Broadhurst Theatre

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Broadhurst Theatre
Broadhurst Theater - Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (48193410426).jpg
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune playing in the theater, July 2019
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Address235 West 44th Street
New York City
United States
Coordinates40°45′29″N 73°59′15″W / 40.758146°N 73.987636°W / 40.758146; -73.987636Coordinates: 40°45′29″N 73°59′15″W / 40.758146°N 73.987636°W / 40.758146; -73.987636
OwnerThe Shubert Organization
DesignationBroadway theatre
Capacity1,156
ProductionJagged Little Pill
Construction
OpenedSeptember 27, 1917
ArchitectHerbert J. Krapp
Website
shubertorganization.com/theatres/broadhurst.asp

The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 235 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan.[1]

It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, a well-known theatre designer who had been working directly with the Shubert brothers; the Broadhurst opened September 27, 1917. Built back-to-back with the Majestic, it was meant to resemble the style of the neighboring Shubert and Booth theaters designed by Henry B. Herts, using less expensive brick and terra cotta materials on the discreetly neoclassical façades[citation needed]

It was named after George Howells Broadhurst, an Anglo-American dramatist who came to America in 1886. In addition to writing plays, he managed theaters in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and San Francisco before he decided to open his own in association with the Shubert brothers. The theatre was constructed to house both musicals and plays, which it has done successfully for more than a century. It has been designated a New York City landmark.

The Broadhurst opened on September 27, 1917 with George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance, the first New York production of the philosophical 1910 comedy. It ran for only 52 performances and was not performed on Broadway again until 1953.

Recent tenants include Les Misérables, which in October 2006 began an intended six-month-long return engagement that finally closed in January 2008; and 2008 revivals of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with an all-African American cast including Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, James Earl Jones, and Phylicia Rashad, and Equus, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths. The theatre is also notable for hosting Jerry Seinfeld's final performance of his original stand up material, which was filmed for an HBO special shortly after the finale of his long-running sitcom.

Interior Panorama of Broadhurst Theatre. View from stage right, Box C.

The theatre has been closed as of March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not plan on opening until January 3, 2021.[2]

Other notable productions[]

