was leasing the theater for three-year periods as of 1946.
It was one of three studios ABC was using by the late 1940s. ABC's broadcasts at the theater included a game show called ''
Stop the Music'' (for which a second-floor dressing room was equipped with a
telephone switchboard
A telephone switchboard was a device used to connect circuits of telephones to establish telephone calls between users or other switchboards, throughout the 20th century. The switchboard was an essential component of a manual telephone exchange, ...
), as well as a
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
variety show.
ABC upgraded the lighting and expanded the Ritz's stage by about in 1950;
this required the removal of all seating in the orchestra.
At the time, the Ritz was one of several former Broadway theaters that had been converted to broadcast studios within the last several years. The ABC studio remained in use even as the Shuberts sold the theater to John Minary in July 1956.
In turn, Minary sold the theater to real-estate investor Joseph P. Blitz that December; at the time, the venue was reported as having 600 seats.
Blitz co-owned the theater with Herbert Fischbach, who in February 1957 bought out Blitz's stake.
The Royal Ballet
The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in ...
obtained an option on the Ritz in 1962, intending to show four ballets by
Alan Carter.
Leonard Tow and Roger Euster, owners of the
Little Theatre (another Broadway house converted to a studio), acquired the Ritz in 1963. The next year, Euster sold his stake to Leonard B. Moore.
Subsequently, the theater was dark from 1965 to 1969.
Brief legitimate return, children's theater
![W 48 St Nov 2021 58](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/W_48_St_Nov_2021_58.jpg)
In 1970, Eddie Bracken took over the theater.
Scott Fagan and
Martin Duberman
Martin Bauml Duberman (born August 6, 1930) is an American historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist. Duberman is Professor of History Emeritus at Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx, New York City.
Early life
Duberman was born ...
's rock musical ''
Soon'' was booked for the Ritz, marking the first legitimate production at the theater in nearly three decades, but ''Soon'' flopped with three performances in January 1971.
[; ] This was followed in April 1971 by
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty p ...
's ''Dance of Death'', with
Rip Torn and
Viveca Lindfors
Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors (December 29, 1920 – October 25, 1995) was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She won an Emmy Award and a Silver Bear for Best Actress.
Biography
Lindfors was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the d ...
,
which closed after five performances.
Both of these plays used temporary seats that were installed above the concrete orchestra.
Subsequently, the theater hosted
pornographic films and
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, with a massage parlor backstage.
The producer Arthur Whitelaw and his partners Seth Whitelaw, Ben Gerard, and Joseph Hardy, took a 15-year lease on the Ritz,
originally intending to house their Movie Musical Theatre there.
They restored the theater in 1972 for $225,000, installing new carpets, chairs, and lighting.
The restored theater had 896 seats, though the first two rows of seats could be removed.
The Ritz reopened on March 8, 1972, with the musical ''Children! Children!'', featuring
Gwen Verdon
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for t ...
. The show was so poorly received that it closed the same night.
The next show was the play ''Hurry, Harry'' in October 1972; like its predecessors, the show was a flop, closing after two performances.
This was followed in February 1973 by the British hit ''
No Sex Please, We're British
''No Sex Please, We're British'' is a British farce written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, which premiered in London's West End on 3 June 1971 at the Strand Theatre. It was panned by critics, but ran until 5 September 1987, transferri ...
'' with
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen O'Sullivan (17 May 1911 – 23 June 1998) was an Irish-American actress, who played Jane in the ''Tarzan'' series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She performed with such actors as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, William ...
,
[; ] but it failed on Broadway with 16 performances.
After the Ritz had been vacant for several months, the Robert F. Kennedy Theater for Children took over in September 1973, opening the next month.
During this time, the children's theater was fighting lawsuits over whether it could be named after the late politician
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
.
The RFK Children's Theater neglected to pay rent and, in 1976, it was evicted from the Ritz under an action brought by the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia. Afterward, the Ritz was used to store posters.
The city government took over the theater, and the venue's roof began to leak.
