184-671: The Walter Kerr Theatre , previously the Ritz Theatre , is a Broadway theater at 219 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the Shubert brothers in 1921. The venue, renamed in 1990 after theatrical critic Walter Kerr , has 975 seats across three levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment . The facade
368-726: A frontage of 106.5 feet (32.5 m) on 44th Street and a depth of 100.42 ft (31 m). The Broadhurst Theatre shares the city block with the Row NYC Hotel to the west. It adjoins six other theaters: the Majestic to the west, the John Golden and Bernard B. Jacobs to the northwest, the Gerald Schoenfeld to the north, the Booth to the northeast, and the Shubert to the east. Other nearby structures include
552-428: A marquee extends above the doors. The southeastern corner of the facade is curved and contains an entrance to the ticket lobby. This entrance contains a double door, above which is a glass transom panel with the word "Broadhurst" inscribed on it. The corner entrance is topped by a broken pediment , which is supported by console brackets on either side and contains an escutcheon at the center. Along 44th Street,
736-546: A 273-performance run. That year, the Shuberts took over the theater's operation from George Broadhurst. In 1931, the Broadhurst staged Herbert Fields and Rodgers and Hart 's musical America's Sweetheart , which continued for 135 performances. Aarons and Freedley gave up their lease on the theater that August, and Norman Bel Geddes produced a short-lived revival of Shakespeare's Hamlet that November. This
920-586: 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 Seagull , and Irena's Vow . 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
1104-535: 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
1288-472: 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
1472-538: A 93 percent stake in Jujamcyn's five theaters, including the Walter Kerr Theatre, to ATG and Providence Equity . Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. This list only includes Broadway shows; it does not include other live shows or films presented at the theater, nor does it include shows that were taped there. Since its reopening, the Walter Kerr has housed seven winners of
1656-839: 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
1840-449: 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,
2024-663: 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
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#17328009105202208-434: 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
2392-540: 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
2576-565: 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
2760-906: 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
2944-432: A frieze of horsemen. The theater was also designed with a false proscenium opening, which gave the impression of a smaller stage suitable for dramas and comedies. The proscenium opening measures about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and 40 ft (12 m) wide. The depth of the auditorium to the proscenium is 31 ft (9.4 m), while the depth to the front of the stage is 33 ft 2 in (10.11 m). The ceiling
3128-417: A granite water table with terracotta blocks above it. On this story, there are two metal doors and three windows. The stage house has five sash windows on each of the upper stories. These windows are placed within segmental arches made of brick. There is a metal fire escape in front of the stage house, which leads to the fire escape in front of the auditorium's third story. A parapet with corbels runs above
3312-556: A half years. The Broadhurst hosted a revival of the August Strindberg play Dance Of Death in late 2001, featuring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren . The next year, the theater revived Stephen Sondheim 's musical Into the Woods with Vanessa Williams , which ran for 279 performances. Two short runs followed in 2003: Urban Cowboy , with 60 performances, and Never Gonna Dance , with 84 performances. As part of
3496-469: A hiatus mid-run. Subsequently, Ruth Gordon 's version of the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House moved to the Broadhurst in 1938. This was followed in 1939 by Dodie Smith 's Dear Octopus ; the musical The Hot Mikado , an all-Black version of The Mikado with Bill Robinson ; and the revue The Streets of Paris with Carmen Miranda and Abbott and Costello . During the 1940s,
3680-532: 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
3864-526: 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
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#17328009105204048-539: 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
4232-1152: 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
4416-536: 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. The Shuberts announced plans for their six new theaters in September 1920. The brothers believed that
4600-500: 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
4784-843: A revival of Private Lives with Joan Collins and the play Shimada in 1992. The next hit was Terrence McNally , John Kander , and Fred Ebb 's musical Kiss of the Spider Woman , which opened in May 1993 with Anthony Crivello , Brent Carver , and Chita Rivera ; it ran for 906 performances. Next, the New York Shakespeare Festival presented The Tempest in November 1995, starring Patrick Stewart , for 71 performances. The play Getting Away with Murder flopped in March 1996 after 17 performances, and
4968-431: 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
