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Comedy Theatre (New York City)

March 12, 2024

The Comedy Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan that opened in 1909. It presented the first Broadway appearances of Katharine Cornell and Ruth Draper, as well as Eugene O'Neill's first Broadway play. Shuttered in the wake of the Depression, it reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre — the venue for Orson Welles's groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and other productions for the Mercury Theatre repertory company. In 1939 it began presenting classic Yiddish theatre. The building was demolished in 1942.

Comedy Theatre
  • Collier's Comedy Theatre (1910–13)
  • Mercury Theatre (1937–40)
  • Artef Theatre (1940–42)
Address110 West 41st Street
New York City
United States
Coordinates40°45′16″N 73°59′07″W / 40.7543717°N 73.9853195°W / 40.7543717; -73.9853195
OwnerThe Shubert Organization
TypeBroadway
Capacity687
Construction
OpenedSeptember 6, 1909
Demolished1942
Years active1909–1942
ArchitectD. G. Malcolm

History edit

 
Mercury Theatre seating plan from the playbill for Heartbreak House (1938)

Architect D. G. Malcolm designed the Comedy Theatre, a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan, for The Shubert Organization.[1] Its first production, The Melting Pot, opened September 6, 1909.[2] The 687-seat theatre[3]: 286  was a venue for more intimate productions, and was often leased to producers including William Collier, Cecil B. DeMille, and the Washington Square Players.[1] Katharine Cornell made her first Broadway appearance at the Comedy Theatre, and Ruth Draper also made her debut there.[2] Eugene O'Neill's first Broadway play, In the Zone, opened at the Comedy Theatre in 1917.[4] With its narrow orchestra pit and a booth for follow spots at the rear of the second balcony, the theatre was also used for small musical shows.[3]: 286 

The Comedy Theatre was shuttered in 1931, in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[1] It reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre, leased by John Houseman and Orson Welles for their new repertory theatre company, the Mercury Theatre. Houseman later described the venue as "an intimate, rococo, two-balcony theatre [that] was for many years one of Manhattan's most elegant smaller playhouses."[3]: 286 

The Mercury company was able to lease the Comedy Theatre for three years at $187.50 a week. The intermediary for the owner, reputedly a Chicago gangster, said that the owner would not pay a cent for any repairs or maintenance, but he did not care what was done to the building as long as the first three months' rent was paid in advance.[3]: 286–287  When the Mercury took over the theatre, production manager Jean Rosenthal presented Houseman with "a formidable list of absolute and immediate necessities, which included major repairs to the grid, new rigging and power lines and a new stage floor to replace the rotting planks through which huge, fearless rodents could be seen emerging on their hunting excursions." The repairs, which also included cleaning the rusty, grimy exterior, had to be made within a month.[3]: 292  At the end of October 1937, press agent Henry Senber oversaw a ceremony unveiling the new electric sign identifying the theatre as the Mercury. Ticket prices ranged from 55 cents, for seats in the top balcony, to $2.20 for front row orchestra seats.[5]: 34–35 

It was the venue for most of the Mercury's productions from November 1937 to November 1938.[1][6]: 339  The first was Caesar, Welles's modern-dress adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, streamlined into a critically acclaimed anti-fascist tour de force.[6]: 339  Its last production there was Danton's Death (1938).[7] The Mercury Theatre productions are regarded as the greatest successes of the venue's history.[2]

In June 1939 the theatre began its final transition when Welles and Houseman leased the Mercury Theatre to the newly formed Dramatic Art Theatrical Association[7] and the Artef Players, a well-known Yiddish theatre company.[8] The facility operated as the Artef Theatre from 1940 until its demolition in 1942.[1]

The site is now occupied by an office building. In 2009 a plaque was dedicated there to mark the location of the historic Mercury Theatre.[9]

Notable productions edit

Comedy Theatre edit

Collier's Comedy Theatre edit

Mercury Theatre edit

 
After "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, photographers lay in wait for Welles at the all-night rehearsal for Danton's Death at the Mercury Theatre (October 31, 1938)

Artef Players at the Mercury Theatre edit

  • Clinton Street (opening October 12, 1939; Artef Players leasing the venue still named the Mercury Theatre)[13]
  • Uriel Acosta (December 29, 1939 – February 18, 1940; Artef Players leasing the venue still named the Mercury Theatre)[2][14][15][16]

