The Booth Theatre is a Broadway

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...

 theatre located at 222 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way

George Abbott Way

George Abbott Way is a section of West 45th Street northwest of Times Square in New York City, named for famed Broadway producer and director George Abbott...

) in midtown-Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York City.

Architect Henry B. Herts designed the Booth and its companion Shubert Theatre

Shubert Theatre (Broadway)

The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...

 as a back-to-back pair sharing a Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

-style façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

. Named in honor of famed 19th-century American actor Edwin Booth

Edwin Booth

Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...

, brother of John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...

, the theater's 783-seat auditorium was intended to provide an intimate setting for dramatic and comedy plays. It opened on October 16, 1913, with Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...

's play The Great Adventure.

The venue was the second New York City theatre to bear this name. The first was built by the architectural partnership Renwick & Sands between 1867-69 on the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue (see picture, below).

The Booth Theatre appeared in The West Wing

The West Wing (TV series)

The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...

episode Posse Comitatus

Posse Comitatus (The West Wing)

"Posse Comitatus" is episode 66 of The West Wing. The name of the episode refers to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.-Plot:In the season finale, Bartlet must decide the fate of Abdul ibn Shareef, the defense minister of Qumar, who has been using his position to plan terrorist attacks against the US...

. It hosted a fictitous charity performance of War of the Roses which an equally fictitious President Bartlet attended during the assassination of the Qumari Defence Minister Abdul ibn Shareef

Abdul ibn Shareef

Abdul Ibn Shareef, former defense minister of Qumar, is a fictional character played by Al No'mani on the television serial drama The West Wing.-Character history:...

.

The theatre was recently home to the critically acclaimed Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 and Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning musical Next to Normal, originally starring Tony Award winner Alice Ripley and Tony nominees J. Robert Spencer

J. Robert Spencer

Robert John Spencer is an American actor and singer, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in the Broadway musical Next to Normal....

 and Jennifer Damiano

Jennifer Damiano

Jennifer Damiano is an American actress and singer, most known for originating the role of Natalie Goodman in Next to Normal on Broadway. She was nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in that musical...

. The production then starred Marin Mazzie

Marin Mazzie

Marin Joy Mazzie is an American actress and singer known for her work in musical theater. She was nominated for the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Olivier Award for her role as Lilli/Katharine in Kiss Me, Kate, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award...

 and Jason Danieley

Jason Danieley

Jason D. Danieley is an American actor, singer, concert performer and recording artist. He is married to fellow Broadway star, Marin Mazzie-Biography:...

 in Ripley and Spencer's original respective roles. The production closed on January 16, 2011.

The theatre's most recent tenant was High

High (play)

High is a play written by Matthew Lombardo. The story revolves around a nun, Sister Jamison Connelly, who deals with her sordid past and the people around her with her acerbic wit and wisdom. When Sister Jamison agrees to sponsor a gay 19-year-old drug user and hustler in an effort to help him...

, a play starring Kathleen Turner

Kathleen Turner

Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...

, which opened April 19, 2011, and closed on April 24, 2011, after seven regular performances and 29 previews.

Notable productions

• 1913: "The Great Adventure
  The Great Adventure
  The Great Adventure is the fifth album released by Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman. The album was released on November 18, 1992 by Sparrow Records. It went Gold in just under seven months, being certified June 15, 1993....
  
  "
• 1915: Our American Cousin
  Our American Cousin
  Our American Cousin is an 1858 play in three acts by English playwright Tom Taylor. The play is a farce whose plot is based on the introduction of an awkward, boorish but honest American, Asa Trenchard, to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family estate...
  
  
• 1915: Alice in Wonderland
• 1936: You Can't Take It With You
  You Can't Take It with You
  You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936, and played for 837 performances...
  
  
• 1939: The Time of Your Life
  The Time of Your Life
  The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City...
  
  
• 1942: Blithe Spirit
  Blithe Spirit (play)
  Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
  
  
• 1947: An Inspector Calls
  An Inspector Calls
  An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK. It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...
  
  
• 1950: Come Back, Little Sheba
  Come Back, Little Sheba (play)
  Come Back, Little Sheba is a 1950 play by the American dramatist William Inge. The play was Inge's first, written while he was a teacher at Washington University in St...
  
  
• 1954: Dial M for Murder
  Dial M for Murder
  Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American thriller film adapted from a successful stage play by Frederick Knott, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie was released by the Warner Bros...
  
  
• 1956: The Matchmaker
  The Matchmaker
  The Matchmaker is a play by Thornton Wilder.The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 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...
  
  
• 1957: "Visit to a Small Planet
  Visit to a Small Planet
  Visit to a Small Planet is a 1960 Paramount Pictures film starring Jerry Lewis, based on a play by Gore Vidal. It was released on February 4, 1960.-Plot:...
  
