Lunt-Fontanne Theater
nee Globe Theater
205 W 46th Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1910
Architect Carrere & Hastings
The last Broadway theater by noted
NYC architects Carrere & Hastings to survive, the Globe was
built as a beaux-arts palace for the musicals of Charles
Dillingham. The Globe's first performance was a production of the
George Ade-Gustav Luders musical The Old Town, starring Fred
Stone, Dave Montgomery and Peggy Wood. The Globe was a very
successful house though the '10s and '20s, but Dillingham's
theatrical empire did not survive the early years of the
Depression. After he was forced into bankruptcy in 1933, the Globe
was converted to a movie house. After a complete renovation, which
included the gutting of the interior, it was reopened as a
legitimate theater in 1958, renamed in honor of Alfred Lunt and
Lynn Fontanne. The couple met in 1919, married in 1922, and went
on to perform together 27 times, with their last performance in
1958
1915 Stop! Look! Listen! to Marion
Sunshine, Gaby Deslys and Marion Davies in this Irving Berlin
musical
1916 Lynne Fontanne makes her Broadway
debut in J Hartley Manners' drama The Harp of Life.
Starring are Philip Merivale and Laurette Taylor
1919 Adele and Fred Astaire are hoofin' it
to Griz Kreisler's music in the hit Apple Blossoms
1920 Ivan Caryll's musical Tip top
features Fred Stone and the Duncan Sisters
1921 The Ziegfeld Follies normally
usually plays at the New Amsterdam, but because that theater is
still occupied, Fanny Brice sings 'Second Hand Rose' at the Globe
1922 Another revue moves in for its yearly
run. George White's Scandals of 1922 features WC Fields and
Dolores Costello
1925 If you want to be happy run down
to the Globe and catch Louise Groody and Charles Winninger in the
Harbach-Mandel-Youmans-Caesar musical No No Nanette
1931 Otto Harbach teams up with Jerome
Kern to write the musical The Cat and the Fiddle. Its 395
performances feature Bettina Hall and George Meader
1958 One of the major moments in Broadway
theatrical history. Katharine Cornell, Henry Fonda, Helen Hayes,
Beatrice Lillie, Anita Loos, Mary Martin, Laurence Olivier and
Ginger Rogers are in the audience on May 5 to watch Alfred Lunt
and Lynn Fontanne in Friedrich Duerrenmatt's The Visit. The
old and weary Globe is reborn as the Lunt-Fontanne Theater
1959 One of everybody's favorite things
starts a 1,443 performance run. Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel
Crouse. Music by Richard Rodgers Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
The streets are alive to The Sound of Music and
performances by Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. Best musical Tony
to the show. Best musical actress Tony
to Martin
1962 Neil Simon wrote the 7 roles in Little
Me specifically for Sid Caesar; Simon was one of the writers
on Caesar's groundbreaking television show. Music is by Cy Coleman
with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh
1964 John Gielgud directs Richard Burton,
Alfred Drake and Hume Cronyn in Hamlet. Cronyn earns a Tony
1970 Sheldon Harnick's and Jerry Bock's The
Rothschilds features Hal Linden, Jill Clayburgh, Chris
Sarandon and Keene Curtis. Tonys
go to Linden and Curtis
1976 What happens when you combine a score
by Richard Rodgers and Sheldon Harnick with performances by Glenn
Close and Penny fuller? Sometimes you get Rex, a 49
performance flop
1979 Peter Pan is successfully
reprised with Sandy Duncan in the title role
1983 Despite what critics say, who
wouldn't go see Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in a revival
of Noel Coward's Private Lives? Until word-of-mouth gets
around that's what audiences do. The show limps along for 69
performances
1991 Freddie Roman's revue Catskills on
Broadway brings the borscht belt to the Great White Way. It
features himself and comedienne Marilyn Michaels
1995 We can't ignore her any longer. Carol
Channing is back as the matchmaker in Hello Dolly! Heck,
she revived Dolly Levi at this theater in 1978. Come to think of
it, Channing has played Dolly in virtually every city the past 30
years. What a career
1997 A very unexpected musical hit shows
that you can never tell. When the Peter Stone-Maury Yeston musical
treatment of the Titanic disaster was being hyped, at the
same time as the screen version, folks predicted a quick sinking.
Instead, the show is Tony's
best musical, Stone takes the Tony
for his book and Yeston for the score. It runs for 2 years
1999 Beauty
and the Beast, at the Palace Theater since 1994, begins
performances at the Lunt-Fontanne November 12th
2003 Still going...
|