Cultural references edit

Richard Linklater's 2008 film, Me and Orson Welles, is a romantic comedy set during the days before the opening of Caesar at the Mercury Theatre. "Like most Welles stage shows, alas, this one left few traces," wrote Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout. "No part of the production was filmed, and nothing else survives but the design sketches and some still photographs taken in 1937. … What makes Me and Orson Welles uniquely interesting to scholars of American drama is that Mr. Linklater's design team found the Gaiety Theatre on the Isle of Man. This house closely resembles the old Comedy Theatre on 41st Street, which was torn down five years after Julius Caesar opened there. Using Samuel Leve's original designs, they reconstructed the set for Julius Caesar on the Gaiety's stage. Then Mr. Linklater filmed some 15 minutes' worth of scenes from the play, lit according to Jean Rosenthal's plot, accompanied by Marc Blitzstein's original incidental music and staged in a style as close to that of the 1937 production as is now possible." Teachout wrote that he "was floored by the verisimilitude of the results".[17]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Artef Theatre". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bloom, Ken (2013). The Routledge Guide to Broadway. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. p. 52. ISBN 9781135871178. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Houseman, John (1972). Run-Through: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21034-3.
  4. ^ "Comedy Theatre". Playbill. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  5. ^ a b Anderson, Arthur (2010). An Actor's Odyssey. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593935221.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1992). This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
  7. ^ a b "Houseman, Welles Quit at Mercury". The New York Times. June 16, 1939. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  8. ^ "Return of the Artef". The New York Times. October 8, 1939. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  9. ^ Feder, Chris Welles (November 26, 2009). "Chris Welles Feder and Christian McKay unveil a plaque celebrating Orson Welles's Mercury Theater on Broadway". Wellesnet. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  10. ^ . Archived from the original on 2021-03-04. Retrieved 2017-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "'Plant in Sun' Repeated … Also 'I've Got the Tune'". The New York Times. February 21, 1938. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
  12. ^ Lehrman, Leonard (2005). Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 9780313300271.
  13. ^ "Artef Group Back". The New York Times. October 12, 1939. Retrieved 2015-09-03. 'Clinton Street,' Louis Miller's Yiddish dramatization of Chaver Paver's book on East Side life, opens tonight under the banner of the Artef Players at the Mercury Theatre. … Orson Welles and John Houseman have asked the Artef, inactive since the Spring, to remove the name Mercury from the theatre.
  14. ^ "'Mercury' Row Settled; Artef Players, Houseman and Orson Welles Reach Agreement". The New York Times. December 1, 1939. Retrieved 2015-09-03. The Artef Players may identify the theatre where they are now playing until Jan. 1; then they must choose a new name … By mid-February the Mercury will be dropped altogether from the title of the Forty-first Street house.
  15. ^ "'Uriel Acosta' at Mercury". The New York Times. December 31, 1939. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  16. ^ "Warners Acquire 'Jupiter Laughs'". The New York Times. January 18, 1940. Retrieved 2015-09-03. The dispute between the Mercury Theatre and the Artef Players has apparently lapsed, the latter group being able to use the name Mercury for its house until the close of its second production, Uriel Acosta, which has theatre parties through Feb. 18. Jan. 1 had been the supposed deadline for a change in name of the theatre. For its third production the Artef may call the house the Forty-first Street Theatre.
  17. ^ Teachout, Terry (October 29, 2010). "Relishing a Lost Production". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-09-04.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Comedy Theatre (New York City).

