Viewing page 16 of 25
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[2 pages]] At This Theatre THE BOOTH [[line drawing]] This warm, intimate playhouse, owned by the Shubert Organization, was built in 1913 by Lee Shubert and producer Winthrop Ames and was named for actor Edwin Booth. It shares Shubert Alley with the Shubert Theatre and has housed a distinguished collection of dramas, comedies and musicals. Its most recent productions have included The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe; Dame Edna; Via Dolorosa; an Evening With Jerry Herman; David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood; Jackie Mason's Love Thy Neighbor; Broken glass; Having Our Say; Someone Who'll Watch Over Me; a revival of Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella; the musical Once on This Island; the one-man show Tru; Shirley valentine; Michael Feinstein in Concert: Isn't it Romantic; A Walk in the Woods with Sam Waterston and Robert Prosky; Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport, a Tony Award winner for Best Play with Judd Hursch (Tony Award), Cleavon Little, Mercedes Ruehl; Sunday in the Park with George, the Pulitzer Prize musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine; Al Pacino in David Mamet's American Buffalo; Richard Dreyfuss in Total Abandon; the British play Good; and Milo O'Shea and Michael O'Keefe in the comedy Mass Appeal by Bill C. Davis, directed by Geraldine Fitzgerald. In 1979 the Shubert Organization engaged the famed interior designer Melanie Kahane to restore the Booth to its original elegance and Jacobean grandeur. That same year, a memorable play, The Elephant man by Bernard Pomerance, moved here from Off-Broadway. Philip Anglim starred, and it won three tonys including Best Play. From 1976 to 1978 this theatre housed Ntozake Shange's stirring For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, an eloquent program of poetry. Trazana Beverley won a Tony for her performance. othe rhighlights of the 1970's included a revival of Jerome Kern's Very Good Eddie; Murray Schisgal's All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman and starring Cleavon Little; Terrence McNally's Bad Habits; and Joseph Papp's production of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize play That Championship Season. The biggest hit of the 1960's was Leonard Gershe's Butterfiles Are Free (1,133 performances), starring Eileen Heckart, Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner, who won a Tony for her B'way debut. Pinter's the Birthday Party, directed by Alan Schneider; Flanders and Swann in at the Drop of Another Hat; Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Alan Arkin in Murray Schisgal's outre comedy Luv, directed by Mike Nichols; and Julie Harris, Walter Mattau and William Shatner in A Shot in the Dark kept the Booth occupied for several years. The 1950's brought Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man; William Gibson's Two for the Seesaw with Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft; Gore Vidal's Visit to a Small Planet; An Evening with Beatrice Lillie; and William inge's Come Back, Little Sheba, with Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer winning Tonys. Early hits: The Lunts in The Guardsman (1924) and Pulitzer Prize plays--You Can't Take It With You (1936) and The Time of Your Life (1939). Space limitations prevent us from mentioning all the productions which have played this theatre. [[page 2]] Completely Updated, Revised, and Back in print by Popular Demand... PLAYBILL 100 YEARS OF BROADWAY SHOWS, STOIES ANDS STARS [[image]] AT THIS THEATRE By Louis Botto Preface by Brian Stokes Mitchell Edited by Robert Viagas A LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED 376 PAGE COFFEE TABLE BOOK On Sale in September at Bookstores Nationwide
