Brooks Atkinson Theater
nee Mansfield Theater
256 W 47th Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1926
Architect Herbert J Krapp
This 1920s Irwin Chanin-built
theater was originally named for 19th-century actor Richard
Mansfield. The neo-Spanish exterior is combined with dashes of
imperial grandiosity within. Chanin and Krapp teamed with Roman
Meltzer, a former favorite of Czar Nicholas II, to incorporate
lavishly painted-and-gilded plasterwork in the landmarked interior
The Mansfield opened its doors
February 15, 1926 with a performance of The Night Duel. In
Jan 1942, striking workers put up a picket line. Eleanor
Roosevelt, arriving to see In Time to Come, would not cross
the line. The $3.30 price of her ticket was refunded. The
Mansfield was operated as a television studio in the '50s, but
otherwise functioned as a legitimate Broadway venue. Upon it's
reopening in September 1960 it was renamed for the influential New
York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson, recently retired
1926 Frank Davie's drama Ladder
does not deserve to be on Broadway, even though it stars
Antoinette Perry. Backer Edgar B Davis' devotion to the show
causes him to keep it open for 794 performances, even as it is
bleeding money
1930 Marc Connelly scores a Pulitzer with
his biblical comedy The Green Pastures
1941 John Huston and Howard Koch authored Time
to Come, starring Richard Gaines and produced by Otto
Preminger
1946 Fredric March and Patricia Kirkland
star in Ruth Gordon's comedy Years Ago. March earns an
outstanding performance Tony
1961 Neil Simon makes himself heard on
Broadway for the first time with Come Blow Your Horn, with
Hal March and Lou Jacobi
1964 It just goes to show, nothing in life
is guaranteed. Tallulah Bankhead has been on Broadway forever.
Tennessee Williams is America's playwright. After 5 shows, The
Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is an apt description.
Bankhead's last Broadway show
1964 Gripping. Rolf Hochhuth's The
Deputy stars Ron Liebman and Emlyn Williams. Director Herman
Shumlin earns a Tony
1968 Peter Nichol's A Day in the Death
of Joe Egg garners a Tony
recognition for Zena Walker's performance
1968 Dustin Hoffman stars in Murray
Shisgal's comedy Jimmy Shine
1969 You know the names: Sam Waterston,
Stacey Keach, Raul Julia and Charles Durning share the stage in
Arthur Kopit's Indians
1971 Cliff Gorman plays Lenny Bruce and
earns a Tony
for his performance in Lenny
1974 John Hopkin's drama Find Your Way
Home stars Michael Moriarity and Jane Alexander. Moriarity
takes home a Tony
for his performance
1975 Same Time Next Year takes off
on a 1,453 performance run. The Bernard Slade comedy stars Ellen
Burstyn and Charles Grodin. Burstyn earns the best actress in a
Broadway play Tony
1979 Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce
lives up to it's genre and makes Michael Gough and Joan Hickson
earn their keep. They each come out with a Tony
1980 Talley's Folly stars Judd
Hirsch opposite Trish Hawkins. The show earns author Lanford
Wilson a Pulitzer Prize
1983 Noises Off is Michael Frayn's
fury of a farce. Somehow Victor Garber and Dorothy Loudon keep
track of which door is open, which is closed
1985 It seems like everybody saw Benefactors.
With Glenn Close, Sam Waterston and Mary Beth Hurt, the show
closes after 217 performances
1986 We have to mention Jackie Mason. Why?
He'll be hurt if we don't. He's on stage 367 times in his one-man
show entitled, appropriately enough, Jackie Mason's The World
According to Me
1990 Jane Alexander and Nigel Hawthorne.
That's acting. That's Shadowlands. Hawthorne's performance
earns a Tony
for (this year's flavor of best actor) leading actor in a play
1992 Glenn Close is back, and look who
she's back with: Gene Hackman and Richard Dreyfuss. The cast
drives this Arial Dorfman drama; Death and the Maiden
expires at 159, but not before Close takes home a leading actress Tony
1996 Sam Shepard finally gets a show on
Broadway. Directed by Gary Sinese, Buried Child is staged
with James Gammon, Lois Smith and Jim True on the boards
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