Jujamcyn operation
1980s
In 1981, developer Jason Carter and
Jujamcyn Theaters
Jujamcyn Theaters LLC , formerly the Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation, is a theatrical producing and theatre-ownership company in New York City. For many years Jujamcyn was owned by James H. Binger, former Chairman of Honeywell, and his wife, Virg ...
submitted bids for the Ritz at a foreclosure auction.
Carter won the auction, but he sold the theater to Jujamcyn for $1.7 million,
keeping its air rights for the construction of a skyscraper called Ritz Plaza.
The Ritz had to continue presenting legitimate shows in exchange for the air rights, but Carter had intended to build apartments above the theater. In August 1981, Jujamcyn announced that it had acquired the Ritz and
ANTA (now August Wilson) theaters.
Jujamcyn announced it would reopen the Ritz to counterbalance the impending demolition of the
Helen Hayes and
Morosco theaters two blocks south.
Roger Morgan Studios and Karen Rosen of KMR Design oversaw the theater's renovation, which cost $1.5 million.
New lighting fixtures and seats were installed, along with new stage lighting, plumbing, and air-conditioning. A new stage was built, while the proscenium opening was retained.
The second balcony level, used for air-conditioning equipment, was turned into a seating level.
The renovation was actually completed in 1982, but Jujamcyn had not been able to book any shows for the 1982–1983 theatrical season.
The show ''Hell of a Town'' had actually been booked in 1982 but was later dropped. Finally, on May 10, 1983,
The Flying Karamazov Brothers
The Flying Karamazov Brothers (FKB) are a juggling and comedy troupe that has been performing since 1973. They learned their trade busking as street artists starting in Santa Cruz, California, eventually going on to perform nationally and internat ...
reopened the theater with their eponymous juggling show. The next January,
Ian McKellen appeared in a solo show, ''
Acting Shakespeare''; it ran for a month.
Afterward, the Ritz tried limiting the audiences for several shows to 499 seats, because a 500-seat house would require negotiations with Broadway theatrical unions.
Broadway theatrical unions had classified the Ritz as "endangered" because it was consistently underused. Producer
Morton Gottlieb first proposed the 499-seat plan for his play ''Dancing in the End Zone'' in 1984.
This was followed by ''Doubles'' in 1985,
which subsequently became a success and switched to using the theater's full capacity,
as well as the revue ''Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood'' in 1986.
The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) had started considering protecting the Ritz as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. While the LPC commenced a wide-ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters in 1987, the Ritz was among the few theaters for which the LPC denied either exterior or interior landmark status.
Among the theater's productions in 1987 were the play ''A Month of Sundays'', the musical ''Nite Comic'', and a
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.
The duo h ...
special.
In 1989,
Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman (born July 20, 1947) is a long-time Broadway theatre producer. He served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from August 2009 to December 2012. He is a part owner of Jujamcyn Theaters.
Early life
Landesman was bor ...
announced that the theater would be refurbished for $1.9 million and that it would be renamed for drama critic
Walter Kerr
Walter Francis Kerr (July 8, 1913 – October 9, 1996) was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals as well as the author of several books, genera ...
.
The last production staged at the Ritz prior to its renaming was ''
Chu Chem
''Chu Chem'' is a musical with a book by Ted Allen, lyrics by Jim Haines and Jack Wohl, and music by Mitch Leigh.
Background
Allen's inspiration was a trip to Kaifeng Fu (''prefecture''), China, the site of a major Jewish migration in the 10t ...
'', which ran from April to May 1989.
By the end of the year, the facade had been cleaned at a cost of $400,000.
1990s and 2000s
The theater reopened on March 5, 1990, with a musical tribute to Walter Kerr. The first production at the newly renovated theater was
August Wilson
August Wilson ( Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of ten plays, collectively called ' (or ...
's ''
The Piano Lesson
''The Piano Lesson'' is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the fourth play in Wilson's ''The Pittsburgh Cycle''. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir nga se ...
'', which opened the next month, running through January 1991.
The Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn formed the Broadway Alliance in June 1990, wherein each company set aside one of its theaters to present dramas and comedies at reduced ticket prices. The program covered the
Belasco,
Nederlander, and Walter Kerr theaters. The
Paul Rudnick
Paul Rudnick (born December 29, 1957) is an American writer. His plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and around the world. He is also known for having written the screenplays for several movies, including '' Sister Act'', ''Addams ...
play ''
I Hate Hamlet
''I Hate Hamlet'' is a comedy-drama written in 1991 by Paul Rudnick.
