Adelphi Theatre (New York City)

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General information
Location	Manhattan, New York
Opened	1928
Closed	1970
Demolished	1970

The Adelphi Theatre (1934–1940 and 1944–1958), originally named the Craig Theatre, opened on December 24, 1928. The Adelphi was located at 152 West 54th Street in Manhattan, with 1,434 seats.^[1] The theater was taken over by the Federal Theater Project in 1934 and renamed the Adelphi. The theater was renamed the Radiant Center by The Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians in 1940. It was then the Yiddish Arts Theater (1943), and renamed the Adelphi Theater on April 20, 1944, when it was acquired by The Shubert Organization. Some interiors were decorated with murals painted by Joseph Mortimer Lichtenauer. The artistic cycle was dismembered after its demolition.

It became a DuMont Television Network studio, known as the Adelphi Tele-Theatre in the 1950s. The "Classic 39" episodes of The Honeymooners were filmed in this facility by DuMont using their Electronicam system for broadcast on CBS later during the 1955–56 television season. The theater returned to legitimate use in 1957, was renamed the 54th Street Theater in 1958, and finally the George Abbott Theater in 1965. The building was demolished in 1970 for the New York Hilton Hotel, after hosting several expensive flops.

Hilton New York owned the property immediately west of the hotel and held it for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site. The building uses its Hilton Sixth Avenue address although it is closer to Seventh Avenue. The two buildings are connected via a walkway. In popular culture the building is used for the exterior shot of Elaine's office in Seinfeld.^[2][3]

Notable productions[]

Poster by Aida McKenzie for Federal Theatre Project presentation of Sing for Your Supper at the Adelphi Theatre. (between 1936 and 1939)

• Revolt of the Beavers (5/20/1937 – 6/19/1937)
• On the Town (12/28/1944 – 6/2/1945)
• Around the World (5/31/1946 – 8/3/1946)
• Street Scene (1/9/1947 – 5/17/1947)
• Life Is Worth Living
• The Honeymooners (10/1/1955 – 9/22/1956)
• Damn Yankees (5/6/1957 – 10/12/1957)
• Bye Bye Birdie (10/24/1960 – 1/14/1961)
• 13 Daughters (3/1/1961 – 3/25/1961)
• No Strings (3/15/1962 – 9/29/1962)
• What Makes Sammy Run? (2/27/1964 – 6/12/1965)
• Any Wednesday (2/15/1966 – 6/26/1966)
• Wait Until Dark (10/3/1966 – 11/26/1966)
• Darling of the Day (10/3/1966 – 11/26/1966)^[4]
• Gantry (Valentines Day 1970)

Musical theater star William Gaxton (Anything Goes, Of Thee I Sing, A Connecticut Yankee, etc.) referred to it as "the dump of dumps".^[5] It was usually the house that long-running Broadway hits moved to for the final weeks or months of their runs. (The Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gorme musical Golden Rainbow played its final performances there, too.) The last musical to play there was the one-performance flop Gantry starring Robert Shaw & Rita Moreno. No Strings and On The Town moved to more centrally located theaters (The Broadhurst and The Shubert, respectively) as soon as possible.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

Coordinates: 40°45′45″N 73°58′46″W / 40.76250°N 73.97944°W / 40.76250; -73.97944