August Wilson Theatre
Encyclopedia
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52nd Street (Manhattan)
52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, is a Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Designed by architects C. Howard Crane
C. Howard Crane
Charles Howard Crane was an American architect.Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane established a practice in Detroit, Michigan early in the 20th Century. Like Thomas W. Lamb and John Eberson, Crane specialized in the design of movie palaces in North American...
and Kenneth Franzheim and constructed by the Theatre Guild
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...
, it opened as the Guild Theatre in 1925 with a revival of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's Caesar and Cleopatra
Caesar and Cleopatra (play)
Caesar and Cleopatra, a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw, was first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his 1901 collection, Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed at Newcastle-on-Tyne on March 15, 1899...
.
In 1943, the building was leased to WOR-Mutual Radio as a studio. The American National Theater and Academy
American National Theater and Academy
The American National Theatre and Academy is a non-profit theatre producer and training organization that was established in 1935 to be the official United States national theatre that would be an alternative to the for-profit Broadway houses of the day....
purchased it in 1950 and renamed it the ANTA Theatre. In 1981, the theatre was purchased by Jujamcyn Theaters
Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation
The Jujamcyn Theaters , formerly the Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation, is a theatrical producing and theatre-ownership company in New York City. For many years Jujamcyn was owned by James H. Binger, former Chairman of Honeywell, and his wife Virginia McKnight Binger...
and named the Virginia Theatre for owner and Jujamcyn Board member Virginia McKnight Binger
James H. Binger
James Henry Binger was a lawyer who became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell. He was also a well known philanthropist, horse enthusiast and New York and Minneapolis theatre owner and entrepreneur.-Career:...
.
After her husband James H. Binger
James H. Binger
James Henry Binger was a lawyer who became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell. He was also a well known philanthropist, horse enthusiast and New York and Minneapolis theatre owner and entrepreneur.-Career:...
's death in 2004, producer and president of Jujamcyn Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman
Rocco Landesman has been a long-time Broadway theatre producer. In August 2009 he became chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts...
announced that he planned to buy Jujamcyn. He told the New York Times he had a long-standing understanding with Binger that he would buy the corporation's five playhouses. The theatres had an estimated net asset value of $30 million.
On October 16, 2005, fourteen days after American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
August Wilson
August Wilson
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...
's death, the theatre was renamed in his honor.
Notable productions
- 2005: Little WomenLittle Women (musical)Little Women is a musical with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland.Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters - brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and...
; Jersey BoysJersey BoysJersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons... - 2003: Little Shop of HorrorsLittle Shop of Horrors (musical)Little Shop of Horrors is a rock musical, by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...
- 2002: Flower Drum SongFlower Drum SongFlower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
, The CrucibleThe CrucibleThe Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists... - 2000: The Wild PartyThe Wild Party (LaChiusa musical)The Wild Party is a musical with a book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe and music and lyrics by LaChiusa. It is based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March narrative poem of the same name...
- 1995: Smokey Joe's CafeSmokey Joe's CafeSmokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...
- 1993: My Fair LadyMy Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
- 1992: Jelly's Last JamJelly's Last JamJelly's Last Jam is a musical with a book by George C. Wolfe, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and music by Jelly Roll Morton and Luther Henderson...
- 1989: City of AngelsCity of Angels (musical)City of Angels is a musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and book by Larry Gelbart. The musical weaves together two plots, the "real" world of a writer trying to turn his book into a screenplay, and the "reel" world of the fictional film.-Productions:City of Angels...
- 1988: CarrieCarrie (musical)Carrie: The Musical is a musical with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. Adapted from Stephen King's novel Carrie, it focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother...
- 1983: On Your ToesOn Your ToesOn Your Toes is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939....
- 1981: AnnieAnnie (musical)Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
; CopperfieldCopperfield (musical)Copperfield is a 1981 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, who were nominated for the 1981 Tony Award for Best Original Score. It is based on the classic 1850 novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.... - 1980: The SuicideThe Suicide (play)The Suicide is a 1928 play by the Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman. Its performance was proscribed during the Stalinist era and it was only produced in Russia several years after the death of its writer...
- 1978: First Monday in OctoberFirst Monday in OctoberFirst Monday in October is a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The title refers to the day on which the United States Supreme Court traditionally convenes following its summer recess....
- 1976: Bubbling Brown SugarBubbling Brown SugarBubbling Brown Sugar is a musical revue written by Loften Mitchell based on a concept by Rosetta LeNoire and featuring the music of numerous African-American artists who were popular during the Harlem Renaissance, 1920–1940, including Duke Ellington, Eubie Blake, Count Basie, Cab Calloway and Fats...
- 1975: Summer BraveSummer BraveSummer Brave is a play by William Inge, a revision of his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1953 play Picnic. Set in a small town in Kansas in the early 1950s, it focuses on Hal Carter, an attractive young stranger who drifts into town just before the annual Labor Day celebration and sets off a chain of...
- 1974: Cat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
- 1972: Different Times
- 1971: PurliePurliePurlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...
- 1969: Our TownOur TownOur Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
- 1968: Maggie FlynnMaggie FlynnMaggie Flynn is a musical with a book by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and music and lyrics by Peretti, Creatore, and Weiss....
- 1965: The Royal Hunt of the SunThe Royal Hunt of the SunThe Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that portrays the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro.-Premiere:...
- 1964: The Owl and the PussycatThe Owl and the Pussycat"The Owl and the Pussycat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1871.- Background :Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds...
- 1961: A Man for All SeasonsA Man for All SeasonsA Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...
- 1958: Say, DarlingSay, DarlingSay, Darling is a three-act comic play by Abe Burrows and Marian and Richard Bissell about the creation of a Broadway musical. Although the play featured nine original songs with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne, all of the songs were presented as either rehearsal or...
- 1955: The Skin of Our TeethThe Skin of Our TeethThe Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942...
; Seventh Heaven - 1952: Golden Boy
- 1951: The House of Bernarda Alba
- 1941: Ah, Wilderness!Ah, Wilderness!Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 2 October 1933.-Plot summary:...
- 1938: The Merchant of YonkersThe Merchant of YonkersThe Merchant of Yonkers is a play by Thornton Wilder.Hilary Daniels 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842...
- 1936: And Stars Remain with Clifton WebbClifton WebbClifton Webb was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura, The Razor's Edge, and Sitting Pretty...
as Overton Morrell . - 1931: Mourning Becomes ElectraMourning Becomes ElectraMourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...
- 1928: Major Barbara
- 1926: PygmalionPygmalion (play)Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...