Walter Kerr Theatre

The Walter Kerr Theatre is on 219 West 48th Street, on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The rectangular land lot covers , with a frontage of on 49th Street and a depth of . The Walter Kerr shares the block with the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to the north and Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan to the east. Other nearby buildings include One Worldwide Plaza and St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church to the northwest, the Ambassador Theatre and the Brill Building to the northeast, the Morgan Stanley Building to the southeast, the Longacre Theatre and Ethel Barrymore Theatre to the south, and the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to the southwest. ==Design==

The Walter Kerr Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed in 1921 for the Shubert brothers. It is part of a group of six theaters planned by the Shuberts after World War I, of which four were built. Edward Margolies was the general contractor who built the theater. Facade The facade is simple in design, especially when compared with Krapp's other works for the Shubert family. The Ambassador and Ritz theaters, in particular, were designed in patterned brick, with the only ornamentation being in the arrangement of the brick. This sparse ornamentation may be attributed to the lack of money in the years after World War I. A marquee hangs above the entrance at ground level, and a large sign is mounted on the right side of the facade, facing east. Auditorium The auditorium is accessed by a lobby decorated with fake-granite walls and a burgundy ceiling. The Walter Kerr Theatre has an orchestra level and two balconies. The interior layout was similar to Krapp's earlier Broadhurst and Plymouth (now Gerald Schoenfeld) theaters, but the Ritz had fewer seats than either the Broadhurst or the Plymouth, with only about 975 total at the time of opening. while Playbill gives a figure of 918 seats. Only the orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible; the other seating levels can only be reached by steps. In 1983, the theater was redecorated in pink, mauve, and gray. The proscenium arch at the front of the auditorium was tall and wide. This mural depicts Diana with two hounds; it is unknown who originally designed the mural. Two other murals had been planned for the Ritz when it opened, but they were not installed until the 1980s. ==History==

Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression. During the 1900s and 1910s, many theaters in Midtown Manhattan were developed by the Shubert brothers, one of the major theatrical syndicates of the time. The Shuberts originated from Syracuse, New York, and expanded downstate into New York City in the first decade of the 20th century. The brothers controlled a quarter of all plays and three-quarters of theatrical ticket sales in the U.S. by 1925. After World War I, the Shuberts contemplated the construction of six theaters along 48th and 49th Streets, just north of Times Square. Of these, only four were built, and only three (the Ambassador, O'Neill, and Kerr) survive. The brothers believed that the sites on 48th and 49th Streets could be as profitable as theaters on 42nd Street, which historically was Times Square's legitimate theatrical hub. A site on 48th Street was selected in addition to three on 49th Street, and Krapp was hired to design the theaters. That February, the Shuberts announced that the theater on 48th Street would be called the Ritz and that it would open the next month. which the New-York Tribune called a "world's record". The next month, William Harris Jr. leased the Ritz Theatre for ten years, and he immediately brought the Porter Emerson Browne play The Bad Man to the Ritz. Later that year, the theater hosted its first hit: the play ''Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, featuring Ina Claire. The next year, the theater hosted The Enchanted Cottage with Katharine Cornell, The play Outward Bound'', with Margalo Gillmore, Leslie Howard, and Alfred Lunt, opened at the Ritz in January 1924. That July, Hassard Short leased the theater for his Ritz Revue, which opened in September and was the theater's first musical production. Also that year, Al Jolson's Coolidge-Dawes Theatrical League was established at the theater, and the venue staged the John Galsworthy play Old English with George Arliss. The play The Kiss in the Taxi opened at the Ritz in 1925 with Claudette Colbert, and Young Blood with Helen Hayes opened later that year. This was followed in 1927 by Bye, Bye, Bonnie with Ruby Keeler, The Legend of Leonora with Grace George, A. H. Woods leased the Ritz later that year to show his play The First of These Gentlemen. The play Excess Baggage opened at the end of 1927, featuring Frank McHugh and Miriam Hopkins, and lasted through mid-1928. The next production was also a success: Courage with Janet Beecher, which opened in October 1928 and ran until the following June. Subsequently, the theater hosted Broken Dishes, which opened in November 1929 and featured Donald Meek and Bette Davis. The same month, the popular comedy Mendel, Inc. opened with Smith and Dale, running through the next year. By the end of the 1920s, the Shuberts had taken over the Ritz Theatre's bookings from Harris after several flop runs. The next year saw a two-week run of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''Alison's House, The Elizabeth McFadden melodrama Double Door occupied the Ritz during late 1933, while Mildred Natwick and Frank Lawton starred the next year in The Wind and the