Music Box Theatre (New York). This jewel of a playhouse on West 45th Street is ideal in many ways: a size (975 seats) that is both intimate yet financially practical, a location in the heart of the theatre district, and a timeless decor with a high loggia, Palladian windows, and a limestone facade. It was designed by C. Howard Crane and named by Irving Berlin who built it with his partner Sam Harris in 1921. The theatre opened with the first of a series of clever musical shows called the Music Box Revues and throughout its history the playhouse would find success with both plays and smaller musicals. Hits such as Of Thee I Sing (1931), Dinner at Eight (1932), As Thousands Cheer (1933), and Stage Door (1936) kept the playhouse solvent during the Great Depression, and it continues to be a “lucky” house for most tenants. The Music Box is co‐owned by the Shuberts and the Berlin estate.
Music Box Theatre
| American Theater Guide: Music Box Theatre |
| Wikipedia: Music Box Theatre |
The Music Box Theater is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) 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.
The Brown Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky is modeled after the Music Box Theatre.
Other notable productions
- Superior Donuts (2009)
- August: Osage County (2008 transfer from the Imperial Theatre)
- Deuce; The Farnsworth Invention (2007)
- The Vertical Hour (2006)
- Festen (2006)
- In My Life (2005)
- 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)
External links
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Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Music Box Theatre". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Lost in the Stars (American Theater)
- Music Box Revues (American Theater)
- Over 21 (American Theater)
- Paris Bound (American Theater)
- Stage Door (American Theater)
- Any Wednesday (American Theater)
- Bus Stop (American Theater)
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (American Theater)
- Deathtrap (American Theater)
- I Remember Mama (American Theater)
- Merrily We Roll Along (American Theater)
- Of Mice and Men (American Theater)
- Once in a Lifetime (American Theater)
- Picnic (American Theater)