George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance at the Broadhurst Theatre (1917)
  • 1917: Maytime
  • 1918: The George and Ira Gershwin composition "The Real American Folk Song" is included in Ladies First, the first time one of their co-written tunes is heard on the Great White Way.
  • 1919: Jane Cowl writes and stars in her popular romantic drama Smilin' Through. 175 performances.
  • 1923: The Dancers by Gerald du Maurier and Viola Tree, starring Richard Bennett
  • 1924: Dixie to Broadway, starring Florence Mills, is the first all-Black show to have a mainstream Broadway production.
  • 1924: Beggar on Horseback, a George S. Kaufman-Marc Connelly collaboration, stars Roland Young.
  • 1928: The Ray Henderson-Buddy De Sylva-Lew Brown musical Hold Everything! introduces the public to "You're the Cream in My Coffee." The Roger Wolfe Kahn, Joseph Meyer, and Irving Caesar musical Here's Howe premieres the song "Crazy Rhythm".[3]
  • 1929: June Moon, a comedy by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner.
  • 1932: Leslie Howard produces and stars in Philip Barry's The Animal Kingdom opposite Ilka Chase.
  • 1933: Sidney Kingsley's Men in White stars Luther Adler and Morris Carnovsky and ultimately wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
  • 1935: Robert E. Sherwood's classic, The Petrified Forest, features Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart
  • 1935: Helen Hayes and Vincent Price enjoy a 517-performance run in Victoria Regina.
  • 1939: Doddi's Smith's Dear Octopus
The Streets of Paris, premiered on June 19, 1939, at the Broadhurst Theatre, featuring Carmen Miranda to the American public.
  • 1939: Carmen Miranda, Brazilian singer made her debut on the American stages in The Streets of Paris.
  • 1940: Jimmy Durante, and Jackie Gleason in his Broadway debut in Keep Off the Grass.
  • 1944: Agatha Christie arrives on Broadway with Ten Little Indians.
  • 1945: Follow the Girls completed its 888-performance run at the Broadhurst.
  • 1946: Anita Loos' comedy hit, Happy Birthday, wins star Helen Hayes the first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
  • 1948: Make Mine Manhattan, the Broadway debut of Sid Caesar.
  • 1951: Barbara Cook makes her Broadway debut in the short-lived Flahooley.
  • 1951: Seventeen, a musical, opens.[1]
  • 1952: Pal Joey revival runs for 540 performances and wins Tony Award for Helen Gallagher.
  • 1956: Rosalind Russell has the title role in Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's Auntie Mame.
  • 1958: France Nuyen and William Shatner co-star in Paul Osborn's The World of Suzie Wong.
  • 1959: Fiorello!, with a Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick score, is directed by George Abbott, stars Tom Bosley, and wins a Tony and the Pulitzer.
  • 1963: 110 in the Shade enjoys a 330-performance run with Robert Horton, Will Geer, Lesley Ann Warren, and Inga Swenson in her Broadway debut.
  • 1964: Oh, What a Lovely War! garners 4 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, and wins the Theatre World Award.
  • 1965: Kelly - The biggest Broadway flop, it closed on the opening night.
  • 1966: Jill Haworth, Joel Grey, Jack Gilford, Lotte Lenya, and Bert Convy invite audiences to come to John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret 1,165 times.
  • 1967: More Stately Mansions, one of Eugene O'Neill's lesser efforts, has an all-star cast including Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Hill, and Colleen Dewhurst.
  • 1968: The Only Game in Town by Frank D. Gilroy
  • 1969: Woody Allen, Tony Roberts, and Diane Keaton forsake the screen to star in Allen's Play It Again, Sam; The Fig Leaves Are Falling closes after only four performances.
  • 1970: Cry for Us All, a musical adaptation of the hit off-Broadway play Hogan's Goat, was far less successful than its source, closing after only eighteen previews and nine performances.
  • 1971: 70, Girls, 70 was an unsuccessful collaboration by Kander and Ebb.
  • 1972: Alan Arkin directs Jack Albertson and Sam Levene in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys
  • 1974: Marlo Thomas makes her Broadway debut in Herb Gardner's Thieves, directed by Charles Grodin.
  • 1976: Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Reeve co-star in Enid Bagnold's drama A Matter of Gravity.
  • 1976: Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox, directed by Arthur Penn, stars George C. Scott, Jack Gilford, Gretchen Wyler, and Hector Elizondo.
  • 1978: Ann Reinking and Wayne Cilento star in director and choreographer Bob Fosse's Dancin'.
  • 1980: Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, with Ian McKellen, Tim Curry, and Jane Seymour, settles in for a 1181-performance run.
  • 1983: Alfonso Ribeiro plays the title role in The Tap Dance Kid with Hinton Battle, who wins a Tony.
  • 1984: Dustin Hoffman is Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
  • 1986: Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, co-starring Jason Alexander and Phyllis Newman; Linda Lavin wins a Tony for her performance.
  • 1990: Aspects of Love proves to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's least successful shows.
  • 1991: Joan Collins stars in a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives
  • 1993: The Terrence McNally-John Kander-Fred Ebb musical Kiss of the Spider Woman stars Chita Rivera, Brent Carver, and Anthony Crivello.
  • 1996: Sarah Jessica Parker stars in a revival of the musical Once Upon a Mattress.
  • 1998: Jerry Seinfeld delivered his final performance of his original stand-up act, I'm Telling You for the Last Time.
  • 1999: Fosse, a revue featuring Bob Fosse shows.
The Broadhurst Theatre, 2007
  • 2001: Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren starred in a revival of August Strindberg's Dance Of Death.
  • 2002: A revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, with Vanessa Williams as the Witch.
  • 2003: A musical adaptation of the film Urban Cowboy.
  • 2005: Lennon, featuring the former Beatle's music and lyrics, runs for 42 previews and 49 performances.
  • 2006: Alan Bennett's The History Boys transfers from London with its cast intact.
  • 2006-2008: The revival of Les Misérables to celebrate the show becoming the longest running musical in the world.
  • 2008: A revival of Equus stars Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.
  • 2009: A production of Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart stars Janet McTeer as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Harriet Walter as Elizabeth of England.
  • 2009: A West End Transfer of Hamlet, starring Jude Law as the title character
  • 2010: ENRON, a play by Lucy Prebble, inspired by the infamous 2001 financial scandal involving the company.
  • 2010: Public Theater's transfer of The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino as Shylock.
  • 2011: Floyd Mutrux's Baby It's You!, starring Beth Leavel.
  • 2011: Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, starring Hugh Jackman.
  • 2012: A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker.
  • 2013: Lucky Guy, starring Tom Hanks.
  • 2013: Mamma Mia!, transfer from the Winter Garden Theatre.
  • 2015: Misery, starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf.
  • 2016: Tuck Everlasting, a musical based on the 1975 book by author Natalie Babbitt; starring Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Carolee Carmello, Michael Park, Terrence Mann and introducing Sarah Charles Lewis.
  • 2016: The Front Page, starring Nathan Lane, John Slattery, John Goodman, Jefferson Mays, Holland Taylor, Sherie Rene Scott, and Robert Morse
  • 2017-2019: Anastasia, a musical based on the 1997 film; starring Christy Altomare, Derek Klena and John Bolton
  • 2019: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon
  • 2019—present: Jagged Little Pill, starring Elizabeth Stanley and Derek Klena

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Broadhurst Theatre (Broadway)". Playbill.
  2. ^ Moniuszko, Sara M (June 29, 2020). "Broadway suspends performances through 2020 amid coronavirus, extends ticket refunds to 2021". Archived from the original on July 5, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Abel (May 9, 1928). Legitimate: Plays on Broadway - HERE'S HOWE!. Variety. 91. p. 69.

External links[]

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