Music Box Theatre
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The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street. One of the smaller Broadway houses, it has a seating capacity of 860.The most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to house Berlin's famed Music Box Revues. It opened in 1921 and hosted a new musical production every year until 1925, when it presented its first play, Cradle Snatchers, starring Humphrey Bogart. The following year, Chicago, the Maurine Dallas Watkins play that served as the basis for the hit musical, opened here. It housed a string of hits for the playwriting team of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, from their first collaboration Once in a Lifetime to their smash hit The Man Who Came to Dinner. Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin also presented shows here.
In the 1950s, playwright William Inge found a home at the Music Box, where he had success with Picnic, Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
The theater currently is co-owned by Berlin's estate and the Shubert Organization. Its box seats are notable for being unusally large and round, and Dame Edna lovingly described them as "ashtrays" during her successful run there. The lobby features a plaque and wall exhibit commemorating its rich history.
[edit] Other notable productions
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2003 revival)
- The Dinner Party (2000)
- Amadeus (1999 revival)
- The Diary of Anne Frank (1997 revival)
- State Fair (1996)
- Blood Brothers (1993)
- A Few Good Men (1989)
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1987)
- Agnes of God (1982)
- Deathtrap (1978)
- Side By Side By Sondheim (1977)
- Absurd Person Singular (1974)
- Sleuth (1970)
- The Homecoming (1967)
- Wait Until Dark (1966)
- Any Wednesday (1964)
- Five Finger Exercise (1959)
- Separate Tables (1956)
- The Solid Gold Cadillac (1954)
- Lost in the Stars (1949)
- Summer and Smoke (1948)
- I Remember Mama (1944)
- Of Mice and Men (1937)
- Stage Door (1936)
- Merrily We Roll Along (1934)
- Dinner at Eight (1932)
- Of Thee I Sing (1931)