5152-544: A series of character sketches at the Ritz in late 1932. The Elizabeth McFadden melodrama Double Door occupied the Ritz during late 1933, while Mildred Natwick and Frank Lawton starred the next year in The Wind and the Rain . Other shows of the period included Petticoat Fever in 1935 with Leo G. Carroll and Dennis King , as well as Co-Respondent Unknown in 1936 with Peggy Conklin and Ilka Chase . In December 1936,
5336-475: A set of plays by Preston Jones . At the end of the year, the theater hosted Larry Gelbart 's farce Sly Fox , starring George C. Scott , which ran for 495 performances. Bob Fosse 's musical Dancin' , starring Ann Reinking and Wayne Cilento , had opened in March 1978. When Dancin' relocated in December 1980, it had had the longest continuous run at the Broadhurst. Immediately afterward,
5520-485: A settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2003, the Shuberts agreed to improve disabled access at their 16 landmarked Broadway theaters, including the Broadhurst. Billy Crystal 's solo show 700 Sundays , which opened in December 2004, ran for 163 performances and at one point was Broadway's highest-grossing non-musical show. The musical Lennon then had 49 performances at
5704-481: 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
Walter Kerr Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
5888-596: 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 the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world . While the Broadway thoroughfare
6072-580: 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
6256-401: Is a Broadway theater at 235 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for the Shubert brothers . The Broadhurst Theatre is named for British-American theatrical producer George Broadhurst , who leased the theater before its opening. It has 1,218 seats across two levels and
6440-417: Is a terracotta cartouche containing depictions of swags . The curved corner contains a third-floor window, topped by an oval escutcheon decorated with swags and fleur-de-lis . A terracotta cornice and a brick parapet runs above the auditorium facade. The parapet is stepped and contains a coping made of sheet metal . The stage house is five stories high. The ground floor of the stage house contains
6624-475: 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
6808-416: Is decorated with a medallion containing a light fixture; this is surrounded by a molded band. Doric-style columns separate the boxes from each other, supporting a molding and panel at the top of each wall section. Next to the boxes is a flat proscenium arch, which consists of Doric pilasters on either side of the opening, as well as an entablature above. The entablature contains a central relief panel with
6992-562: 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,
7176-633: Is flat, containing plasterwork moldings, friezes, and medallions, as well as air-conditioning vents. Chandeliers are suspended from the medallions. Times Square became 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
7360-466: Is operated by The Shubert Organization . Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks . The neoclassical facade is simple in design and is similar to that of the Schoenfeld (formerly Plymouth) Theatre , which was developed concurrently. The Broadhurst's facade is made of buff -colored brick and terracotta and is divided into two sections: a stage house to the west and
7544-533: Is operated by the Shubert Organization . Krapp designed the Broadhurst and Plymouth theaters with relatively simple brick-and-stone facades, instead relying on the arrangement of the brickwork for decorative purposes. The Broadhurst and Plymouth contain curved corners at the eastern portions of their respective facades, facing Broadway , since most audience members reached the theaters from that direction. The use of simple exterior-design elements
Walter Kerr Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
7728-472: 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. 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
7912-487: 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 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,
8096-510: Is surrounded by a Doric -style cornice as well as a frieze designed in the Adam style . There are also plasterwork panels on the promenade ceiling, which contain chandeliers suspended from medallions. Two staircases with metal railings lead from the promenade to the balcony. The orchestra level is raked , sloping down toward an orchestra pit in front of the stage. The orchestra and its promenade contain walls with plasterwork panels. Doorways on
8280-423: Is the longest-running show in the theater's history. All Broadway theaters temporarily closed on March 12, 2020 , due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The Walter Kerr reopened on September 2, 2021, with performances of Hadestown . Jujamcyn and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) agreed to merge in early 2023; the combined company would operate seven Broadway theaters, including the Walter Kerr. In July 2023, Jordan Roth sold
8464-571: 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
8648-742: The Agatha Christie play Ten Little Indians in 1944, and a transfer of the revue Follow the Girls with Jackie Gleason and Gertrude Niesen in 1945. Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton 's revue Three to Make Ready transferred to the Broadhurst in 1946, and Helen Hayes returned the same year in Anita Loos 's Happy Birthday , which ran for 564 performances. Four revues were staged during 1948 and 1949: Make Mine Manhattan , Along Fifth Avenue , Lend an Ear , and Touch and Go . The 1950s saw several long-running shows, though
8832-610: 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
