Circle in the Square Theatre

The Circle in the Square Theatre (colloquially known as the Circle) is in the basement of Paramount Plaza in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. It was designed by Allen Sayles, with a lighting system designed by Jules Fisher. It is one of Paramount Plaza's two theaters, the other being the much larger Gershwin Theatre on the second floor. Paramount Plaza's two venues, along with the Minskoff and American Place theaters, were constructed under the Special Theater District amendment of 1967 as a way to give their respective developers additional floor area. The space is accessed via escalators from street level, as well as via stairs. The theater was built with a capacity of 650 seats; , the theater has 776 seats. The space was originally meant as an off-Broadway house with fewer than 500 seats, but the Circle's artistic director Theodore Mann and its managing director Paul Libin increased the capacity by relocating columns and replaced steps with ramps. A soundproof control booth was placed at the rear of the auditorium. similar to the venue's off-Broadway predecessors. Conversely, the design allowed the audience to be extremely close to the stage, as there were only ten rows of seats. According to Mann, the design of the current Circle in the Square was based on the predecessor theaters. These, in turn, were based on a recommendation from theater critic Brooks Atkinson, who had told Mann: "When you walk in the door, you should see the stage—that should predominate—not the audience." ==Off-Broadway predecessors==

The Circle in the Square was founded by Theodore Mann, José Quintero, Jason Wingreen, Aileen Cramer, Emily Stevens, and Edward Mann, all of whom were members of the Loft Players. The theater's founders were in their mid-20s and were described by The New York Times as having "little training, less experience, and no reputation in the theater". Sources disagree on when the organization was founded, but it may have been established in 1949 or 1950. The founding team wished to establish a "center dedicated to the development and presentation of all the arts". The team could not afford to open their theater in Manhattan's high-rent Theater District. the team opted for a location in Greenwich Village, which had a myriad of empty theaters. Mel Gussow of The New York Times similarly described the original Circle as being within "the heartbeat of Off-Broadway" in Sheridan Square. Over the years, actors such as Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Jason Robards, Bradford Dillman, Dustin Hoffman, George Segal, George C. Scott, and James Earl Jones starred in the company's productions. The Circle tended to stage productions by well-known playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Giraudoux, Dylan Thomas, and Jules Feiffer.), a former nightclub in Greenwich Village. When the team signed the lease in 1951, they had $320 between them, The Circle's founders raised $7,500, and Goldman formed Onyx Restaurants Inc. to lease the inn on behalf of the team, which was responsible for paying $1,000 a month in rent. Due to the inn's configuration, the theater's founders decided to operate the Circle as a theater in the round, wherein the audience surrounded the stage (a converted dance floor). The theater's first production was the play Dark of the Moon, which opened in February 1951. At the time, the off-Broadway industry was still relatively obscure and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and ''Long Day's Journey into Night''. and because the space was only licensed as a cabaret. At the time, the Circle was described as one of the "most popular Off-Broadway theaters". and the 46th Street Theatre. After Mann filed plans to renovate the theater in April 1955, city officials approved the theater's reopening. When the venue reopened on June 1, 1955, it was rebranded as the Circle in the Square Cabaret. In July 1959, Mann, Quintero, and Leigh Connell announced that they had to relocate by that October because the building's owner was planning to redevelop the site. At the time of the announcement, the Circle had presented 18 shows, mostly revivals of plays, at 5 Sheridan Square. and the inn was demolished the same year. 159 Bleecker Street At the end of August 1959, Mann, Quintero, and Connell leased space at 159 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, which at the time was occupied by the Amato Opera Company. The structure had been constructed in 1917 and had been used for various purposes over the years, including a movie theater. To comply with Off-Broadway regulations, the theater had 199 seats. By the early 1960s, the Circle had staged several box-office flops and was in debt. Nonetheless, upon the theater's tenth anniversary in 1961, the New York Herald Tribune reported that Mann and Quintero were purchasing the Bleecker Street building, at a time when Off-Broadway theaters were in high demand. preferring to work as a freelance producer. The company had staged 47 off-Broadway and 10 Broadway productions by its 20th anniversary in 1971. Developers announced plans to raze the Bleecker Street theater in 2004. The venue was demolished in 2005 and replaced with a nine-story apartment building. Other locations The Circle in the Square took a one-year lease on the Henry Miller's Theatre, a Broadway theater, beginning in August 1968. The company's productions at the Henry Miller's were presented under the name "Circle in the Square on Broadway". Even though the Henry Miller's was a Broadway theater, the Circle's productions there were ineligible for the Tony Awards because the Circle was a repertory company. The company only ran two shows at the venue, both of which were flops, before its lease was terminated. Those two productions were The Cuban Thing, followed by Morning, Noon and Night, a trio of one-act plays. When the Circle's lease was terminated in January 1969, Mann and Libin were already in the process of developing their own theater on Broadway. The Circle's productions in Washington, D.C., were initially successful, contrasting with the theatrical company's failure on Broadway. The company's productions at Ford's included revivals of such plays as Moon for the Misbegotten, Ah, Wilderness!, and Arsenic and Old Lace. The Circle lost the lawsuit and severed its partnership with Ford's in September 1971, citing large financial losses. == Broadway theater history ==