Rain. Other shows of the period included Petticoat Fever in 1935 with Leo G. Carroll and Dennis King, as well as Co-Respondent Unknown'' in 1936 with Peggy Conklin and Ilka Chase. In December 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)'s Federal Theatre Project hosted a week-long run of its dance program, The Eternal Prodigal, at the Ritz after eleven months of preparation. The theater hosted Power, a show produced as part of the WPA's Living Newspaper series, the following February; it lasted for five months. In November 1937, the Surry Players presented their revival of Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Ritz. Next, Gilbert Miller's production of the T. S. Eliot play Murder in the Cathedral opened at the Ritz in February 1938, running for six weeks. but the production closed that May after the Federal Theatre Project was dissolved. Playhouse Broadcasting studio Lee Shubert leased the Ritz to CBS in October 1939. Consequently, the Ritz became known as CBS Theater No. 4, supplementing three other broadcast studios at 141 West 45th Street, 251 West 45th Street, and 1697 Broadway. CBS quickly put Theater No. 4 into use for the taping of The Gay Nineties Revue and Walter O'Keefe's Tuesday Night Party. Among other things, the NBC studio was used for taping the TV program 21 Men and a Girl, as well as a speech by 1940 U.S. presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. NBC's lease on the Ritz expired at the beginning of 1942, and the theater returned to legitimate use with the opening of the revue Harlem Cavalcade in May 1942. Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1943 opened that December. This was followed in 1943 by a revival of the long-running play Tobacco Road. The Blue Network leased the Ritz Theatre in late 1943, initially using the theater for public-relations broadcasts. The Blue Network studio was used to broadcast Radio Hall of Fame, the first regular-network show to be recorded by television cameras, as well as such events as a concert recital by Thomas Beecham. The Hattie Hill estate sold the theater to the Simon brothers in March 1945; at the time, it was a broadcast studio for WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV). That November, the Shubert brothers acquired the theater from Leonard H. Burns, Margaret F. Doyle, and Harriet P. Stieff. ABC, which operated WJZ-TV, was leasing the theater for three-year periods as of 1946. It was one of three studios ABC was using by the late 1940s. ABC's broadcasts at the theater included a game show called Stop the Music (for which a second-floor dressing room was equipped with a telephone switchboard), as well as a Thanksgiving variety show. ABC upgraded the lighting and expanded the Ritz's stage by about in 1950; this required the removal of all seating in the orchestra. At the time, the Ritz was one of several former Broadway theaters that had been converted to broadcast studios within the last several years. The ABC studio remained in use even as the Shuberts sold the theater to John Minary in July 1956. In turn, Minary sold the theater to real-estate investor Joseph P. Blitz that December; at the time, the venue was reported as having 600 seats. Blitz co-owned the theater with Herbert Fischbach, who in February 1957 bought out Blitz's stake. The Royal Ballet obtained an option on the Ritz in 1962, intending to show four ballets by Alan Carter. Leonard Tow and Roger Euster, owners of the Little Theatre (another Broadway house converted to a studio), acquired the Ritz in 1963. The next year, Euster sold his stake to Leonard B. Moore. Subsequently, the theater was dark from 1965 to 1969. Brief legitimate return, children's theater In 1970, Eddie Bracken took over the theater. but Soon soon flopped with three performances in January 1971. which closed after five performances. Both of these plays used temporary seats that were installed above the concrete orchestra. The show was so poorly received that it closed the same night. like its predecessors, the show was a flop, closing after two performances. This was followed in February 1973 by the British hit ''No Sex Please, We're British'' with Maureen O'Sullivan, but it failed on Broadway with 16 performances. During this time, the children's theater was fighting lawsuits over whether it could be named after the late politician Robert F. Kennedy. The RFK Children's Theater neglected to pay rent and, in 1976, it was evicted from the Ritz under an action brought by the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia. Afterward, the Ritz was used to store posters. Carter won the auction, but he sold the theater to Jujamcyn for $1.7 million, keeping its air rights for the construction of a skyscraper called Ritz Plaza. In August 1981, Jujamcyn announced that it had acquired the Ritz and ANTA (now August Wilson) theaters. Jujamcyn announced it would reopen the Ritz to counterbalance the impending demolition of the Helen Hayes and Morosco theaters two blocks south. Roger Morgan Studios and Karen Rosen of KMR Design oversaw the theater's renovation, which cost $1.5 million. The show Hell of a Town had actually been booked in 1982 but was later dropped. Finally, on May 10, 1983, The Flying Karamazov Brothers reopened the theater with their eponymous juggling show. The next January, Ian McKellen appeared in a solo show, Acting Shakespeare; it ran for a month. Broadway theatrical unions had classified the Ritz as "endangered" because it was consistently underused. Producer Morton Gottlieb first proposed the 499-seat plan for his play Dancing in the End Zone in 1984. This was followed by Doubles in 1985, which subsequently became a success and switched to using the theater's full capacity, The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting the Ritz as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. While the LPC commenced a wide-ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters in 1987, the Ritz was among the few theaters for which the LPC denied either exterior or interior landmark status. Among the theater's productions in 1987 were the play A Month of Sundays, the musical Nite Comic, and a Penn & Teller special. The last production staged at the Ritz prior to its renaming was Chu Chem, which ran from April to May 1989. By the end of the year, the facade had been cleaned at a cost of $400,000. 