- For other uses, see Imperial Theatre.
The Imperial Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 249 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The
theatre seats up to 1417 people
The Shubert Organization's fiftieth venue in New York City, it was constructed to replace their outdated Lyric Theatre. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp specifically to accommodate
musical theatre productions, it opened on December
25 1923 with the Oscar Hammerstein
II-Vincent Youmans production Mary Jane McKane. Since then, it has hosted
numerous important musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946),
Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Dreamgirls (1981), The Mystery of Edwin
Drood (1985), and Les Miserables (1990), which played at the
theatre until 2003.
Among the famed 20th century composers and lyricists whose works were housed here are
Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold
Rome, Frank Loesser, Lionel Bart,
Bob Merrill, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, E.Y. Harburg, Harold
Arlen, and George and Ira Gershwin.
Performers who have graced the stage include Gertrude Lawrence, John Gielgud, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Mary Boland, Ray
Bolger, Desi Arnaz, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Zero Mostel, Danny
Kaye, Jerry Orbach, Shelley Winters,
Bernadette Peters, Ben Vereen, Hugh Jackman, and John Lithgow.
Notable productions
Imperial Theatre, May 2007
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