9016-734: The Belasco , Nederlander , and Walter Kerr theaters. The Paul Rudnick play I Hate Hamlet 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 '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;
9200-637: The Eugene O'Neill Theatre . The Eugene O'Neill play A Moon for the Misbegotten 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
9384-580: 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;
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#17328009105209568-449: The Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The rectangular land lot covers 8,034 square feet (746.4 m), with a frontage of 80 feet (24 m) on 49th Street and a depth of 100 ft (30 m). The Walter Kerr shares the block with the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to the north and Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan to the east. Other nearby buildings include One Worldwide Plaza and St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church to
9752-644: The Music Box Theatre and Imperial Theatre one block north; One Astor Plaza to the east; 1501 Broadway to the southeast; and the Sardi's restaurant, the Hayes Theater , and the St. James Theatre to the south. The Broadhurst is part of the largest concentration of Broadway theaters on a single block. The Broadhurst, Schoenfeld (originally Plymouth), Booth, and Shubert theaters were all developed by
9936-503: 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
10120-460: The Parthenon , which is mostly hidden behind light boxes. There is a small technical gallery above the rear of the balcony, the front railing of which contains moldings of swags. A Doric-style cornice runs above the balcony walls, wrapping above the boxes and proscenium. On either side of the stage is a wall section with three boxes at the balcony level. The boxes step downward toward the stage;
10304-476: 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
10488-549: The Shubert brothers between 44th and 45th Streets, occupying land previously owned by the Astor family . The Broadhurst and Schoenfeld were built as a pair, occupying land left over from the development of the Shubert and Booth, which were also paired. The Broadhurst/Schoenfeld theatrical pair share an alley to the east, parallel to the larger Shubert Alley east of the Shubert/Booth pair. The Broadhurst/Schoenfeld alley
10672-517: The Tony Award for Best Play : Angels in America: Millennium Approaches , Angels in America: Perestroika , Love! Valour! Compassion! , Proof , Take Me Out , Doubt , and Clybourne Park . It also housed two winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Hadestown . Broadway theatre Broadway theatre , or Broadway , is
10856-625: The Works Progress Administration (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 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
11040-409: 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
11224-413: 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. The Walter Kerr Theatre is on 219 West 48th Street , on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway , in
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#173280091052011408-420: 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 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
11592-495: The Broadhurst Theatre. The Broadhurst was developed by the Shubert brothers of Syracuse, New York , who expanded downstate into New York City in 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
11776-511: The Broadhurst and Booth theaters was sold in 2009, and some 1,800 sq ft (170 m ) was sold in 2012. The Shuberts sold a further 58,392 sq ft (5,424.8 m ) of air rights above the Majestic and Broadhurst in 2013. Lucy Prebble 's play Enron flopped at the Broadhurst with 16 performances in 2010, despite critical acclaim on the West End. More successful was
11960-477: The Broadhurst briefly hosted the long-running musical My Fair Lady , and Richard Rodgers 's musical No Strings finished its 580-performance run there. The Tom Jones / Harvey Schmidt musical 110 in the Shade opened in 1963 with Robert Horton , Will Geer , Lesley Ann Warren , and Inga Swenson . The next year, the theater hosted the West End musical Oh, What a Lovely War! . The musical Kelly
12144-447: The Broadhurst have included Hold Everything! , Fiorello! , Cabaret , Grease , Kiss of the Spider Woman , Les Misérables , and Mamma Mia! . The Broadhurst Theatre is on 235 West 44th 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 . The rectangular land lot covers 10,695 square feet (993.6 m ), with
12328-472: The Broadhurst hosted Peter Shaffer 's Amadeus , with Ian McKellen , Tim Curry , and Jane Seymour ; it ran until October 1983. The Tap Dance Kid opened that December, running for three months before transferring. Next was a revival of Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman , which opened in March 1984 and ran until the end of that year. The Broadhurst was then closed for six months, and
12512-502: The Broadhurst hosted numerous musicals and revues. These included Boys and Girls Together with Ed Wynn , Jane Pickens , and the DeMarcos in 1940, as well as High Kickers with George Jessel and Sophie Tucker the next year. The drama Uncle Harry with Eva Le Gallienne, Joseph Schildkraut , and Karl Malden ran at the Broadhurst in 1942. Further hits at the Broadhurst included Fats Waller 's revue Early to Bed in 1943;
12696-555: The Broadhurst in 2005, followed the next year by Alan Bennett 's play The History Boys . A revival of the musical Les Misérables opened in November 2006, just three years after the long-running original production had closed; it had 463 performances. More revivals followed in 2008, with an all-Black cast in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , as well as a revival of Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths . Next in 2009
