Music Box Theatre
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The Music Box Theater is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.
The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to house Berlin's famed Music Box Revues. It opened in 1921 and hosted a new musical production every year until 1925, when it presented its first play, Cradle Snatchers, starring Humphrey Bogart. The following year, Chicago, the Maurine Dallas Watkins play that served as the basis for the hit musical, opened here. It housed a string of hits for the playwriting team of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, from their first collaboration Once in a Lifetime to their smash hit The Man Who Came to Dinner. Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin also presented shows here.
In the 1950s, playwright William Inge found a home at the Music Box, where he had success with Picnic, Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
One of the smaller Broadway houses, with a seating capacity of 860, the theater was co-owned by Berlin's estate and the Shubert Organization until the latter assumed full ownership in 2007. Its box seats are notable for being unusually large and round, and Dame Edna lovingly described them as "ashtrays" during her successful run there. The lobby features a plaque and wall exhibit commemorating its rich history.
[edit] Other notable productions
- Deuce; The Farnsworth Invention (2007)
- The Vertical Hour (2006)
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2003)
- Fortune's Fool (2002)
- The Dinner Party (2000)
- Amadeus (1999 revival)
- The Diary of Anne Frank (1997)
- State Fair (1996)
- Blood Brothers (1993)
- A Few Good Men (1989)
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1987)
- Agnes of God (1982)
- Deathtrap (1978)
- Side By Side By Sondheim (1977)
- Absurd Person Singular (1974)
- Sleuth (1970)
- The Homecoming (1967)
- Wait Until Dark (1966)
- Any Wednesday (1964)
- Five Finger Exercise (1959)
- Separate Tables (1956)
- The Solid Gold Cadillac (1954)
- Lost in the Stars (1949)
- Summer and Smoke (1948)
- I Remember Mama (1944)
- Of Mice and Men (1937)
- Stage Door (1936)
- Merrily We Roll Along (1934)
- As Thousands Cheer (1933)
- Dinner at Eight (1932)
- Of Thee I Sing (1931)
[edit] External links
Broadway theatres | |
|---|---|
| Shubert | Ambassador Theatre · Ethel Barrymore Theatre · Belasco Theatre · Booth Theatre · Broadhurst Theatre · Broadway Theatre · Cort Theatre · John Golden Theatre · Imperial Theatre · Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre · Longacre Theatre · Lyceum Theatre · Majestic Theatre · Music Box Theatre · 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 (owned by LCT) · Biltmore Theatre (owned by MTC) · Circle in the Square Theatre (independent) · Helen Hayes Theatre (independent) · Hilton Theatre (owned by Clear Channel) · New Amsterdam Theatre (leased by Disney) |
| 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 · Olympia 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 |