Plot
Set in John Barrymore's old apartment in New York City – at the time, the author's real-life home – the play follows successful television actor Andrew Rally as he ...
'' then opened in April 1991 and ran for 80 performances.
This was followed in 1992 by Abraham Tetenbaum's short-lived play ''Crazy He Calls Me''
and Wilson's ''
Two Trains Running''.
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Lauded for his work on stage he's most known for his seminal work ''Angels in America'' which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. At the turn ...
's ''
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches'', the first part of a two-part play, opened in May 1993.
The second part, ''
Angels in America: Perestroika'', opened in November 1993;
the two parts were performed in repertory until the end of 1994.
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter.
Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," ...
's play ''
Love! Valour! Compassion!
''Love! Valour! Compassion!'' is a play by Terrence McNally. The play opened Off-Broadway in 1994 and transferred to Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in pr ...
'' transferred from off-Broadway in 1995, and
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of F ...
performed a solo concert later that year for 46 performances.
Wilson's ''
Seven Guitars
''Seven Guitars'' is a 1995 play by American playwright August Wilson. It focuses on seven African-American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funer ...
'' premiered at the Walter Kerr in 1996,
followed by a revival of
Noël Coward's play ''
Present Laughter
''Present Laughter'' is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 but not produced until 1942 because the Second World War began while it was in rehearsal, and the British theatres closed. The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare's ''T ...
''.
The dance special ''Forever Tango'' launched at the Walter Kerr in 1997, running for nine months.
The next two productions were hits by Irish playwrights.
Martin McDonagh's off-Broadway play ''
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
''The Beauty Queen of Leenane'' is a 1996 dramatic play by Martin McDonagh which was premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway, Ireland. It also enjoyed successful runs at London's West End, Broadway and Off-Broadway.
It was nominate ...
'' moved to the Walter Kerr in 1998,
followed the next year by
Conor McPherson
Conor McPherson (born 6 August 1971) is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director of stage and film. In recognition of his contribution to world theatre, McPherson was awarded a doctorate of Literature, Honoris Causa, in June 2013 by the Un ...
's ''
The Weir
''The Weir'' is a play written by Conor McPherson in 1997. It was first produced at The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London, England, on 4 July 1997. It opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 1 April 1999. As well as several oth ...
''.
Coward's ''
Waiting in the Wings'' had its first Broadway production at the Walter Kerr in December 1999,
relocating three months later to the
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
The Eugene O'Neill Theatre, previously the Forrest Theatre and the Coronet Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 230 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and ...
.
The
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
play ''
A Moon for the Misbegotten
''A Moon for the Misbegotten'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. The play is a sequel to O'Neill's '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', with the Jim Tyrone character as an older version of Jamie Tyrone. He began drafting the play late in ...
'' was then revived in March 2000, running for several months.
David Auburn's play ''
Proof'' transferred from off-Broadway that October, running for 917 performances through January 2003.
Next, the comedy ''
Take Me Out'' opened in February 2003 and ran for a year,
This was followed in April 2004 by the short-lived drama ''Sixteen Wounded'',
then in December 2004 by Wilson's ''
Gem of the Ocean
''Gem of the Ocean'' (2003) is a play by American playwright August Wilson. Although the ninth play produced, chronologically it is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, ''The Pittsburgh Cycle'', dramatizing the Afri ...
''.
After Jujamcyn president
James Binger died in 2004,
Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman (born July 20, 1947) is a long-time Broadway theatre producer. He served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from August 2009 to December 2012. He is a part owner of Jujamcyn Theaters.
Early life
Landesman was bor ...
bought the Walter Kerr and Jujamcyn's four other theaters in 2005, along with the air rights above them. Jordan Roth joined Jujamcyn as a resident producer the same year.
John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanley (born October 13, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film ''Moonstruck''. His play, '' Doubt: A Parable'', won the 2005 Pulitzer P ...