12880-530: The Broadhurst in 2012, followed the next year by Nora Ephron 's Lucky Guy , with Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut. In 2013, the musical Mamma Mia! transferred from the Winter Garden Theatre to the Broadhurst for the final two years of its 14-year run. The next shows at the Broadhurst were the play Misery in 2015, as well as the musicals Tuck Everlasting and The Front Page in 2016. The musical Anastasia opened at
13064-467: The Broadhurst in 2017 and ran there for nearly two years. It was followed in May 2019 by Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and in December 2019 by Jagged Little Pill . The theater closed on March 12, 2020 , due to the COVID-19 pandemic . It reopened on October 21, 2021, with performances of Jagged Little Pill , which closed at the end of 2021 due to further pandemic-related issues. It
13248-401: The Broadhurst in November 1988 and ran for just over a year. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting the Broadhurst as an official city landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated the facade as a landmark on November 10, 1987, followed by the interior on December 15. This was part of
13432-414: The Broadhurst later in 1934. This included L'Aiglon with Ethel Barrymore , as well as Hedda Gabler and Cradle Song . The Broadhurst hosted Robert E. Sherwood 's play The Petrified Forest , with Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard , in 1935. Victoria Regina , featuring Helen Hayes and Vincent Price , opened at the end of that year. It ran for 517 performances through 1937, with
13616-536: 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,
13800-619: 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
13984-614: 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
14168-574: 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
14352-456: 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
14536-498: 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. In 1981, developer Jason Carter and Jujamcyn Theaters 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
14720-514: 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 Broadhurst, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which
14904-410: 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
15088-492: The Ocean . After Jujamcyn president James Binger died in 2004, Rocco Landesman 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 '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
15272-604: 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
15456-535: 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
15640-581: The Public Theatre's transfer of The Merchant of Venice , starring Al Pacino , the same year. This was followed in 2011 by Floyd Mutrux 's musical Baby It's You! . Hugh Jackman 's concert special Back on Broadway , which opened the same year, broke the theater's box-office record several times; the current record as of 2023 was set on the week ending January 1, 2012, when the show earned $ 2,057,354. A revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker occupied
15824-537: The Ritz Theatre's bookings from Harris after several flop runs. 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 . Additionally, Ruth Draper performed
16008-453: 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 . The RFK Children's Theater neglected to pay rent and, in 1976, it was evicted from the Ritz under an action brought by
16192-667: The Ritz in January 1924. That July, Hassard Short leased the theater for his Ritz Revue, which opened in September and was the theater's first musical production. Also that year, Al Jolson 's Coolidge-Dawes Theatrical League was established at the theater, and the venue staged the John Galsworthy play Old English with George Arliss . The play The Kiss in the Taxi opened at the Ritz in 1925 with Claudette Colbert , and Young Blood with Helen Hayes opened later that year. This
16376-778: The Ritz. Next, Gilbert Miller 's production of the T. S. Eliot play Murder in the Cathedral 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. Lee Shubert leased the Ritz to CBS 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
16560-438: The Shubert's new 44th Street venue because he wanted a theater to showcase his own work. The Broadhurst opened on September 27, 1917, with George Bernard Shaw 's comedy Misalliance ; the show lasted 52 performances. Despite his early intentions, George Broadhurst did not only stage his own shows at the theater; for example, the Broadhurst hosted a revival of R. C. Carton 's Lord and Lady Algy in December 1917. This
16744-468: The U.S. by 1925. The Shubert brothers had constructed the Shubert and Booth theaters as a pair in 1913, having leased the site from the Astor family. Only the eastern half of the land was used for the Shubert/Booth project; following the success of the two theaters, the Shubert brothers decided to develop another pair of theaters to the west. Herbert Krapp was hired as the architect, while Edward Margolies
16928-516: 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 moved to the Walter Kerr in 1998, followed the next year by Conor McPherson 's The Weir . Coward's Waiting in the Wings had its first Broadway production at the Walter Kerr in December 1999, relocating three months later to
17112-569: The auditorium to the east and a stage house to the west. The facade is generally shorter than its width. The ground floor of the auditorium contains a water table made of granite, above which are vertical blocks of architectural terracotta . The rest of the facade is made of buff brick in Flemish bond , laid in a diaper pattern. Along the ground floor on 44th Street, there are glass-and-bronze double doors with aluminum frames and transoms . There are display boxes on either side of these doors, and
