Neil Simon Theater
nee Alvin Theater
250 W 52nd Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1927
Architect Herbert J Krapp
A musical-comedy house built for
producers Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedly, the 'Al' + 'vin' of the
theater's original name. Designer Krapp continued his string of
Adamesque-inspired theaters. Architecturally undistinguished, the
producers aspired the Alvin to be the mecca of high-brow,
well-produced musical comedy. Adele Astaire and Fred Astaire
performed in the premiere production, Funny Face, on
November 22, 1927. The producers lost control of their theater (as
had many others) during the depression year of 1932. CBS used the
theater as a radio studio throughout the 30s and into the mid-40s,
when it was again used for legitimate productions. The Shubert
Organization purchased the Alvin in 1975 renamed it in honor of
playwright Neil Simon during the highly successful run of his
Brighton Beach Memoirs. The theater, designated a New York City
landmark in August 1985, is now part of the Nederlander
Organization
1930 Ethel Merman sings 'I've Got Rhythm,'
Ginger Rogers sings 'Embraceable You.' Benny Goodman, Glenn
Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Gene Krupa are playing in the orchestra
(none of them the conductor). George and Ira Gershwin do the
music. Girl Crazy runs for 272 performances.
1933 Helen Hayes appears as Mary of
Scotland in Maxwell Anderson's hit costume drama
1934 Guy Bolton, PG Wodehouse, Howard
Lindsey, Russel Crouse and Cole Porter collaborate on Anything
Goes. Ethel Merman delivers the title song and 'You're the
Top'
1935 George and Ira Gershwin are back,
represented by their version of Porgy and Bess, starring
Todd Duncan, Ann Brown, John Bubble and Warren Coleman
1936 It's a de lovely lineup, with Ethel
Merman, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope and Vivian Vance appearing in the
Howard Lindsey-Russel Crouse-Cole Porter musical Red, Hot and
Blue
1940 Ernest Hemingway and Benjamin Glazer
authored the drama The Fifth Column. Directed by Lee
Strasberg, the show stars Franchot Tone, Lee J Cobb, Lenore Ulric
and Katherine Locke. It only lasts for 87 performances
1940 Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne star
with Sidney Greenstreet and Montgomery Clift in Robert Sherwood's
Pulitzer Prize winning drama There Shall Be No Night
1941 Gertrude Lawrence is The Lady in
the Dark, the Moss Hart-Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin musical that
also stars MacDonald Carey, Victor Mature and Danny Kaye. Kaye's 'Tschaikowsky
Song,' in which he names 50 Russian composers in 43 seconds,
steals the show
1943 Something for the Boys it is
when Ethel Merman sings 'Hey Good Lookin' in this Cole Porter show
1946 Jose Ferrer's defining role as Cyrano
de Bergerac wins an outstanding performance Tony
1946 Same stage, same year, different
show. Ingrid Bergman's portrayal of Joan of Lorraine also
wins an outstanding performance Tony
1948 The movie version has delighted
generations; the stage version of Mr. Roberts delights
1,157 audiences and also stars Henry Fonda in the title role
1951 Dorothy Fields and Arthur Schwartz
collaborated on A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Shirley Booth
stars
1954 Diahann Carroll makes her Broadway
debut in the Truman Capote-Harold Arlen musical House of
Flowers. The show stars Pearl Bailey and Juanita Hall, along
with Ray Walston, Geoffrey Holder and Alvin Ailey
1955 Ira Levin's No Time for Sergeants
stars that personable hillbilly Andy Griffith
1956 Frank Loesser sits in a bar and gets
drunk when his musical Greenwillow opens next door. He
konws the score; after 95 performances its lights out
1962 Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart,
Stephen Sondheim, George Abbott and Jerome Robbins collaborated on
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Zero Mostel,
Jack Gilford, Raymond Walburn and David Burns star. On the way
home Shevelove, Gelbart, Abbott, Mostel, Burns and the show pick
up Tonys
1964 Beatrice Lillie appears in her last
Broadway show, the Hugh Martin-Timothy Gray musical High
Spirits
1967 Tom Stoppard does a twist on
Shakespeare in his Tony-award
winning drama Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead
1968 Howard Sackler wins the Pulitzer
Prize for The Great White Hope. The show starring James
Earl Jones and Jane Alexander, earns a Tony,
as do Jones and Alexander
1970 Company is not very well
received but survives for 705 performances. Along the way it
garners a Tony
as best musical and individual Tonys
for Harold Prince's direction, George Furth's book and Stephen
Sondheim's score. The show stars Dean Jones, Elaine Stritch,
Barbara Barrie and Donna McKechnie
1975 John Collum stars in Shenandoah
and wins a Tony
for his performance, as does James Lee Barett, Peter Udell and
Phillip Rose for the musical's book
1977 The sun will come out every time
Andrea McArdle is on stage in the title role of Annie.
Dorothy Loudon stars and receives a Tony,
as does Peter Gennaro for his choreography, Thomas Meehan for the
show's book and Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin for the score.
Oh, and the show wins for best musical
1981 Jason Alexander, who goes on to TV
stardom in the sitcom Seinfeld, makes his Broadway debut
alongside Liz Callaway in a revival of Kaufman and Hart's Merrily
We Roll Along
1983 Neil Simon's first installment of his
coming of age trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs, makes a star
of and earns a Tony
for Matthew Broderick. The show also stars Joyce Van Patten and
Elizabeth Franz and earns a Tony
for director Gene Saks
1985 Back-to-back Neil Simon, this time
with Matthew Broderick as Eugene (or is it Neil Simon as Eugene,
or Broderick as Simon?), in the Army. Director Gene Saks takes
home another Tony,
as does Biloxi Blues itself and featured actor Barry
Miller
1988 Magical moments abound during the 3
week limited engagement of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey
Into Night mounted by director Jose Quintero. Together with
Quintero, stars Jason Robards Jr and Colleen Dewhurst are the
playwrights foremost interpreters
1992 Neil Simon again, this time with Alan
Alda and Brenda Vaccaro in Jake's Women
1996 The revival of Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II's The King and I earns a Tony
for best revival and one for Donna Murphy's perfrmance. The show
runs through 1999
1999 A return engagement of The
Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Ron Bohmer, Carolee Carmello
and Marc Kudisch opens at the Neil Simon Sep 10th
|