's play ''
Doubt: A Parable'' also opened at the Walter Kerr in 2005, running for over a year.
Subsequently, the musical
''Grey Gardens'' opened in late 2006 for a 307-performance run,
and
Chazz Palminteri's solo show
''A Bronx Tale'' launched at the theater in 2007.
The Walter Kerr showed several relatively short runs in 2008 and 2009, including ''
A Catered Affair :''The article is about the stage musical. For the 1956 film, see The Catered Affair.''
''A Catered Affair'' is a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by John Bucchino. It is based on both the 1956 film ''The Catered Aff ...
'', ''
The Seagull
''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises th ...
'', and ''
Irena's Vow
''Irena's Vow'' is a Broadway play recounting the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who, at the risk of her life, saved twelve Jews during World War II in German-occupied Poland.
Production history
The play opened at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theat ...
''.
In 2009, Roth acquired a 50 percent stake in Jujamcyn and assumed full operation of the firm when Landesman joined the National Endowments of the Arts. At the end of that year, the
Stephen Sondheim musical ''
A Little Night Music
''A Little Night Music'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a ...
'' was revived, running until January 2011.
2010s to present
![Stage of the Walter Kerr Theatre with the set of Hadestown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Stage_of_the_Walter_Kerr_Theatre_with_the_set_of_Hadestown.jpg)
The first new productions of the 2010s were a revival of
John Guare
John Guare ( ;; born February 5, 1938) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of '' The House of Blue Leaves'' and '' Six Degrees of Separation''.
Early life
He was raised in Jackson Heights, Queens.Druckman ...
's ''
The House of Blue Leaves
''The House of Blue Leaves'' is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critic ...
'' in 2011,
followed the same year by the musical ''
Lysistrata Jones
''Lysistrata Jones'' is a musical comedy adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy ''Lysistrata''. The book is by Douglas Carter Beane and the score is by Lewis Flinn. After a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run with Transport Group Theatre Company ...
''.
The Walter Kerr then hosted the plays ''
Clybourne Park
''Clybourne Park'' is a 2010 play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959). It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical event ...
'',
''The Heiress'', and
''The Testament of Mary'' over the next two years,
as well as a revival of the ''Forever Tango'' dance special in mid-2013. The musical comedy ''
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' opened in November 2013,
and it stayed for almost 1,000 performances through the beginning of 2016, having nearly failed early on. The next two shows were revivals:
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
's drama ''
The Crucible
''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as ...
'', which opened in March 2016,
and
William Finn
William Alan Finn (born February 28, 1952) is an American composer and lyricist. He is best known for his musicals, which include '' Falsettos'', for which he won the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, ''A New B ...
and
James Lapine
James Elliot Lapine (born January 10, 1949) is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for ''Into the Woods'', '' Falsettos'', and '' Passion''. He ...
's musical ''
Falsettos
''Falsettos'' is a sung-through musical with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Finn. The musical consists of '' March of the Falsettos'' (1981) and '' Falsettoland'' (1990), the last two installments in a trio o ...
'', which opened that October.
The Walter Kerr then hosted an original production of the musical
''Amélie'' in April and May 2017.
That October, musician
Bruce Springsteen commenced his concert special ''
Springsteen on Broadway
''Springsteen on Broadway'' is a concert residency by Bruce Springsteen held at the Walter Kerr Theatre and St. James Theatre in New York City. The original residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre consisted of Springsteen performing five shows ...
'', which was originally supposed to stay at the theater for eight weeks. The show instantly became popular and was extended three times, the last performance being December 15, 2018.
The musical
''Hadestown'' was the next show to open at the Walter Kerr, premiering in April 2019;
, it is the longest-running show in the theater's history. The theater closed in March 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, reopening on September 2, 2021, with performances of ''Hadestown''.
Notable productions
Productions are listed by the year of their first performance.
Ritz Theatre
*1921: ''
The Bad Man''
*1921: ''
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
''Bluebeard's Eighth Wife'' is a 1938 Paramount Pictures American romantic comedy film directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. The film is based on the 1921 French play ''La huitième femme de Bar ...