17296-533: 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 at
17480-404: The auditorium's second and third floors contain a fire escape made of cast iron and wrought iron . There are doors and windows on both levels, leading to the fire escape. In addition, the fire escape's third-floor railing contains cast-iron depictions of ribands and shields. A canopy originally shielded the fire escape at the third floor. Above the center of the third floor, on 44th Street,
17664-492: 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
17848-405: The balcony are four paneled piers (corresponding to those at orchestra level), which are topped by Doric-style capitals . The side walls contain plasterwork panels with swags. There are also doorways with pediments, similar to those on the orchestra. Low-relief panels and air-conditioning vents are placed on the balcony's underside. In front of the balcony is a Panathenaic frieze, based on that of
18032-415: 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
18216-435: 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
18400-476: 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
18584-550: 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
18768-410: 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
18952-457: The concrete orchestra. Subsequently, the theater hosted pornographic films and vaudeville , 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
19136-572: 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
19320-422: 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
19504-553: The earliest shows of the decade were short-lived. For example, Martin Balsam and Walter Matthau starred in The Liar , which lasted only 12 performances in May 1950. Douglass Watson and Olivia de Havilland starred in a 49-performance revival of Romeo and Juliet in 1951, while the musical Flahooley ran just 40 performances afterward. Conversely, the musical Seventeen ran for 180 performances later in 1951. Next
19688-679: 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,
19872-431: The end of 1927. It was immediately followed by Winthrop Ames 's version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , featuring George Arliss and Peggy Wood . The Lew Brown / B. G. de Sylva / Ray Henderson musical Hold Everything! opened later in 1928 and lasted for 413 performances. The Broadhurst's last hit of the 1920s was George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner 's play June Moon , which opened in 1929 for
20056-466: The end of that year, the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music was revived, running until January 2011. The first new productions of the 2010s were a revival of John Guare 's The House of Blue Leaves in 2011, followed the same year by the musical Lysistrata Jones . The Walter Kerr then hosted the plays Clybourne Park , The Heiress , and The Testament of Mary over
20240-651: The end of the year, the facade had been cleaned at a cost of $ 400,000. 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 's The Piano Lesson , 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
20424-445: 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. Broadhurst Theatre The Broadhurst Theatre
20608-407: The epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and 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 Shuberts originated from Syracuse, New York , and expanded downstate into New York City in the first decade of the 20th century. The brothers controlled
20792-456: 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,
20976-459: The facade, facing east. 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
21160-478: The fifth story of the stage house. The auditorium has an orchestra level, one balcony, boxes , and a stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium has about the same width and depth, and the space is designed with plaster decorations in relief . According to the Shubert Organization, the theater has 1,218 seats; meanwhile, The Broadway League gives a figure of 1,186 seats and Playbill cites 1,163 seats. The physical seats are divided into 733 seats in
21344-399: The firm of Herts & Tallant . While the facades of the two theaters are similar in arrangement, the interiors have a different design both from each other and from their respective facades. The Broadhurst is designed to complement the Shubert/Booth theatrical pair, with a simple neoclassical facade compared to the Shubert's and Booth's " Venetian Renaissance " designs. The Broadhurst
21528-531: The firm of Johansen-Bhavnani renovated the venue as part of a project that cost $ 2 million. The project entailed rebuilding the stage, redecorating the lobby, enlarging a lounge and restrooms, and modifying the seating areas. This was part of a restoration program for the Shubert Organization's Broadway theaters. The Broadhurst reopened in June 1985 with a gender-swapped version of Neil Simon 's play The Odd Couple ; it lasted until February 1986. The Eugene O'Neill play Long Day's Journey into Night opened at
21712-467: 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
21896-569: The first two rows of seats could be removed. The Ritz reopened on March 8, 1972, with the musical Children! Children! , featuring Gwen Verdon . 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 with Maureen O'Sullivan , but it failed on Broadway with 16 performances. After