  "
• 1958: Two for the Seesaw
  Two for the Seesaw
  Two for the Seesaw is a 1962 romance-drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It was adapted from the Broadway play written by William Gibson.-Plot:...
  
  
• 1961: A Taste of Honey
  A Taste of Honey
  A Taste of Honey is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 18. It was initially intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalize British theatre and to address social issues that she felt were not being presented...
  
  
• 1964: Luv
  Luv (play)
  Luv is a play by Murray Schisgal.A mix of absurdist humor and traditional Broadway comedy more in the Neil Simon vein, Luv concerns two college friends - misfit Harry and materialistic Milt - who are reunited when the latter stops the former from jumping off a bridge, the play's setting. Each...
  
  
• 1969: Butterflies Are Free
  Butterflies Are Free
  Butterflies Are Free is a 1972 film based on a play by Leonard Gershe. The 1972 film was produced by M.J. Frankovich, released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Milton Katselas and adapted for the screen by Gershe. It was released on 6 July, 1972 in the USA.Goldie Hawn and Edward Albert starred...
  
  
• 1972: That Championship Season
  That Championship Season
  That Championship Season is a 1972 play by Jason Miller. It was the recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Plot synopsis:Characters* The Coach* George Sitkowski* Phil Romano* James Daley* Tom Daley...
  
  
• 1974: Bad Habits
  Bad Habits (play)
  Bad Habits is play by Terrence McNally.The comedy is composed of what originally were written as two one-act plays set in sanatoriums. In Ravenswood, a doctor allows his patients to indulge in all their bad habits as means of finding happiness...
  
  
• 1975: Very Good Eddie
  Very Good Eddie
  Very Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...
  
  
• 1976: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
  For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
  For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a 1975 experimental play by Ntozake Shange. Initially staged in California, it has been performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and adapted as a book, a television film, and a theatrical film...
  
  
• 1979: The Elephant Man
  The Elephant Man (play)
  The Elephant Man is a 1977 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut in 1979 was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss...
  
  
• 1984: Sunday in the Park with George
  Sunday in the Park with George
  Sunday in the Park with George is a 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical was inspired by the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat...
  
  
• 1985: I'm Not Rappaport
  I'm Not Rappaport
  I'm Not Rappaport is a play by Herb Gardner originally staged by Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1984. Its Broadway debut production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, starring Judd Hirsch, Cleavon Little, Jace Alexander, and Mercedes Ruehl, opened on November 19, 1985 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran...
  
  
• 1989: Shirley Valentine
  Shirley Valentine
  Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.-Plot:...
  
  ; Tru
  Tru (play)
  Tru is a play by Jay Presson Allen.Adapted from the words and works of Truman Capote, it is set in the writer's New York City apartment at 870 United Nations Plaza the week before Christmas 1975...
  
  
• 1990: Once on This Island
  Once On This Island
  Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea...
  
  
• 1998: The Old Neighborhood
• 1999: Dame Edna: The Royal Tour
• 2002: Bea Arthur on Broadway
• 2005: The Pillowman
  The Pillowman
  The Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995...
  
  
• 2006: Butley
• 2007: The Year of Magical Thinking, The Seafarer
  The Seafarer (play)
  The Seafarer is a 2006 play by Irish playwright Conor McPherson. It is set on Christmas Eve in Baldoyle, a coastal suburb north of Dublin city. The play centers on James "Sharkey" Harkin, an alcoholic who has recently returned to live with his blind, aging brother, Richard Harkin...
  
  
• 2008: Thurgood, Dividing The Estate
  Dividing the Estate
  Dividing the Estate is a play by Horton Foote. Set in the fictional town of Harrison, Texas in 1987, it focuses on the Gordons, a clan of malcontents ruled by octogenarian matriarch Stella that must prepare for an uncertain future when plunging real estate values and an unexpected tax bill have a...
  
  
• 2009: The Story of My Life
  The Story of My Life (musical)
  The Story of My Life is a musical with music and lyrics by Neil Bartram, and a book by Brian Hill. The show follows two childhood friends from age six to 35 and has only two characters....
  
  
• 2009: Next to Normal
• 2011: High
  High (play)
  High is a play written by Matthew Lombardo. The story revolves around a nun, Sister Jamison Connelly, who deals with her sordid past and the people around her with her acerbic wit and wisdom. When Sister Jamison agrees to sponsor a gay 19-year-old drug user and hustler in an effort to help him...
  
  

Box Office record

Winner of three Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Actress in a Musical, Next to Normal achieved the box office record for the Booth Theatre. The production grossed $550,409 over eight performances, for the week ending January 3, 2010. One year later Next to Normal broke that record again during its final week on Broadway (week ending January 16, 2011) grossing $552,563 over eight performances.

External links

• Official website
• Booth Theater Broadway Show Guide.