Virginia Theater
former ANTA Theater | nee Guild Theater
245 W 52nd Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1925
Architect Crane & Franzheim
For years after the concentration
of legitimate theaters moved north of Times Square the Theater
Guild, founded to present high-quality plays, was operating out of
its quarters on 6th Avenue and 35th Street, the Garrick Theater,
built by Ned Harrigan in 1890. The Guild, believing much of its
audience was lost to the uptown theaters, commissioned its new
home in 1923 and the Guild Theater, with heavy support from its
patrons, was erected during 1924 to 1925. The theater's overall
architecture is uninspiring and unimposing, just a bit of Tuscany
dropped in Midtown Manhattan. During the 30s an impressive list of
shows was produced at the Guild, though for some reason (slightly
out of the way?) the theater proved to be unpopular with audiences
In 1943 the Theater Guild was
forced to cede control of the theater and it was leased as a radio
studio until 1950, when it was purchased by the federally-funded
American National Theater and Academy, hence the theater's new
name, the ANTA. With federal funding came a drop in support from
patrons and ANTA became a totally subsidized house in 1968.
Through the '70s the ANTA was only able to mount a couple of
productions of note and was purchased by the Jujamcyn Organization
in 1981 and renamed the Virginia. Since that time the theater
appears to be a commercial success, with a new strategy of filling
the house with smaller musicals and revues that might not survive
in the larger musical theaters, but draw enough people to the
Virginia's fringe location. The theater was designated a New York
City landmark in 1985. The premiere show at the Guild Theater was
a production of Caesar and Cleopatra on April 13, 1925
1927 Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Margalo
Gillmore and Earle Larimore star for 178 performances in S N
Behrman's comedy The Second Man
1927 A smash hit in its time, Dubose and
Dorothy Heyward's Porgy stars Frank Wilson and Evelyn
Ellis. The drama takes to the boards 367 times
1928 Despite a cast that included Alfred
Lunt, Margalo Gillmore, Morris Carnovsky and Helen Travers, Eugene
O'Neill's Marco Millions can't quite make it to the
100-performance mark. It closes after 97 tries
1930 Imogene Coca and Ray Heatherton make
their Broadway debuts in The Garrick Gaieties, a reminder
of the Theater Guild's earlier home
1930 Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the
Queen stars Lynn Fontanne in the title role. Opposite her?
Alfred Lunt, of course
1931 This isn't Oklahoma! . . . yet.
Franchot Tone, June Walker and Lee Strasberg star in Lynn Riggs
drama Green Grow the Lilacs, which is the basis for one of
America's defining musicals
1932 S N Behrman's comedy Biography
stars Ina Claire and Earle Larrimore and runs for 210 performances
1933 Elisha Cooke Jr, Ruth Gilbert and
George M Cohan share the stage for 289 performances of the Eugene
O'Neill comedy Ah! Wilderness
1938 It flopped the first time around:
Thornton Wilder's The Merchant of Yonkers limps through 39
performances. As The Matchmaker in 1955 it has a hit run of
486 shows at the Royale and, in 1964 starts a 2,844 performance
run as the now-classic Broadway musical Hello Dolly!
Sometimes it's good to give a show the woman's point of view
1940 Elmer Rice's Flight to the West
features Paul Henreid, Betty Field, Hugh Marlowe and Karl Malden
1951 The first half of the '50s is going
to be rough for the newly-named ANTA. Peer Gynt has an
all-star cast of John Garfield, Mildred Dunnock, John Randolph,
Nehemiah Persoff, Sherry Britton and Karl Malden. 32 times and
it's out
1951 Arlene Francis, Burgess Meredith,
Melvyn Douglas and Peter Cookson take to the Guild's stage for 16
performances of Edmund Wilson's Little Blue Light
1955 Tyrone Power, Katharine Cornell,
Christopher Plummer and Sydney Pollack star in 69 performances of
Christopher Fry's Dark is Light Enough
1956 At last, a legitimate hit. Paddy
Chaefsky's Middle of the Night stars Edward G Robinson,
Gena Rowlands and Anne Jackson. The show runs for 477 performances
1958 And a musical hit. David Wayne,
Jerome Cowan and Robert Morse share the stage in the Abe
Burrows-Marian Bissell-Jule Styne-Betty Comden show Say Darling
1958 A show not produced by ANTA
wins the Pulitzer and the Tony.
Pat Hingle is between Christopher Plummer's God and Raymond
Massey's Devil in Archibald MacLeish's drama JB. The show
was produced by Alfred de Liagre Jr and directed by Elia Kazan
1961 Paul Scofield makes his Broadway
debut and earns a Tony
for his performance in A Man for All Seasons. The show and
director Noel William also earn Tonys
1964 Alan Alda and Diana Sands star for
421 performances of William Manhoff's The Owl and the Pussycat
1965 The ANTA's first long-running hit is
the Dale Wasserman-Mitchell Leigh-Joseph Darion musical The Man
of La Mancha. The show stars Richard Kiley, runs for 2,328
performances and earns Tonys
for Kiley, director Albert Marre, composer Leigh and lyricist
Darion
1976 It takes some music and dance to
break the ANTA out of its doldrums. Bubbling Brown Sugar, a
riotous revue, features Joseph Attles, Vernon Washington, Lonnie
McNeil and Carolyn Bird for 766 performances
1983 More music and more dance at the now
Virginia Theater. Natalia Makarova wins a Tony
as she keeps us on the edge of our seats in the Lorenz
Hart-Richard Rodgers musical On Your Toes
1988 Even Betty Buckley can flop. Carrie.
Bad idea. 5 shows
1989 The Larry Gelbart-Cy Coleman-David
Zippel musical City of Angels wins a Tony
as best musical and for Gelbart, Coleman, Zippel and for actors
James Naughton and Randy Graff
1992 Jelly's Last Jam shakes up the
Virginia 569 times with music by Jelly Roll Morton and
performances by Savion Glover, Gregory Hines and Tonya Pinkins.
Hines and Pinkins take Tonys
1995 It doesn't take much to make some
people happy. The Jerry Lieber-Mike Stoller revue Smokey
Joe's Cafe opened Mar 2, 1995 and audiences are still
flocking to it in 1999
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