''
*1922: ''
It Is the Law
''It Is the Law'' is a 1924 American silent mystery film
A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to sol ...
''
*1923: ''
The Humming Bird''
*1923: ''
The Sporting Thing To Do
''The Sporting Thing To Do'' is a play by Thompson Buchanan. The play premiered at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 4, 1922. Produced by Oliver Morosco and directed by Fred J. Butler, the original cast included En ...
''
*1923: ''
The Enchanted Cottage''
*1924: ''
Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
''
*1925: ''
A Kiss in a Taxi
''A Kiss In A Taxi'' is a lost 1927 American silent comedy film starring Bebe Daniels and directed by Clarence Badger. It is based on a French play, ''A Kiss in a Taxi'', produced on Broadway in 1925. Famous Players-Lasky produced and Paramount P ...
''
*1927: ''
The Legend of Leonora
''The Legend of Leonora'' is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was featured on Broadway at the Empire Theatre in January 1914 and starred Maude Adams, running for 136 performances. The play first appeared briefly in London in September 1913 under the ...
''
*1929: ''
Soldiers and Women''
*1931: ''
Alison's House''
*1931: ''
Two Seconds
''Two Seconds'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne and Preston Foster. It was based on a successful Broadway play of the same name by Elliott Lester. The title ...
''
*1933: ''
Before Morning''
*1935: ''
Abide with Me''
*1937: ''
As You Like It''
*1938: ''
Time and the Conways
''Time and the Conways'' is a British play written by J. B. Priestley in 1937 illustrating J. W. Dunne's Theory of Time through the experience of a moneyed Yorkshire family, the Conways, over a period of nineteen years from 1919 to 1937. Wide ...
''
*1938: ''
Murder in the Cathedral
''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writin ...
''
*1942: ''
My Sister Eileen
''My Sister Eileen'' is a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney, originally published in ''The New Yorker'', which eventually inspired many other works: her 1938 book ''My Sister Eileen'', a play, a musical, a radio play (a ...
''
*1943: ''
Tobacco Road''
*1971: ''
Soon''
*1971: ''
Dance of Death''
*1972: ''
Children! Children!''
*1973: ''
No Sex Please, We're British
''No Sex Please, We're British'' is a British farce written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, which premiered in London's West End on 3 June 1971 at the Strand Theatre. It was panned by critics, but ran until 5 September 1987, transferri ...
''
*1983: ''
The Flying Karamazov Brothers
The Flying Karamazov Brothers (FKB) are a juggling and comedy troupe that has been performing since 1973. They learned their trade busking as street artists starting in Santa Cruz, California, eventually going on to perform nationally and internat ...
''
*1984: ''
Acting Shakespeare''
*1988: ''
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.
The duo h ...
''
*1989: ''
Chu Chem
''Chu Chem'' is a musical with a book by Ted Allen, lyrics by Jim Haines and Jack Wohl, and music by Mitch Leigh.
Background
Allen's inspiration was a trip to Kaifeng Fu (''prefecture''), China, the site of a major Jewish migration in the 10t ...
''
Walter Kerr Theatre
Since its reopening, the Walter Kerr has housed seven winners of the
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first yea ...
: ''
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches'', ''
Angels in America: Perestroika'', ''
Love! Valour! Compassion!
''Love! Valour! Compassion!'' is a play by Terrence McNally. The play opened Off-Broadway in 1994 and transferred to Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in pr ...
'', ''
Proof'', ''
Take Me Out'', ''
Doubt
Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them.
Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...
'', and ''
Clybourne Park
''Clybourne Park'' is a 2010 play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959). It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical event ...
''. It also housed two winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical: ''
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' and ''
Hadestown
''Hadestown'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial underworl ...
''.
*1990: ''
The Piano Lesson
''The Piano Lesson'' is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the fourth play in Wilson's ''The Pittsburgh Cycle''. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir nga se ...
''
*1991: ''
I Hate Hamlet
''I Hate Hamlet'' is a comedy-drama written in 1991 by Paul Rudnick.
Plot
Set in John Barrymore's old apartment in New York City – at the time, the author's real-life home – the play follows successful television actor Andrew Rally as he ...