1990s and 2000s The theater reopened on March 5, 1990, with a musical tribute to Walter Kerr. The first production at the newly renovated theater was August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, which opened the next month, running through January 1991. The program covered the Belasco, Nederlander, and Walter Kerr theaters. The Paul Rudnick play I Hate Hamlet then opened in April 1991 and ran for 80 performances. This was followed in 1992 by Abraham Tetenbaum's short-lived play Crazy He Calls Me and Wilson's Two Trains Running. Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, the first part of a two-part play, opened in May 1993. The second part, Angels in America: Perestroika, opened in November 1993; the two parts were performed in repertory until the end of 1994. Terrence McNally's play Love! Valour! Compassion! transferred from off-Broadway in 1995, and Patti LuPone performed a solo concert later that year for 46 performances. Wilson's Seven Guitars premiered at the Walter Kerr in 1996, The dance special Forever Tango launched at the Walter Kerr in 1997, running for nine months. The next two productions were hits by Irish playwrights. Martin McDonagh's off-Broadway play The Beauty Queen of Leenane moved to the Walter Kerr in 1998, followed the next year by Conor McPherson's The Weir. Coward's Waiting in the Wings had its first Broadway production at the Walter Kerr in December 1999, relocating three months later to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. David Auburn's play Proof transferred from off-Broadway that October, running for 917 performances through January 2003. Next, the comedy Take Me Out opened in February 2003 and ran for a year, This was followed in April 2004 by the short-lived drama Sixteen Wounded, then in December 2004 by Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. After Jujamcyn president James Binger died in 2004, Rocco Landesman bought the Walter Kerr and Jujamcyn's four other theaters in 2005, along with the air rights above them. Jordan Roth joined Jujamcyn as a resident producer the same year. John Patrick Shanley's play Doubt: A Parable also opened at the Walter Kerr in 2005, running for over a year. Subsequently, the musical Grey Gardens opened in late 2006 for a 307-performance run, and Chazz Palminteri's solo show A Bronx Tale launched at the theater in 2007. The Walter Kerr showed several relatively short runs in 2008 and 2009, including A Catered Affair, The Seagull, and ''Irena's Vow. At the end of that year, the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music'' was revived, running until January 2011. 2010s to present The first new productions of the 2010s were a revival of John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves in 2011, followed the same year by the musical Lysistrata Jones. The Walter Kerr then hosted the plays Clybourne Park, The Heiress, and The Testament of Mary over the next two years, The musical comedy ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' opened in November 2013, The next two shows were revivals: and William Finn and James Lapine's musical Falsettos, which opened that October. The Walter Kerr then hosted an original production of the musical Amélie in April and May 2017. That October, musician Bruce Springsteen commenced his concert special Springsteen on Broadway, which was originally supposed to stay at the theater for eight weeks. The show instantly became popular and was extended three times, the last performance being December 15, 2018. The musical Hadestown was the next show to open at the Walter Kerr, premiering in April 2019; , it is the longest-running show in the theater's history. All Broadway theaters temporarily closed on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Walter Kerr reopened on September 2, 2021, with performances of Hadestown. Jujamcyn and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) agreed to merge in early 2023; the combined company would operate seven Broadway theaters, including the Walter Kerr. In July 2023, Jordan Roth sold a 93 percent stake in Jujamcyn's five theaters, including the Walter Kerr Theatre, to ATG and Providence Equity. == Notable productions ==

Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. This list only includes Broadway shows; it does not include other live shows or films presented at the theater, nor does it include shows that were taped there. Ritz Theatre Walter Kerr Theatre Since its reopening, the Walter Kerr has housed seven winners of the Tony Award for Best Play: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Angels in America: Perestroika, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Proof, Take Me Out, Doubt, and Clybourne Park. It also housed two winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical: ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Hadestown''. ==References==