22080-584: The flat proscenium arch, are box seats at balcony level. The Shubert brothers developed the Broadhurst and Plymouth theaters following the success of the Booth and Shubert theaters directly to the east. The Broadhurst Theatre opened on September 27, 1917, with Misalliance ; its namesake had intended to use the theater for his own productions. The Shuberts acquired full control of the Broadhurst in 1929 and have operated it since then. The theater has hosted not only musicals but also revues, comedies, and dramas throughout its history. Long-running shows hosted at
22264-419: The front box curves forward into the proscenium arch, while the rear box curves backward into the balcony. At the orchestra level, there are three rectangular openings, corresponding to the locations of former boxes on that level. The front railings of the boxes contain sections of a Panathenaic frieze, separated by fasces made of plaster; the frieze contained depictions of horsemen. The underside of each box
22448-490: The front of the auditorium was 24 ft (7.3 m) tall and 40 ft (12 m) 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 chandeliers, lights, and sconces , which date from 1983. Times Square became
22632-590: The last play by Eugene O'Neill , opened at the Broadhurst in 1967 and featured Ingrid Bergman , Arthur Hill , and Colleen Dewhurst . You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running occupied the Broadhurst for several months in 1968, during the middle of that play's run. The next year, The Fig Leaves Are Falling flopped after four performances, and Woody Allen , Tony Roberts , and Diane Keaton starred in Play It Again, Sam . The Broadhurst
22816-485: 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
23000-440: The musical Amélie in April and May 2017. That October, musician Bruce Springsteen commenced his concert special Springsteen on Broadway , 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; as of 2023, it
23184-466: The musical Once Upon a Mattress opened that December with Sarah Jessica Parker , running for 187 performances. In 1998, Jerry Seinfeld performed an original stand-up act at the Broadhurst; his final performance, I'm Telling You for the Last Time , was aired live on HBO . This was followed by Fosse , a revue featuring Bob Fosse shows, which opened in January 1999 and ran for two and
23368-420: 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
23552-595: 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 's drama The Crucible , which opened in March 2016, and William Finn and James Lapine 's musical Falsettos , which opened that October. The Walter Kerr then hosted an original production of
23736-785: The northwest, the Ambassador Theatre and the Brill Building to the northeast, the Morgan Stanley Building to the southeast, the Longacre Theatre and Ethel Barrymore Theatre to the south, and the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to the southwest. The Walter Kerr Theatre (previously the Ritz Theatre) was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed in 1921 for the Shubert brothers. It
23920-557: 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
24104-438: The orchestra, 429 on the balcony, and 24 in the boxes. There are 32 standing-only spots. The theater contains restrooms in the basement and concessions in the lobby. The orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible and contains an accessible restroom; the balcony is not wheelchair-accessible. The rear or eastern end of the orchestra contains a promenade, with four paneled piers supporting the balcony level. The promenade's ceiling
24288-556: 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
24472-415: The play Bluebeard's Eighth Wife , featuring Ina Claire . The Ritz mostly hosted short runs of plays in its early years, such as Madame Pierre in 1922 with Roland Young . The next year, the theater hosted The Enchanted Cottage with Katharine Cornell , as well as In Love with Love with Lynn Fontanne . The play Outward Bound , with Margalo Gillmore , Leslie Howard , and Alfred Lunt , opened at
24656-468: 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
24840-423: 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
25024-645: 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
25208-444: 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
25392-449: The revue Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood in 1986. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (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
25576-531: 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
25760-474: The same year. Peggy Wood returned to the Broadhurst for Hugo Felix 's Marjolaine in 1922, which had 136 performances. The Broadhurst's productions in 1923 included The Dancers with Richard Bennett and Florence Eldridge , as well as the revue Topics of 1923 with Alice Delysia . In early 1924, the Broadhurst staged Marc Connelly and George S. Kaufman 's play Beggar on Horseback with Roland Young , which lasted for 224 performances. This
25944-473: 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
26128-432: 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
26312-402: The south (left) wall lead from the lobby, while those on the north (right) and east (rear) walls lead to the exits. The tops of the doorways are flanked by console brackets, which support an entablature and a pediment with anthemia . When the theater was built, the orchestra had a movable floor; half the seating could be removed overnight to accommodate smaller productions. At the rear of
26496-470: 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
26680-543: The start of construction to the theater's completion, which the New-York Tribune 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:
