Music Box Theatre facts for kids
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Music Box Theatre, showing Dear Evan Hansen, July 2019
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| Address | 239 West 45th Street New York City United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°45′31.34″N 73°59′13.62″W / 40.7587056°N 73.9871167°W |
| Owner | Shubert Organization |
| Type | Broadway |
| Capacity | 1,025 (including 35 in the orchestra pit) |
| Production | Dear Evan Hansen |
| Construction | |
| Opened | September 1921 |
| Architect | C. Howard Crane |
| Website | |
| www.shubert.nyc/theatres/music-box | |
The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
History
The Music Box Theatre was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed specifically to house Irving Berlin's and Sam H. Harris's Music Box Revue. 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 musical, opened at the theatre. 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 play The Man Who Came to Dinner. Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin also presented shows here.
In the 1950s, playwright William Inge had success at the Music Box with Picnic, Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
One of the smaller Broadway theatres, with a seating capacity of 990, the Music Box was co-owned by Berlin's estate and the Shubert Organization until the latter assumed full ownership in 2007. Its box seats are unusually large and round, and Dame Edna described them as "ashtrays" during her run there. The lobby features a plaque and wall exhibit commemorating the theatre's history.
The Brown Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, is modeled after the Music Box Theatre.
Other notable productions
- 1931: Of Thee I Sing
- 1932: Dinner at Eight
- 1933: As Thousands Cheer
- 1934: Merrily We Roll Along
- 1935: Rain; Ceiling Zero; If This Be Treason; Pride and Prejudice; First Lady
- 1936: Stage Door
- 1937: Of Mice and Men
- 1944: I Remember Mama
- 1948: Summer and Smoke
- 1949: Lost in the Stars
- 1954: The Solid Gold Cadillac
- 1956: Separate Tables
- 1959: Five Finger Exercise
- 1964: Any Wednesday
- 1966: Wait Until Dark
- 1967: The Homecoming
- 1970: Sleuth
- 1974: Absurd Person Singular
- 1977: Side by Side by Sondheim
- 1978: Deathtrap
- 1982: Agnes of God
- 1987: Les liaisons dangereuses
- 1989: A Few Good Men
- 1993: Blood Brothers
- 1996: State Fair
- 1997: The Diary of Anne Frank
- 1999: Closer; Amadeus
- 2000: The Dinner Party
- 2002: Fortune's Fool
- 2003: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- 2005: In My Life
- 2006: Festen; The Vertical Hour
- 2007: Deuce; The Farnsworth Invention
- 2008: August: Osage County
- 2009: Superior Donuts
- 2010: Lend Me a Tenor; La Bête
- 2011: Jerusalem; Private Lives
- 2012: Shatner's World: We Just Live in It; One Man, Two Guvnors; Dead Accounts
- 2013: Pippin
- 2015: The Heidi Chronicles, King Charles III
- 2016: Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed; Dear Evan Hansen
- 2017—present: Dear Evan Hansen
Box office record
Dear Evan Hansen achieved the box office record for the Music Box Theatre. The production grossed $2,119,371 over eight performances, for the week ending December 31, 2017. This is also the highest gross for a Broadway house that seats under 1,000.
- Music Box Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
Images for kids
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Box detail
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Stair from the basement lounge to the foyer
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View of the auditorium
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Scaffolding over the entrance
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Seen from the east
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The marquee as seen in 2012
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