Imperial Theater
249 W 45th Street
between 7th & 8th Avenues
Completed 1923
Architect Herbert J Krapp
A typical Shubert-built, Krapp-designed
theater, the Imperial has a simple facade, a landmarked Adamesque
interior, and Krapp's extensive plaster- and paint-work. The
Imperial is a large theater built specifically for musicals. Its
facade is simple even by Krapp standards as it was intended to be
hidden by a sign board
The Imperial's first show was on
December 25, 1923. Mary Hayes starred in the Herbert Stothart-Vincent
Youmans-William Carey Duncan-Oscar Hammerstein II musical Mary
Jane McKane. The Imperial has been successful as a legitimate
Broadway venue from the start and has been home to many
long-running shows
1924 Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach
wrote the lyrics to go with the music of Rudolph Friml and Herbert
Stothart for Rose-Marie, starring Dennis King and Mary
Ellis
1926 Someone has to watch over the
Gershwin Brothers-Guy Bolton-P G Wodehouse musical Oh Kay!
with Gertrude Lawrence and Victor Moore
1928 Oscar Hammerstein II's lyrics team up
with Sigmund Romberg's music in New Moon, with Robert
Halliday and Evelyn Herbert
1933 You've got George Gershwin music, Ira
Gershwin lyrics, a book by George S Kaufman and Morris Ryskind.
William Gaxton, Victor Moore and Louise Moan are on the stage.
What does Let Them Eat Cake do?. Flops, of course.
1936 Everybody get up On Your Toes
for this Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers show. George Ballanchine
choreographs and the show features Ray Bolger and Monty Wooley
1940 Here's an interesting one: Louisiana
Purchase had a Morris Ryskind-Buddy De Sylva book and Irving
Berlin music. It featured Victor Moore, Vera Zorina and Carol
Bruce. It had a decent run of 444 performances. Haven't heard of
it.
1941 Listen to the names: Danny Kaye, Eve
Arden, Vivian Vance, Nannette Fabray. They were in Cole Porter's Let's
Face It. Kaye is a star for the first time
1943 Now Mary Martin hits it big in the S
J Perlman-Kurt Weill-Ogden Nash musical One Touch of Venus
1944 And why haven't we seen this on the
boards again? The Song of Norway, the Robert White-George
Forrest-Edvard Grieg musical has an 860 performance run
1946 There's no business like producing
Irving Berlin musicals and listening to Ethel Merman ring the cash
register. That's what producers Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II think during 1,147 performances of Annie Get
Your Gun
1950 It's a lovely day when Ethel Merman,
Russell Nype, Paul Lukas and Pat Harrington take the stage in
Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam
1952 Everybody wishes they are there for
the Harold Rome musical Wish You Were Here, but the stage
is pretty crowded with Patricia Marand, Jack Cassidy, Sheila Bond,
Florence Henderson, Tom Tryon, Larry Bleiden and Reid Shelton.
Bond wins a Tony
as featured musical actress
1955 Cole Porter's Silk Stockings
stars Don Ameche, Hildegarde Neff and Gretchen Wyler
1956 Author and composer Frank Loesser,
director Joseph Anthony and producer Kermit Bloomgarden are The
Most Happy Fella(s) for 676 performances with Robert Weede, Jo
Sullivan and Art Lund
1957 Jamaica pushes all the right
buttons. This Fred Saidy-Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg musical features
Lena Horne, Ricardo Montalban, Adelaide Hall, Ossie Davis, Erik
Rhodes and Alvin Ailey
1959 Well, ummm, ehh, errr. No, this isn't
Jimmy Stewart on the silver screen. This is Andy Griffith opposite
Dolores Gray in Harold Rome's Destry Rides Again
1961 Anna Maria Alberghetti, Kaye Ballard,
Jerry Orbach and Anita Gillette make the world go 'round 719 times
in Carnival. Alberghetti wins the musical actress Tony.
Alberghetti. Alberghetti. Hey! I finally typed it right
1963 Oliver is on the boards.
Lionel Bart wins a Tony
as best composer and lyricist
1964 This is going to take awhile, but
after 3,242 performances of Fiddler on the Roof it should
be a tradition. The book is by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock,
lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Jerome Robbins directs and choreographs
the show. Harold Prince produces. In the cast are: Zero Mostel,
Bea Arthur, Joanna Merlin, Austin Pendleton, Julia Mignes, Bert
Convy, Tanya Everett and Maria Karnilova. And, besides the show as
best musical, Tonys
go to: Mostel, Karnilova, Robbins and Stein. Oh, Tevya! | Believe
it, this is the theater of the long-running show. Except for a
couple of the shows in the early '20s that are included to give a
taste of that time, we've left out everything with under 400
performances
1972 Pippin, the Bob Fosse directed
Stephen Schwartz show runs for 1,944 performances. But with a cast
that included Ben Vereen, John Rubenstein, Jill Clayburgh and Ann
Reinking, why shouldn't it?
1977 A simple Neil Simon comedy, Chapter
Two, stars Judd Hirsch, Anita Gillette, Cliff Gorman and Tony-wining
Anne Wedgeworth
1979 And now for a Neil Simon-Marvin
Hamlisch-Carole Bayer Sager musical. They're Playing Our Song
stars Luci Arnaz and Robert Klein
1981 Do the hits never stop coming? The
Tom Eyen-Henry Krieger musical Dreamgirls stars Jennifer
Holliday, Ben Harney, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Divine and Clevant
Derricks. Holliday, Harney and Derricks earn Tonys,
as does Eyen for the book and the two Michael's, Bennett and
Peters, for choreography
1985 This show doesn't have an ending, but
audiences flock to it anyway; they vote on who done it. The Rupert
Holmes winning musical is based on Charles Dickens' unfinished The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. The show features George Rose, Betty
Buckley, George N Martin and Donna Murphy. Wilford Leech directs
and wins a Tony,
as do Holmes and Rose
1988 Let's make room for a flop. This
highly anticipated Benny Anderson-Bjorn Ulvaens-Tim Rice musical
has a 68 performance run. It features Judy Kuhn, David Carroll and
Harry Goz. It's name is Chess
1989 Jerome Robbins wraps a lot of his
stuff into one show, Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Stars Jason
Alexander, Scott Wise and Debbie Shapiro all earn Tonys,
along with Robbins as best director
1990 The Cameron Macintosh produced Les
Miserables transfers from the Broadway Theater to make
room for the Cameron Macintosh produced Miss
Saigon
2003 Les
Miserables announces its last performance for May 18th
***Note to us Jan 12 1938 Jack Buchanan, Adele
Dixon and Evelyn Lane leave their footprints in cement outside
theater while playing in Between the Devil***are they still
there?***
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