26864-512: The taping of The Gay Nineties Revue and Walter O'Keefe 's Tuesday Night Party . The Ritz had served as a CBS theater for only a few months when NBC 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 . NBC's lease on the Ritz expired at
27048-434: 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
27232-529: The theater in April 1986, with Bethel Leslie and Jack Lemmon , followed later that year by the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby , with Roger Rees . At the end of 1986, Neil Simon's Broadway Bound opened at the Broadhurst with Jason Alexander , Linda Lavin , and Phyllis Newman ; it ran for 756 performances over the next two years. Another Simon play, Rumors , opened at
27416-590: The theater was dark from 1965 to 1969. In 1970, Eddie Bracken took over the theater. Scott Fagan and Martin Duberman 's rock musical Soon was booked for the Ritz, marking the first legitimate production at the theater in nearly three decades, but Soon soon flopped with three performances in January 1971. This was followed in April 1971 by August Strindberg 's Dance of Death , with Rip Torn and Viveca Lindfors , which closed after five performances. Both of these plays used temporary seats that were installed above
27600-439: The theater was leased to the Works Progress Administration 's Federal Theatre Project from 1936 to 1939, then served as a CBS and NBC broadcasting studio. The Ritz briefly hosted legitimate shows in 1942 and 1943, and it again functioned as a studio for ABC 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
27784-463: The theater with Herbert Fischbach, who in February 1957 bought out Blitz's stake. The Royal Ballet 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,
27968-401: The theater's entrance to the east. The entrance is topped by fire-escape galleries and contains a curved corner facing east toward Broadway . The auditorium contains an orchestra level, a large balcony, a small technical gallery, and a flat ceiling. The space is decorated in the classical Greek and Adam styles , with Doric columns and Greek friezes . Near the front of the auditorium, flanking
28152-399: The theater's productions in 1987 were the play A Month of Sundays , the musical Nite Comic , and a Penn & Teller special. In 1989, Rocco Landesman announced that the theater would be refurbished for $ 1.9 million and that it would be renamed for drama critic Walter Kerr . The last production staged at the Ritz prior to its renaming was Chu Chem , which ran from April to May 1989. By
28336-481: 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 85 ft-wide (26 m) stage was built, while the 43 ft-wide (13 m) 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
28520-680: 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. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love opened at the Broadhurst in April 1990; despite running for 377 performances, the show lost its entire investment of $ 8 million. Several short-lived shows followed, including André Heller 's Wonderhouse in 1991, as well as
28704-534: 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
28888-481: 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
29072-401: The time of opening. The Broadway League 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,
29256-461: 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
29440-568: 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 ,
29624-421: The two parts were performed in repertory until the end of 1994. Terrence McNally 's play Love! Valour! Compassion! transferred from off-Broadway in 1995, and Patti LuPone performed a solo concert later that year for 46 performances. Wilson's Seven Guitars premiered at the Walter Kerr in 1996, followed by a revival of Noël Coward 's play Present Laughter . The dance special Forever Tango launched at
29808-568: 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
29992-692: 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
30176-519: 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,
30360-539: 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
30544-424: Was a flop in 1965, with just one performance before it closed. It was followed the same year by the West End musical Half a Sixpence with Tommy Steele , which ran for 512 performances. Afterward, in late 1966, the Broadhurst premiered John Kander and Fred Ebb 's Cabaret , which only stayed a short time at the Broadhurst but ultimately lasted for about 1,165 performances. More Stately Mansions ,
30728-644: 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
30912-487: Was a production of Friedrich Schiller 's Mary Stuart , starring Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter , and a West End transfer of Hamlet , starring Jude Law . Meanwhile, the Shuberts sold 54,820 sq ft (5,093 m ) of unused air development rights above the Broadhurst to a developer in 2007; this allowed the firm to profit from the site, since the theater was landmarked and could not be further developed. A further 9,480 sq ft (881 m ) above
31096-404: Was also a success: Courage with Janet Beecher , 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 . The same month, the popular comedy Mendel, Inc. opened with Smith and Dale , running through the next year. By the end of the 1920s, the Shuberts had taken over
31280-542: Was followed in 1918 by the musical Maytime with Peggy Wood and the play Ladies First with Nora Bayes and William Kent . Rachel Crothers 's comedy 39 East opened at the Broadhurst in 1919, and Jane Cowl and Allan Langdon Martin's collaboration Smilin' Through at the end of that year. George Broadhurst's adaptation of the play Tarzan of the Apes , with real animals, ran for 13 performances in 1921. The Claw featuring Lionel Barrymore opened
