Longacre Theatre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.
Designed by architect Henry B. Herts, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square. The French neo-classical building was constructed by impresario Harry Frazee, better remembered as the owner of the Boston Red Sox who, needing money for his theatrical ventures, sold Babe Ruth's contract to the New York Yankees. A curse allegedly lingers on the theater as a result, and superstitious producers avoid it for fear they'll be backing a flop, as noted by William Golden in his seminal book The Season. Despite the rumor, a large number of performers who have appeared on stage here have taken home a Tony Award for their efforts.
The Longacre's first show was a production of the William Hurlbut-Frances Whitehouse comedy Are You a Crook?, which opened on May 1, 1913. With the exception of its use as a television studio in the mid-1940s to early 1950s, the theatre has operated as a legitimate Broadway venue.
- 1917: The P.G. Wodehouse-Jerome Kern-Guy Bolton musical Leave It to Jane stars Edith Hallor, Robert Pitkin and Oscar Shaw
- 1927: The Command to Love opened in September with Basil Rathbone as the Marquis de Saint-Lac
- 1935: Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty stars the playwright, Lee J. Cobb, and Elia Kazan
- 1955: Julie Harris plays Joan of Arc in Jean Anouilh's The Lark, for which she wins her second Best Actress Tony Award. Also in the cast are Christopher Plummer, Boris Karlof, and Theodore Bikel.
- 1961: Zero Mostel wins a Tony for changing into a beast before the audience's eyes in Ionesco's The Rhinoceros. Supporting him are Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Morris Carnovsky, and Jean Stapleton.
- 1966: Hal Holbrook's performance in his landmark one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight, earns him a Tony.
- 1975: The cast of Terrence McNally's riotous The Ritz includes Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, F. Murray Abraham, George Dzundza, and Rita Moreno, who wins a Tony. The comedy runs for 398 performances.
- 1976: Julie Harris earns her fifth Tony for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in William Luce's The Belle of Amherst.
- 1977: David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel wins Al Pacino a Tony.
- 1978: Ain't Misbehavin' runs for 1604 performances and wins Tony Awards for Best Musical, Richard Maltby, Jr.'s direction, and Nell Carter as featured musical actress.
- 1980: John Rubinstein and Phyllis Frelich score Best Actor and Actress Tonys for their performances in Mark Medoff's Children of a Lesser God.
- 1985: A revival of Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, with Jim Dale and Stockard Channing, earns her a Best Actress Tony.
- 1993: Singer Tony Bennett takes to the stage for a series of concerts.
- 1994: A revival of Medea wins Diana Rigg a Tony.
- 1997: Horton Foote's The Young Man From Atlanta wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
- 2001: Two revivals at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum - the highly dramatic Judgment at Nuremberg and Herb Gardner's comedy A Thousand Clowns - each enjoy a limited run.
- 2002: Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam features works by African-American writers.
- 2005: Bill Irwin and Kathleen Turner tackle the roles of George and Martha in a revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Irwin takes home a Tony.
- 2007: A revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, starring Liev Schreiber, is scheduled to open in February.
- Who's Who in the Theatre, edited by John Parker, tenth edition, revised, London, 1947, p.1184 for Basil Rathbone.
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| Shubert | Ambassador Theatre · Ethel Barrymore Theatre · Belasco Theatre · Booth Theatre · Broadhurst Theatre · The Broadway Theatre · Cort Theatre · John Golden Theatre · Imperial Theatre · Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre · Longacre Theatre · Lyceum Theatre · Majestic Theatre · Music Box Theatre (joint operation) · Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre · Shubert Theatre · Winter Garden Theatre |
| Nederlander | Brooks Atkinson Theatre · George Gershwin Theatre · Lunt-Fontanne Theatre · Marquis Theatre · Minskoff Theatre · Nederlander Theatre · Neil Simon Theatre · Palace Theatre · Richard Rodgers Theatre |
| Jujamcyn | Al Hirschfeld Theatre · Walter Kerr Theatre · Eugene O'Neill Theatre · St. James Theatre · August Wilson Theatre |
| Roundabout | American Airlines Theatre · Studio 54 |
| Other | Vivian Beaumont Theatre · Biltmore Theatre · Circle in the Square Theatre · Helen Hayes Theatre · Hilton Theatre · New Amsterdam Theatre |
| Active but no longer Broadway houses |
City Center of Music and Drama · Hammerstein's Theatre/Manhattan Theatre · Hudson Theatre · New Victory Theatre · Manhattan Opera House |
| Defunct and/or Demolished |
39th Street Theatre · 44th Street Theatre · 48th Street Theatre · 49th Street Theatre · 52nd Street Theatre · Adelphi Theatre · American Theatre · Apollo Theatre · Astor Theatre · Bandbox Theatre · Belmont Theatre · Berkeley Lyceum Theatre · Bijou Theatre · Broadway Theatre (41st St.) · Casino Theatre · Center Theatre · Central Theatre · Century Theatre (46th St.) · Century Theatre (62nd St.) · Circle Theatre · Cosmopolitan Theatre · Criterion Theatre · Daly's Theatre (30th St.) · Daly's 63rd Street Theatre · Earl Carroll Theatre · Edison Theatre · Eltinge Theatre · Empire Theatre · Fifth Avenue Theatre · Frolic Theatre · Fulton Theatre · Gaiety Theatre · Garrick Theatre · George M. Cohan's Theatre · Hampden's Theatre/Harkness Theatre · Henry Miller's Theatre · Herald Square Theatre · Hippodrome Theatre · Jardin de Paris · John Golden Theatre/Cort's 58th Street Theatre · Klaw Theatre/Avon Theatre · Knickerbocker Theatre · Latin Quarter · Liberty Theatre · Lincoln Square Theatre · Manhattan Theatre (33rd St.) · Mark Hellinger Theatre · Maxine Elliott's Theatre · Mayfair Theatre (44th St.) · Mayfair Theatre (46th St.) · Mercury Theatre · Morosco Theatre · New Century Theatre · New York Theatre (44th St.) · Nora Bayes Theatre · Playhouse Theatre · Playhouse Theatre (6th Ave.) · President Theatre · Princess Theatre (29th St.) · Princess Theatre (39th St.) · Proctor's Theatre · Punch and Judy Theatre/Charles Hopkins Theatre · Rialto Theatre · Sam H. Harris Theatre · Savoy Theatre · Star Theatre · Theatre Republic · Times Square Theatre · Vanderbilt Theatre · Victoria Theatre · Waldorf Theatre · Wallack's Theatre/Harris Theatre · Wallack's Theatre/Palmer's Theatre · Wallack's Lyceum Theatre · Waverley Theatre · Winter Garden Theatre (Jenny Lind Hall) · Ziegfeld Theatre |