In September 1967, Uris Buildings Corporation leased the site of the Capitol Theatre on Broadway, between 50th and 51st Streets, for 100 years. Uris announced it would build an office tower and a Broadway theater on the site; initially, the corporation only proposed a single theater, which later became the Gershwin Theatre. In October 1967, the New York City Planning Commission (CPC) proposed the Special Theater District Zoning Amendment, which would directly allow theaters in One Astor Plaza and the Uris Building. The New York City Board of Estimate approved the amendment that December. The Uris Buildings Corporation agreed in February 1968 to build a second theater in the basement upon the CPC's request. The new theater was originally supposed to be an experimental theater with 300 to 375 seats. Richard Weinstein, the head of the CPC's Lower Manhattan office, asked Mann whether he was interested in occupying the Uris Building's second theater. Mann initially was uninterested in relocating to a theater with such small capacity, but he changed his mind after seeing that the space could fit 650 seats, large enough to qualify as a Broadway theater. as did the Board of Estimate. Lease negotiations between Mann and Percy Uris had been completed by January 1969, and Mann and Libin formed the for-profit Thespian Theater Inc., which subleased the smaller theater to the Circle. The Circle's Broadway theater was intended as a "more elegant" version of the off-Broadway house, Mann believed that the development of relatively small Broadway theaters, such as the Circle's, would allow "more specialized plays" to be produced, as compared with larger and older theaters. 1970s The venue in Paramount Plaza's basement opened for inspection on October 2, 1972. Prior to the Broadway house's opening, the theater hosted a gala on October 26, 1972. featuring several actors who had performed at the Circle's off-Broadway locations. The Levine Theatre hosted its first performance, a revival of Mourning Becomes Electra, on November 15, 1972. In the months after the Circle's Broadway house opened, it hosted numerous performers whose portraits were hung in the lobby. Unlike at other Broadway theaters, the Circle tended to host multiple opening nights for each show. Headliners were paid a flat rate of $1,000 a week, less than in comparable Broadway theaters. During the Broadway house's first two seasons, the Circle staged productions such as Medea, Here Are Ladies, Uncle Vanya, The Waltz of the Toreadors, and The Iceman Cometh in 1973, as well as The American Millionaire and Scapino in early 1974. Despite its early popularity, the theater could only earn up to $35,000 per week, and it relied heavily on grants. By March 1974, the theater was in danger of closing due to a shortfall of nearly $200,000. The musical Look, Homeward, as well as all shows during the 1973–1974 season, would have been canceled. The Circle announced in April 1974 that it would not close, having raised the necessary funds, including emergency grants, nearly $34,000 in individual donations, and even a grant from rival producer Joseph Papp. The success of Scapino, which featured Jim Dale, was also cited as a factor in the theater's survival. For 1974–1975, the Circle staged The National Health, ''Where's Charley?, All God's Chillun Got Wings, and Death of a Salesman. The same year, at the 30th Tony Awards, the company received a Special Tony Award "for twenty-five continuous years of quality productions". For 1976–1977, the Circle continued its tradition of staging four Broadway shows per season, and the Levine Theatre hosted The Days in the Trees, The Night of the Iguana, Romeo and Juliet, and The Importance of Being Earnest. The first two plays in 1978–1979 were revivals of The Inspector General During the second half of the season, the Circle presented two new plays: Spokesong'' by Stewart Parker 1980s Due to recurring financial issues that nearly prompted the theater company to declare bankruptcy, the Circle delayed the start of its 1979–1980 season to February 1980, extending the run of Loose Ends to cover the gap. Consequently, the season was planned to have three plays, the first two of which were Major Barbara and Past Tense. The final play, The Makropulos Affair, was replaced with The Man Who Came to Dinner on relatively short notice. The theater next hosted Candida in late 1981, and William Saroyan. Libin began selling annual subscriptions via telemarketing around 1983, amid increasing difficulties in obtaining subscribers. The Circle hosted three plays in 1983: The Misanthrope, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and Heartbreak House. The Circle also hosted revivals of the plays Awake and Sing and Design for Living in 1984. and a revival of You Never Can Tell. as well as An Evening with Robert Klein, another comedy series by Klein. It was followed that September by an adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd with Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler, which lasted for 189 performances. 1990s Early 1990s Libin stepped down as the theater's managing director in 1990 but remained involved with the theater's operation. The Circle hosted two plays that year: the American premiere of the Russian play ''Zoya's Apartment, as well as a revival of The Miser. This was followed in 1991 by Taking Steps, Getting Married, and On Borrowed Time. By 1991–1992, the theater faced an increasingly severe financial crisis. In the first half of 1992, the theater hosted the play Search and Destroy'', as a result, these productions only broke even. Many of the theater's productions in the 1990s had been commercially unsuccessful. Buckley resigned shortly afterward, and George A. Elmer was hired as the new managing director. The theater had only about 8,500 subscribers at the time. The Circle operated at a loss of $1.5 million, That March, the theater canceled two plays by Molière due to a lack of funds. Libin advised Mann to separate the finances of the theater and its associated school; an unnamed former employee told The New