31464-407: Was followed in 1927 by Bye, Bye, Bonnie with Ruby Keeler , The Legend of Leonora with Grace George , and The Thief with Alice Brady and Lionel Atwill . 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 and Miriam Hopkins , and lasted through mid-1928. The next production
31648-524: Was followed in 1932 by Philip Barry 's comedy The Animal Kingdom ; the drama The Man Who Reclaimed His Head ; and Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur 's play Twentieth Century . Next, the Group Theatre occupied the Broadhurst during the 1933–1934 season with a production of Sidney Kingsley 's play Men in White . Eve Le Gallienne 's Civic Repertory Company presented several shows at
31832-447: Was followed in 1958 by the play The World of Suzie Wong with France Nuyen and William Shatner , which lasted for 508 performances. Next, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick 's musical Fiorello! opened at the Broadhurst in November 1959, relocating over a year later in May 1961. Noël Coward 's musical Sail Away opened at the Broadhurst in October 1961 with Elaine Stritch , running for 167 performances. The next year,
32016-467: Was followed in November 2022 by A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical , which ran until June 2024. A single performance of the musical Chess was also hosted at the Broadhurst in December 2022. The next show to be staged at the Broadhurst, the play The Hills of California , opened at the Broadhurst in September 2024, running for two months; this will be followed by Boop! The Betty Boop Musical in April 2025. Productions are listed by
32200-594: Was followed the next year by Michael Arlen 's The Green Hat with Katharine Cornell ; it had 237 performances. The Broadhurst next hosted the revue Bunk of 1926 , which was forced to close in June 1926 due to an injunction against it. Shortly afterward, Alexander A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley leased the Broadhurst Theatre for several years. Jed Harris 's version of the George Abbott and Philip Dunning play Broadway opened that September; it continued for 603 performances, ultimately relocating at
32384-454: Was increasingly hosting musicals, dramas, and comedies by the 1970s, with the decline of revues. George Furth 's Twigs , featuring Sada Thompson , opened at the theater in 1971. Next, Grease had a short run at the Broadhurst during 1972; after transferring elsewhere, the show became Broadway's longest-running musical . It was followed at the end of the year by Neil Simon 's The Sunshine Boys . Herb Gardner 's play Thieves
32568-500: 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 ), as well as a Thanksgiving variety show. ABC upgraded the lighting and expanded the Ritz's stage by about 600 sq ft (56 m) in 1950; this required
32752-489: Was performed at the Broadhurst in 1974, and the Royal Shakespeare Company 's revival of Sherlock Holmes opened that year, with John Wood . Productions shown at the Broadhurst in 1976 included Enid Bagnold 's drama A Matter of Gravity , with Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Reeve ; a brief run of the musical Godspell , which had been an off-Broadway hit; and A Texas Trilogy ,
32936-511: Was required under New York City construction codes of the time but, unlike Shubert Alley, it was closed to the public shortly after its completion. The Shuberts bought the land under all four theaters from the Astors in 1948. The Broadhurst Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and constructed in 1917 for the Shubert brothers . The Broadhurst and Plymouth were two of Krapp's first theatrical designs as an independent architect after he left
33120-534: Was the builder. Krapp filed plans for a new theater at 235 West 44th Street with the New York City Department of Buildings in January 1917; he revised these plans in March. That August, British-American theatrical producer George Broadhurst leased the theater from the Shuberts, and the venue was renamed for Broadhurst. At the time, Broadhurst was a busy playwright; he staged nearly 30 Broadway and West End plays from 1907 to 1924. He leased
33304-792: Was the revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey in 1952, featuring Vivienne Segal and Harold Lang , which at 542 performances ran longer than the original production. The Spanish Theatre performed several plays in repertory at the Broadhurst in 1953, followed thereafter by The Prescott Proposals with Katharine Cornell. This was followed by long runs of Anniversary Waltz (1954) with Macdonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle ; Lunatics and Lovers (1954) with Sheila Bond , Buddy Hackett , and Dennis King ; and The Desk Set (1955) with Shirley Booth . The Broadhurst hosted Auntie Mame in 1956, starring Rosalind Russell in her last Broadway appearance; it ran for 639 performances. This
33488-413: Was typical of Krapp's commissions for the Shubert family, giving these theaters the impression that they were mass-produced. The Broadhurst and Plymouth theaters' designs contrasted with Henry Beaumont Herts 's earlier ornate designs of the Shubert and Booth theaters. Nevertheless, the use of curved east-facing corners was common to all four theaters. The Broadhurst's facade is divided into two sections:
33672-602: 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
33856-527: 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 . 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 ). That November, the Shubert brothers acquired the theater from Leonard H. Burns, Margaret F. Doyle, and Harriet P. Stieff. ABC , which operated WJZ-TV,
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