Princess Theatre

For Decatur, Alabama's Princess Theatre, see Princess Theatre, Decatur

Broadway Theatre

Princess Theatre
1913	The Switchboard
1913	Fancy Free
1913	Phipps
1913	Fear
1913	A Pair of White Gloves
1913	The Neglected Lady
1914	Marrying Money
1914	The Forest of Happy Dreams
1914	The Goal
1914	The Denial
1914	Nettie
1914	Across The Bordersa
1915	Maternity
1915	Nobody Home
1915	The Mask Of The Beast
1915	Very Good Eddie
1915	Hobson's Choice
1916	Go To It
1916	Such Is Life
1916	Margery Daw
1916	Nevertheless
1916	The Golden Doom
1917	Oh, Boy! (musical)
1918	Oh, Lady! Lady!
1918	Jonathan Makes a Wish
1919	Toot Sweet
1920	Tick-Tack-Toe
1920	Mrs. Jimmie Thompson
1921	The Mask of Hamlet
1921	Suzette
1922	Desert Sands
1922	The First Fifty Years
1922	Six Characters in Search of an Author
1923	Mister Malatesta
1923	White Desert
1924	The Steam Roller
1925	The Little Poor Man
1925	Brother Elks
1926	The Unchastened Woman
1926	Buy, Buy, Baby
1927	The Virgin Man
1927	Bottomland
1928	Meek Mose
Lucille La Verne Theatre
1928	Sun-Up
1929	Hot Water
Assembly Theatre
1929	Lolly
1929	A Ledge
1929	The Novice and the Duke
1930	Everything's Jake
Labor Stage Theatre
1930	Pins and Needles
1939	Once Upon A Time
Princess Theatre
1947	The Wanhope Building
1947	O'Daniel
1947	As We Forgive Our Debtors
1947	The Great Campaign
1947	Virginia Reel

The Princess Theatre (same name used by off-Broadway 50th Street Theatre in 1980s) was a joint venture between The Shubert Brothers, (Lee Shubert, Samuel S. Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert) producer Ray Comstock and actor-director Holbrook Blinn. It was built on a narrow slice of land on 39th Street, just off 6th Avenue, and sat 299, one of the smallest Broadway theaters built when it opened in early 1913. The architect was William A. Swasey, who designed the Winter Garden two years earlier.

Though fairly drab on the outside, looking like a six-story office building except for its marquees and gaudy electric sign over the main entrance, the Princess was quite elegant inside. A blend of Georgian and French Renaissance styles, the auditorium contained fourteen rows of seats, twelve boxes off the proscenium arch, and was hailed for its excellent acoustics and sight-lines. The decor included neoclassical inspired plasterwork and antique French tapestries hung from the side walls.

1910s

Originally planned as a venue for short dramatic plays, the Princess failed to attract an audience.^[1] Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury asked Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton to write a series of musicals specifically tailored to its smaller setting, with an intimate style and modest budgets, that would provide an alternative to the star-studded extravaganzas of Ziegfield and others.^[1]

Kern and Bolton's first "Princess Theatre musical" was Nobody's Home (1915), an adaptation of a London show called Mr. Popple of Ippleton. Their second, with Philip Bartholomae and lyrics by Schuyler Green, was an original musical called Very Good Eddie (1915). The little show ran for 341 performances on a modest budget.^[2] British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse joined the team and collaborated with Kern and Bolton for Oh, Boy! (1917) and Oh, Lady! Lady! (1918). Wodehouse and Bolton wrote one more musical for the theater, Oh, My Dear! (1918), but with a score by Louis Hirsch. The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to more aptly suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery.^[1] The absence of Kern's music from Oh, My Dear! proved fatal to the series as it was the last of the "Princess Theatre musicals".^[2]

1920s

In 1922, drama returned to the Princess for another seven years, but, unfortunately, success did not, and after a brief stint as the Lucille La Verne Theatre in 1928, the Shuberts sold the theater. In 1929, the New York Theatre Assembly took over the Princess, and renamed it The Assembly Theatre. However, within half a year, the theater was closed, and remained unused until 1933, when it reopened as the Reo Theatre, and was, like so many other former legitimate houses, now being used as a movie theater. A year later, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) acquired the theater, and used it as a recreation center for neighborhood workers.

1930s

However, in 1937, legitimate theater returned to the theater, now called the Labor Stage, in a big way, with Pins and Needles, which was the longest running Broadway show of the day, running for 1108 performances. When the show moved to the Windsor Theatre, the ILGWU reclaimed the theater briefly as its recreation hall.

1940s and 1950s

On October 5, 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow met in a rehearsal space form what would become the Actors Studio.^[3]

In 1947, movies returned to the theater, now renamed the Cinema Dante, screening foreign features. A year later, it got another name change, The Little Met, and in 1952, yet one final name, the Cine Verdi. By the mid-50s, the old Princess was on the outskirts of the theater district, and in 1955, the little theater was torn down.

Notes

References

• Bloom, Ken and Vlastnik, Frank. Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of all Time. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-57912-390-2

External links

• Princess Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database