''
*1992: ''
Two Trains Running''
*1993: ''
Angels in America
''Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'' is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award f ...
''
[; ]
*1995: ''
Love! Valour! Compassion!
''Love! Valour! Compassion!'' is a play by Terrence McNally. The play opened Off-Broadway in 1994 and transferred to Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in pr ...
''
*1996: ''
Patti LuPone on Broadway''
*1996: ''
Seven Guitars
''Seven Guitars'' is a 1995 play by American playwright August Wilson. It focuses on seven African-American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funer ...
''
*1996: ''
Present Laughter
''Present Laughter'' is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 but not produced until 1942 because the Second World War began while it was in rehearsal, and the British theatres closed. The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare's ''T ...
''
*1998: ''
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
''The Beauty Queen of Leenane'' is a 1996 dramatic play by Martin McDonagh which was premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway, Ireland. It also enjoyed successful runs at London's West End, Broadway and Off-Broadway.
It was nominate ...
''
*1999: ''
The Weir
''The Weir'' is a play written by Conor McPherson in 1997. It was first produced at The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London, England, on 4 July 1997. It opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 1 April 1999. As well as several oth ...
''
*1999: ''
Waiting in the Wings''
*2000: ''
A Moon for the Misbegotten
''A Moon for the Misbegotten'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. The play is a sequel to O'Neill's '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', with the Jim Tyrone character as an older version of Jamie Tyrone. He began drafting the play late in ...
''
*2000: ''
Proof''
*2003: ''
Take Me Out''
*2004: ''
Gem of the Ocean
''Gem of the Ocean'' (2003) is a play by American playwright August Wilson. Although the ninth play produced, chronologically it is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, ''The Pittsburgh Cycle'', dramatizing the Afri ...
''
*2005: ''
Doubt: A Parable''
*2006: ''
Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...
''
*2007: ''
A Bronx Tale''
*2008: ''
A Catered Affair :''The article is about the stage musical. For the 1956 film, see The Catered Affair.''
''A Catered Affair'' is a musical with a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by John Bucchino. It is based on both the 1956 film ''The Catered Aff ...
''
*2008: ''
The Seagull
''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises th ...
''
*2009: ''
Irena's Vow
''Irena's Vow'' is a Broadway play recounting the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who, at the risk of her life, saved twelve Jews during World War II in German-occupied Poland.
Production history
The play opened at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theat ...
''
*2009: ''
A Little Night Music
''A Little Night Music'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a ...
''
*2011: ''
The House of Blue Leaves
''The House of Blue Leaves'' is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critic ...
''
*2011: ''
Lysistrata Jones
''Lysistrata Jones'' is a musical comedy adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy ''Lysistrata''. The book is by Douglas Carter Beane and the score is by Lewis Flinn. After a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run with Transport Group Theatre Company ...
''
*2012: ''
Clybourne Park
''Clybourne Park'' is a 2010 play by Bruce Norris written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's play '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1959). It portrays fictional events set during and after the Hansberry play, and is loosely based on historical event ...
''
*2012: ''
The Heiress
''The Heiress'' is a 1949 American romantic drama film directed and produced by William Wyler, from a screenplay written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 stage play of the same title, which was itself adapted from Henry Jame ...
''
*2013: ''
The Testament of Mary''
*2013: ''
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder''
*2016: ''
The Crucible
''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as ...
''
*2016: ''
Falsettos
''Falsettos'' is a sung-through musical with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Finn. The musical consists of '' March of the Falsettos'' (1981) and '' Falsettoland'' (1990), the last two installments in a trio o ...
''
*2017: ''
Amélie
''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, italic=yes) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume La ...
''
*2017: ''
Springsteen on Broadway
''Springsteen on Broadway'' is a concert residency by Bruce Springsteen held at the Walter Kerr Theatre and St. James Theatre in New York City. The original residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre consisted of Springsteen performing five shows ...
''
*2019: ''
Hadestown
''Hadestown'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial underworl ...
''
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
1921 establishments in New York City
Broadway theatres
Jujamcyn
Theater District, Manhattan
Theatres completed in 1921