Ethel Barrymore Theater
243 W 47th Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1928
Architect Herbert J Krapp
The Shuberts gave Krapp freer reign
than usual in designing this theater for its namesake, Ethel
Barrymore. Gone are the simplicity of the Broadhurst's and
Plymouth's facades, replaced here with an elaborate Romanesque
window laced with terra cotta. A bit more paint and plaster than
the norm was used in the now-landmarked Elizabethan interior, as
befitted the queen of the stage. A more republican approach was
taken to the 'royal' boxes to either side of the stage: they were
strictly decorative, with no room for seats
The Barrymore's premier production,
on December 20, 1928, fittingly enough starred Ethel Barrymore in The
Kingdom of God. Unlike many other Broadway theaters, the
Barrymore was able to survive the depression years as a legitimate
house. It, along with other Shubert properties, was
air-conditioned in the late '30s to better compete with the
lower-priced, already air-cooled movie house
1932 Its his first time on Broadway
without sister Adele and his last Broadway show before making the
move to Hollywood. Fred Astaire stars in Cole Porter's musical The
Gay Divorcee.
1933 What a trio! Alfred Lunt, Lynn
Fontanne and Noel Coward appear in Coward's comedy Design for
Living
1936 A comedy hit, The Women, with
Marjorie Main, Ilka Chase, Margalo Gilmore and Audrey Christie,
starts a 657 performance run
1939 S N Behrman's comedy, No Time for
Comedy, stars Katharine Cornell and Laurence Olivier
1939 Can you believe it: Paul Muni, Uta
Hagen, Jose Ferrer and Karl Malden on stage together in Maxwell
Anderson's Key Largo
1940 Audiences are still 'bewitched' by
the John O'Hara-Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical Pal Joey.
It starred Gene Kelly, Vivienne Segal, June Havoc and Van Johnson.
1941 Nancy Walker is known as Myrtle
Swoyer when the 19-year-old makes her Broadway debut in Richard
Rodger's Best Foot Forward. Best known later for her
television work, this is the start of a long musical-comedy stage
career for the feisty Walker
1942 Judith Anderson and Katharine Cornell
share a stage in Chekhov's Three Sisters, supported by Kirk
Douglas
1943 Tomorrow the World, but
tonight the Barrymore, as Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Sands and Shirley
Booth take to the boards in this long-running drama
1945 Raymond Massey. Gertrude Lawrence. Pygmalion.
'Nuff said.
1947 A milestone of the theater's century.
Elia Kazan directs Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Karl Malden and
Kim Hunter in Tennessee William's powerful, Pulitzer Prize-winning
drama A Streetcar Named Desire
1950 Rex Harrison stars opposite Lilli
Palmer in John van Druten's comedy Bell Book and Candle
1951 Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy are on
stage together for the first time. Jose Ferrer wins a Tony
for his direction of the duo in The Fourposter
1953 Deborah Kerr and John Kerr are
acclaimed in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy
1955 George Grizzard makes his Broadway
debut alongside Karl Malden and Paul Newman in the Tony-winning
The Desperate Hours
1956 Maggie Smith and Inga Swenson are two
of the New Faces of 1956
1957 George Hill directs Anthony Perkins
and Jo Van Fleet in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Look Homeward
Angel by Thomas Wolfe
1959 Broadway's first black director,
Lloyd Richards, directs Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Claudia
McNeil and Louis Gosset in A Raisin in the Sun. Author
Lorraine Hansberry is Broadway's first black playwright.
1966 Robert Duvall terrorizes Lee Remick
in Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark
1967 Lynn Redgrave and Geraldine Page
share the stage with Broadway newcomer Michael Crawford in Peter
Shaffer's Black Comedy White Lies
1967 Who's the star of The Little
Foxes? Anne Bancroft, George C Scott, Margaret Leighton or E G
Marshall
1974 Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy on
stage in Noel Coward in Two Keys, this time joined by Ann
Baxter
1975 John Wood takes home the Tony
for his performance in Tom Stoppard's Tony-winning
drama Travesties
1979 For 396 performances Anthony Perkins
shares the stage with Mia Farrow in A Romantic Comedy
1980 Gilda Radner takes to the boards
opposite Sam Waterston in the Mike Nichol's directed Lunch Hour
1982 Jessica Tandy receives a third Tony
for her performance in Foxfire, a drama scripted by Susan
Cooper and Tandy's husband Hume Cronyn
1984 David Rabe's Hurly Burly stars
William Hurt, Christopher Walken, Jerry Stiller and Judith Ivey
1986 How's this for laughs: Mike Nichols
directs Ron Silver, Olympia Dukakis, Marlo Thomas and Joanna
Gleason in Social Security
1990 One of the New Faces of 1956,
Maggie Smith receives a Tony
for her leading-actress-in-a-play performance in Peter Shaffer's Lettice
and Lovage
1992 A Streetcar Named Desire takes
to the boards again, this time with Alec Baldwin, Jessica Lange
and Amy Madigan. There's no desire on the audience's part on the
show dies a slow death
1992 Madelaine Kahn is Tony's
leading actress for her performance in Wendy Wasserstein's The
Sisters Rosenweig. She's joined on stage by Jane Alexander,
Robert Klein and Frances McDormand
1999 A Stephen Sondheim
revue, Putting
It Together, starring Carol Burnett is due to open
sometime this season
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