LongacreTheater
220 W 48th Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1913
Architect Henry B Herts
Named for the original Longacre
Square, the French neo-classical Longacre Theater was designed for
Broadway impresario Harry Frazee. Frazee is now better
remembered--fondly by New Yorkers, with a bit acrimony by
Bostonians--as the owner of the Boston Red Sox who, needing money
for his Broadway ventures, sold Babe Ruth's contract to the NY
Yankees. Not a bad deal for the Yankees; the Red Sox haven't won a
World Series since
The Longacre's first show was a
production of the William Hurlbut-Frances Whitehouse comedy Are
You a Crook, on May 1, 1913. Except for a 10-year period as a
television studio in the mid '40s to early '50s, the Longacre has
been operated as a legitimate Broadway venue
1915 Leo Ditrichstein is The Great
Lover in a show authored by himself with Fanny and Frederic
Hatton
1916 James Montgomery's comedy Nothing
But the Truth stars William Collier. It runs for 332
performances
1917 The PG Wodehouse-Jerome Kern-Guy
Bolton musical Leave It to Jane stars Edith Hallor, Robert
Pitkin and Oscar Shaw
1919 Guy Bolton and George Middleton wrote
the comedy Adam and Eva. Otto Kruger and Ruth Shepley star
1925 George S Kaufman co-authored many a
Broadway show. The Butter and Egg Man is the sole show of
which he is sole author
1935 Clifford Odets wrote and starred in Waiting
for Lefty. Also on the stage? Lee J Cobb and Elia Kazan
1943 Phoebe and Harry Ephron have a 497
performance comedic hit in Three's a Family
1955 Julie Harris plays Jeanne d'Arc in
Jean Anhouilh's The Lark. She wins her second best actress Tony
while sharing the stage with Christopher Plummer, Boris Karlof,
Joseph Wiseman and Theodore Bikel
1958 Cornelia Otis Skinner wrote The
Pleasure of His Company with Samuel Taylor. Cyril Ritchard
directs. Cornelia Otis Skinner stars. Cyril Ritchard stars.
Charlie Ruggles wins a Tony
for his performance
1961 You want avant garde? Zero Mostel is
the avantest garde there is in The Rhinoceros. Supported by
Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Morris Carnovsky and Jean Stapleton,
Mostel wins a Tony
for changing into a beast before the audience's eyes
1966 Hal Holbrook's performance in his
landmark one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight, earns him an
outstanding dramatic actor Tony
1975 The cast of Terrence McNally's The
Ritz includes Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, F
Murray Abraham and George Dzundra. Moreno earns a Tony
1976 How basic can you get? David Rabe
playwright. Al Pacino actor. The Basic Training of Pavlo
Hummel. Best actor Tony
to Pacino
1976 Julie Harris earns her fifth Tony
for her lead performance in William Luce's The Belle of Amherst
1978 Ain't Misbehavin' livens
things up for 1,604 performances and wins a best musical Tony.
Richard Maltby Jr wins for direction and Nell Carter for featured
musical actress
1980 John Rubenstein and Phyllis Frelich
score best actor and best actress Tonys
for their performances in Mark Medoff's Children of a Lesser
God
1985 This revival of A Day in the Death
of Joe Egg earns Stockard Channing a best actress Tony.
She stars opposite Jim Dale
1986 Robert De Niro is on stage in a
limited run of Cuba and His Teddy Bear
1994 Great actresses choose their roles
well. Many choose Medea. Diana Rigg earns a Tony
as best actress
1997 Aaah, Broadway! Take a Horton Foote
book, add performances by Rip Torn and Shirley Knight. Stir. Serve
up The Young Man from Atlanta
1999 Judith Ivey stars in
John Pielmeier's thriller Voices
in the Dark
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