Biltmore Theatre
Biltmore Theatre (New York). This problem‐plagued theatre on West 47th Street was nearly lost after years of flops and neglect but in 2003 became the latest restored Broadway house. It was built in 1925 by the speculating Chanin Brothers, but because the Herbert J. Krapp–designed house had fewer than a thousand seats, it was difficult to book and the brothers lost it during the Great Depression. The Federal Theatre Project used the theatre for some of its famous “Living Newspaper” productions in the 1930s, and in the 1940s it housed several shows by George Abbott. The Biltmore became a television studio in 1951, returned to legit status in 1961, then floundered until 1987 when it closed. Years of neglect and vandalism made restoring the small theatre uneconomical, but in 2003 it was restored as part of a new apartment complex and, the auditorium reduced to 650 seats, it reopened as the Broadway home for the nonprofit Manhattan Theatre Club.