York Times that the theater was "living off the school". The school assumed the lease of the theater space, then subleased the space back to the theater. a trio of Wilder plays that lasted for 44 performances. Afterward, the Circle was dark for over a year; Many of the Circle's board members blamed Mann for selecting shows that did not appeal to audiences and claimed that he was too focused on a "theatrical community that was rooted in the past". The Circle's artistic managers sought to revive the theater by establishing a $500,000 production fund, hiring a second artistic director to assist Mann, and creating partnerships with other theatrical companies. Abady planned to book both revivals and newer plays at the theater, and she wished to attract additional subscribers to compete with other nonprofit theaters. During the 1995–1996 season, the theater hosted the plays Garden District, Holiday, Bus Stop, and Tartuffe. By then, the Circle had 7,000 subscribers. Nonetheless, many of the theater's board members were unhappy with Abady's leadership, as the theater's debt had increased by $241,000 during that season. Libin and Mann also challenged the way Abady handled the theater's finances. Hughie was initially supposed to have fewer regular performances than previews, but the play was extended several times, The same day, the theater's acting president Theodore R. Sayers announced that the theatrical company had filed for bankruptcy. At the time, the theater had $1.5 million in debt, in addition to $2 million in unpaid taxes. The company hired Gregory Mosher as its new producer in September 1996, and Circle officials simultaneously asked Abady to resign. they gave away about 12,000 memberships this way. Mosher also scrapped the proposed 1996–1997 season and announced plans to stage the play Stanley, which had been successful on London's West End. running for two months. Sayers resigned from his position in May 1997. By then, observers expressed concerns that the theater had not announced any plays for the upcoming season. A major factor in this decision was the theater's inability to pay back taxes, A federal bankruptcy judge ruled in May 1998 that Libin and Mann could retain control of the Circle. Subsequently, the men began looking for tenants; by August 1998, there were rumors that the Manhattan Theatre Club, which was looking for a Broadway house, would move into the space. Ultimately, the Circle was reorganized as an independent commercial receiving house, making it one of the few independent Broadway theaters at the time. The theater was scheduled to reopen for the 1998–1999 season with Tennessee Williams's Not About Nightingales, which opened in February 1999. Quintero died several hours after the theater reopened; the theater hosted an event in his honor a few months later. This was followed later that year by a revival of the musical The Rocky Horror Show, which ran through early 2002. The play Metamorphoses, which opened at the Circle in March 2002, ran for 401 performances over the next year. and Bryony Lavery's drama Frozen in 2004. The Circle's next production, the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, had over 1,100 performances from 2005 to 2008. After the success of that musical, the Circle hosted the musical Glory Days, which closed after a single performance on May 6, 2008. The next year, the Circle hosted a revival of Alan Ayckbourn's musical comedy The Norman Conquests. The William Gibson play The Miracle Worker ran at the Circle for 28 performances in early 2010, followed the same year by the Eric Simonson play Lombardi. The Circle next staged the musical Godspell, which opened in November 2011 and ran for several months. It was followed by two relatively short-lived shows: the musical Soul Doctor, which had 66 performances in late 2013, and the play Bronx Bombers, which ran for less than a month in early 2014. The Circle also hosted two more successful plays in 2014: ''Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and The River, both of which recouped their production costs. The River'' set the theater's current box-office record , earning $917,000 on opening week in November 2014. The theater then hosted the musical Fun Home, which opened in 2015 and ran for more than a year, At the end of the decade, the Circle hosted two musical revivals: Once on This Island, which ran from November 2017 to January 2019, and an adaptation of Oklahoma!, which ran from April 2019 to January 2020. The theatre temporarily closed on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened on September 23, 2021, with previews of Chicken & Biscuits, which ran through November 2021. Next, the Circle hosted a revival of the play American Buffalo, which ran from April to July 2022. The musical KPOP opened at the theater in November 2022, but it lasted for only two weeks. A limited engagement of the concert Melissa Etheridge: My Window opened at the Circle in the Square in September 2023. Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People, adapted by Amy Herzog, opened at the theater in March 2024, running for three months; == School ==

The Circle in the Square Theatre School is a drama school associated with the Circle in the Square Theatre; it is the only accredited conservatory attached to a Broadway theater. The school was established in 1961 and is housed within Paramount Plaza at 1633 Broadway. The school was split from the theater itself in 1993 The school has also participated in student exchange programs. Over the years, the school's alumni have included Kevin Bacon and Philip Seymour Hoffman. ==Notable productions==

Off-Broadway This list only includes shows performed at the Circle in the Square's Sheridan Square and Bleecker Street theaters, not those performed by the company at other theaters. Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. Broadway This list only includes shows performed at the Circle in the Square's Paramount Plaza theater, not those performed by the company at other theaters. Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. ==See also==