The
Booth Theatre is a legitimate
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
theatre located at 222 West 45th Street (
George Abbott WayGeorge Abbott Way is a section of West 45th Street northwest of Times Square in New York City, named for famed Broadway producer and director George Abbott...
) in midtown-
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Architect Henry B. Herts designed the Booth and its companion
Shubert TheatreThe Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
as a back-to-back pair sharing a
VenetianVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
-style
façadeA facade or façade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. Named in honor of famed 19th-century American actor
Edwin BoothEdwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor. He was born near Bel Air, Maryland into the English American theatrical Booth family. Booth toured throughout America and to the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespeare; in 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a...
, brother of
John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a popular actor, well known in both the...
, the theater's 783-seat auditorium was intended to provide an intimate setting for dramatic and comedy plays.
The
Booth Theatre is a legitimate
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
theatre located at 222 West 45th Street (
George Abbott WayGeorge Abbott Way is a section of West 45th Street northwest of Times Square in New York City, named for famed Broadway producer and director George Abbott...
) in midtown-
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Architect Henry B. Herts designed the Booth and its companion
Shubert TheatreThe Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
as a back-to-back pair sharing a
VenetianVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
-style
façadeA facade or façade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. Named in honor of famed 19th-century American actor
Edwin BoothEdwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor. He was born near Bel Air, Maryland into the English American theatrical Booth family. Booth toured throughout America and to the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespeare; in 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a...
, brother of
John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a popular actor, well known in both the...
, the theater's 783-seat auditorium was intended to provide an intimate setting for dramatic and comedy plays. It opened on October 16 1913 with
Arnold BennettEnoch Arnold Bennett was an English novelist.- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent...
's play
The Great Adventure.
The venue was the second New York City theatre to bear this name. The first was built by Booth himself in 1869 on the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue (see picture, below).
The Booth Theatre appeared in
The West WingThe West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
episode
Posse Comitatus"Posse Comitatus" is episode 66 of The West Wing. The name of the episode refers to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.-Plot:In the season finale, Bartlet makes a life-or-death decision regarding a foreign Minister of Defence who is a known terrorist involved in a foiled plot to attack the Golden Gate...
. It hosted a fictitous charity performance of
War of the Roses which an equally fictitious President Bartlet attended during the assassination of the Qumari Defence Minister
Abdul ibn ShareefAbdul Ibn Shareef, former defense minister of Qumar, is a fictional character played by Al No'mani on the television serial drama The West Wing.-Character history:...
.
Notable productions
- 1915: Our American Cousin
Our American Cousin is a play in three acts by Tom Taylor. The play is a farcical comedy whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish American to his aristocratic English relatives. It premiered at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City on October 15, 1858...
- 1936: You Can't Take It With You
You Can't Take It with You is a Pulitzer Prize-winning comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936 and played for 837 performances.- Characters :...
- 1939: The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City...
- 1942: Blithe Spirit
- 1947: An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 and 1946 . It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...
- 1950: Come Back, Little Sheba
Come Back, Little Sheba is a 1950 play by the American dramatist William Inge. The play was Inge's first, written while he was a teacher at Washington University in St...
- 1954: Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder is a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings and released by Warner Brothers...
- 1956: The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker is a play by Thornton Wilder.The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842...
- 1958: Two for the Seesaw
Two for the Seesaw is a 1962 romance-drama film, directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It was adapted from a Broadway play of the same name, written by William Gibson.-Plot summary:...
- 1961: A Taste of Honey
A Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 18. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalize British theatre and to address social issues that she felt were not being presented...
- 1964: Luv
Luv is a play by Murray Schisgal.A mix of absurdist humor and traditional Broadway comedy more in the Neil Simon vein, Luv concerns two college friends - misfit Harry and materialistic Milt - who are reunited when the latter stops the former from jumping off a bridge, the play's setting. Each...
- 1969: Butterflies Are Free
Butterflies Are Free is a play by Leonard Gershe.Loosely based on the life of attorney Harold Krents, the plot revolves around a Manhattan blind man whose controlling mother disapproves of his relationship with a free-spirited hippie. The title was inspired by a passage in Charles Dickens' Bleak...
- 1972: That Championship Season
That Championship Season is a 1972 play by Jason Miller. The play made its off-Broadway debut at the Estelle Newman Theatre on May 2, 1972, where it ran for 144 performances...
- 1974: Bad Habits
Bad Habits is play by Terrence McNally.The comedy is composed of what originally were written as two one-act plays set in sanatoriums. In Dunelawn, a doctor allows his patients to indulge in all their bad habits as means of finding happiness...
- 1975: Very Good Eddie
Very Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...
- 1979: The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man is a 1979 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss....
- 1984: Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday in the Park with George is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical was inspired by the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat...
- 1985: I'm Not Rappaport
I'm Not Rappaport is a play by Herb Gardner originally staged by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1984. Its Broadway debut production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, starring Judd Hirsch, Cleavon Little, Jace Alexander, and Mercedes Ruehl, opened on November 19, 1985 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran...
- 1989: Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.-Plot:...
; TruTru is a play by Jay Presson Allen.Adapted from the words and works of Truman Capote, it is set in the writer's New York City apartment at 870 United Nations Plaza the week before Christmas 1975...
- 1990: Once on This Island
Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, the musical is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea...
- 1999: Dame Edna: The Royal Tour
- 2002: Bea Arthur on Broadway
- 2005: The Pillowman
The Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. An especially dark black comedy, it tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories, and their similarities to a number of bizarre child...
- 2006: Butley
Butley is a 1971 play by Simon Gray. The title character, a literary professor and T. S. Eliot scholar, is a suicidal alcoholic who loses his wife and male lover on the same day...
- 2007: The Year of Magical Thinking, The Seafarer
The Seafarer is a 2006 play by Irish playwright Conor McPherson. It is set on Christmas Eve in Baldoyle, a coastal suburb north of Dublin city. The play centers on James "Sharkey" Harkin, an alcoholic who has recently returned to live with his blind, aging brother, Richard Harkin...
- 2008: Thurgood, Dividing The Estate
Dividing The Estate is play written by Horton Foote. It premiered on Broadway in 2008 with Lincoln Center at The Booth Theatre.It is nominated for the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play [Hallie Foote]....
- 2009: The Story of my Life
The Story of My Life is a musical with music and lyrics by Neil Bartram, and a book by Brian Hill. The show follows two childhood friends from age six to 35 and has only two characters....
, Next to Normal
External links