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Music Box Theatre, United States

Category: Attraction

Address details

239 West 45th Street
Between 7th and 8th Avenues
New York
NY 10036
USA

New York, United States Print route » N40° 45' 31.34" W73° 59' 13.62"   (40.758705555556, -73.987116666667) Start navigation »

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The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan, NY.
The Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to house Berlin's Music Box Revues. 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 here. 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 860, 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 successful 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.

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