Belasco Theatre

Belasco Theatre
Stuyvesant Theatre

Belasco Theatre c. 2002
Address 111 West 44th Street
Manhattan, New York City
United States
Coordinates 40°45′23.1″N 73°59′0.5″W / 40.756417°N 73.983472°W / 40.756417; -73.983472Coordinates: 40°45′23.1″N 73°59′0.5″W / 40.756417°N 73.983472°W / 40.756417; -73.983472
Owner The Shubert Organization
Designation Broadway
Type Broadway
Capacity 1,016
Construction
Opened October 16, 1907
Architect George Keister
Website
shubertorganization.com

The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theatre opened in 1907 at 111 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco. The interior featured Tiffany lighting and ceiling panels, rich woodwork and expansive murals by American artist Everett Shinn, and a ten-room duplex penthouse apartment that Belasco utilized as combination living quarters/office space.

History

The theatre opened as the Stuyvesant Theatre on October 16, 1907 with the musical A Grand Army Man with Antoinette Perry. The theatre was outfitted with the most advanced stagecraft tools available including extensive lighting rigs, a hydraulics system, and vast wing and fly space. Meyer R. Bimberg was the actual owner of the Stuyvesant/Belasco. He made his fortune selling political campaign buttons.[1]

In 1910 Belasco attached his own name to the venue. After his death in 1931, it was leased first by actress Katharine Cornell and then playwright Elmer Rice. Marlon Brando had his first widely noticed success in this theater, in a production of Maxwell Anderson's Truckline Cafe which opened on February 27, 1946. He played the small but crucial role of Sage MacRae. The play flopped, but the press celebrated Brando as a new genius actor.[2]

The Shuberts bought the theater in 1949 and leased it to NBC for three years before returning it to legitimate use. In 2014, Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened its first Broadway production, which was the longest running show at the Belasco and features a joke about fictional show that opened at the Belasco called Hurt Locker: The Musical.

This theater is the subject of an urban legend that David Belasco's ghost haunts the theater every night. Some performers in the shows that played there have even claimed to have spotted him or other ghosts during performances.[3] It was also reported that after Oh! Calcutta! (a musical revue with extensive full frontal male and female nudity) played at the theater, the ghost of David Belasco stopped appearing. In Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hedwig briefly discusses the history of the Belasco and references the ghost of Belasco, claiming that if the ghost appears on your opening night then your show is blessed. She then asks audience members in one of the boxes to tell her if the ghost appears.[4] On Neil Patrick Harris' final night playing Hedwig, a man dressed as the ghost appeared during curtain call.

Notable productions

References

  1. ↑ "Passing Strange Broadway Ghost". Broadway.tv.
  2. ↑ Peter Manso, Brando. The Biography (New York: Hyperion, 1994. ISBN 0-7868-6063-4), p. 167-173.
  3. ↑ Viagas, Robert (June 10, 2005). "The Ghosts of Broadway". Playbill.com. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  4. ↑ Stasio, Marilyn (April 22, 2014). "Broadway Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch Starring Neil Patrick Harris".

Further reading

External links

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