LyceumTheater
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Find directions to and what's playing
now at the
Lyceum
Theater
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149 W 45th Street
between 6th & 7th Avenues
Completed 1903
Architect Herts & Tallant
Producer Daniel Frohman was one of
the first Broadway impresarios to follow Oscar Hammerstein north
of 42nd Street. As such, his Lyceum Theater is the oldest
continuously-operating legitimate theater on Broadway. The
Lyceum's mansard-topped, elaborately-columned, Baroquely
ornamented Beaux-Arts facade—fronted by a waving marquee—encloses
a small and intimate and elaborately decorated landmarked
interior. The walls and ceiling are lavishly plastered and painted
and include murals, marble panels and bronze statues. The house
interior is illuminated by hundreds of electric bulbs. Though this
theater embodies many 19th-century theater design principles—two
balconies, performer's green room, producer's apartment—Herts
& Tallant included the first cantilevered balcony on Broadway,
eliminating columns that obscured views from the orchestra
The Lyceum's premier show was a
performance of Proud Prince on November 2, 1903. Both
Frohman and his theater fell on hard times during the depression,
the theater's career managed to always survive as a legitimate
Broadway venue
1905 586 performances were very rare in
the '00s, but that's how long Charles Klein's drama The Lion
and the Mouse remains on the boards. It stars Richard Bennett
1909 Walter Hampden and Lucille Watson
star in Clyde Fitch's drama The City
1914 Florenz Ziegfeld produces the comedy Jerry.
Billie Burke stars. On Apr 11 1914 Ziegfeld and Burke are married
in between matinee and evening performances of the show
1917 Willard Mack's Tiger Rose
stars the author and Lenore Ulric. Also in the cast are Pedro De
Cordoba and Calvin Thomas
1919 Ina Claire and Pauline are The
Gold Diggers, Avery Hopwood's 700-performance hit comedy
1926 Fanny Brice can do vaudeville. Fanny
Brice can do musicals. Fanny Brice can do comedy. Produces David
Belasco and Willard Mack bet their money that Fanny Brice can do
drama. She can't. Fanny closes after 63 tries
1929 At least Leslie Howard still has
money after Black Monday. And he's still starring in his own
shows, this time in John Lloyd Balderston's drama Berkeley
Square
1931 It only runs for 70 performances, but
Payment Deferred stars Elsa Lancaster and marks Charles
Laughton's Broadway debut
1933 Audrey Christie stars opposite Brice
McFarlane in the Kenyon Nicholson-Charles Robinson comedy Sailor
Beware!
1937 John Garfield, Katherine Locke and
Sheldon Leonard are Having a Wonderful Time 310 times
1941 Patricia Peardon is the teenaged Junior
Miss. The adolescent's misadventures were penned by Jerome
Chodorov and Joseph Fields
1942 Doris Nolan, Virginia Fields, Arleen
Whelan and Arlene Francis are The Doughgirls in Joseph
Field's comedy
1944 The Late George Apley is Leo G
Carroll. He has a long run in the John P Marquand-George S Kaufman
comedy
1946 Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday
stars Judy Holliday, Paul Douglas and Gary Merrill. It runs to
1,642 tomorrows
1950 Uta Hagen earns a dramatic female
star Tony
for her performance in Clifford Odets' drama The Country Girl
1955 Powerful drama with a powerful cast:
Shelley Winters, Ben Gazzara, Anthony Franciosa, Harry Guardino
and Henry Silva featured in Michael Grazzo's Hatful of Rain
1957 More drama: John Osborne's Look
Back in Anger features Alan Bates, Mary Ure and Kenneth Haigh
1960 And still more drama: Joan Plowright,
Angela Lansbury, Nigel Davenport and Billy Dee Williams taste
success in 19-year-old Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey.
Plowright earns a Tony
1970 Brendan Behan is adapted by Fred
McMahon. McMahon and Michael McAloney co-produce. Niall Tobin
stars. Borstal Boy wins a Tony
1976 Dolores Hall earns a featured musical
actress Tony
for her performance in Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God.
The drama is by Alex Bradford
1980 Vivian Matalon directs David Rounds,
Elizabeth Wilson, Nancy Marchand, Teresa Wright, Maureen
O'Sullivan and Gary Merrill in Mornings at Seven. Matalon
and Rounds earn Tonys
1982 Athol Fugard's Master Harold…and
the Boys features Zakes Mokae, Danny Glover and Lonny Price.
Mokae is Tony's
featured dramatic actor
1985 William Hoffman's As Is stars
Jonathan Hogan and runs for 285 performances
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