March 12, 2024
comedy, theatre, york, city, comedy, theatre, broadway, theatre, located, west, 41st, street, manhattan, that, opened, 1909, presented, first, broadway, appearances, katharine, cornell, ruth, draper, well, eugene, neill, first, broadway, play, shuttered, wake,. The Comedy Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan that opened in 1909 It presented the first Broadway appearances of Katharine Cornell and Ruth Draper as well as Eugene O Neill s first Broadway play Shuttered in the wake of the Depression it reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre the venue for Orson Welles s groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare s Julius Caesar and other productions for the Mercury Theatre repertory company In 1939 it began presenting classic Yiddish theatre The building was demolished in 1942 Comedy TheatreCollier s Comedy Theatre 1910 13 Mercury Theatre 1937 40 Artef Theatre 1940 42 Address110 West 41st StreetNew York CityUnited StatesCoordinates40 45 16 N 73 59 07 W 40 7543717 N 73 9853195 W 40 7543717 73 9853195OwnerThe Shubert OrganizationTypeBroadwayCapacity687ConstructionOpenedSeptember 6 1909Demolished1942Years active1909 1942ArchitectD G Malcolm Contents 1 History 2 Notable productions 2 1 Comedy Theatre 2 2 Collier s Comedy Theatre 2 3 Mercury Theatre 2 4 Artef Players at the Mercury Theatre 3 Cultural references 4 References 5 External linksHistory edit nbsp Mercury Theatre seating plan from the playbill for Heartbreak House 1938 Architect D G Malcolm designed the Comedy Theatre a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan for The Shubert Organization 1 Its first production The Melting Pot opened September 6 1909 2 The 687 seat theatre 3 286 was a venue for more intimate productions and was often leased to producers including William Collier Cecil B DeMille and the Washington Square Players 1 Katharine Cornell made her first Broadway appearance at the Comedy Theatre and Ruth Draper also made her debut there 2 Eugene O Neill s first Broadway play In the Zone opened at the Comedy Theatre in 1917 4 With its narrow orchestra pit and a booth for follow spots at the rear of the second balcony the theatre was also used for small musical shows 3 286 The Comedy Theatre was shuttered in 1931 in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 1 It reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre leased by John Houseman and Orson Welles for their new repertory theatre company the Mercury Theatre Houseman later described the venue as an intimate rococo two balcony theatre that was for many years one of Manhattan s most elegant smaller playhouses 3 286 The Mercury company was able to lease the Comedy Theatre for three years at 187 50 a week The intermediary for the owner reputedly a Chicago gangster said that the owner would not pay a cent for any repairs or maintenance but he did not care what was done to the building as long as the first three months rent was paid in advance 3 286 287 When the Mercury took over the theatre production manager Jean Rosenthal presented Houseman with a formidable list of absolute and immediate necessities which included major repairs to the grid new rigging and power lines and a new stage floor to replace the rotting planks through which huge fearless rodents could be seen emerging on their hunting excursions The repairs which also included cleaning the rusty grimy exterior had to be made within a month 3 292 At the end of October 1937 press agent Henry Senber oversaw a ceremony unveiling the new electric sign identifying the theatre as the Mercury Ticket prices ranged from 55 cents for seats in the top balcony to 2 20 for front row orchestra seats 5 34 35 It was the venue for most of the Mercury s productions from November 1937 to November 1938 1 6 339 The first was Caesar Welles s modern dress adaptation of William Shakespeare s Julius Caesar streamlined into a critically acclaimed anti fascist tour de force 6 339 Its last production there was Danton s Death 1938 7 The Mercury Theatre productions are regarded as the greatest successes of the venue s history 2 In June 1939 the theatre began its final transition when Welles and Houseman leased the Mercury Theatre to the newly formed Dramatic Art Theatrical Association 7 and the Artef Players a well known Yiddish theatre company 8 The facility operated as the Artef Theatre from 1940 until its demolition in 1942 1 The site is now occupied by an office building In 2009 a plaque was dedicated there to mark the location of the historic Mercury Theatre 9 Notable productions edit nbsp Orson Welles as Brutus in Caesar nbsp Marian Warring Manley Whitford Kane and George Coulouris in The Shoemaker s Holiday nbsp Geraldine Fitzgerald and Orson Welles in Heartbreak HouseComedy Theatre edit Penelope 1909 10 The Affinity 1910 2 1 A Man s World 1910 2 1 The Three Daughters of Monsieur Dupont 1910 2 1 The Family 1910 2 1 Her Own Money 1913 2 1 In the Zone 1917 18 1 Collier s Comedy Theatre edit I ll Be Hanged If I Do 1910 2 1 Bunty Pulls the Strings 1911 2 1 Fanny s First Play 1912 13 2 1 Mercury Theatre edit nbsp After The War of the Worlds radio broadcast photographers lay in wait for Welles at the all night rehearsal for Danton s Death at the Mercury Theatre October 31 1938 Caesar 1937 1 The Cradle Will Rock 1937 Worklight Theatre presentation 6 340 3 325 The Shoemaker s Holiday 1938 6 340 Dear Abigail by David Howard 1938 Worklight Theatre presentation 5 40 I ve Got the Tune and Ben Bengal s Plant in the Sun 1938 Worklight Theatre presentation 11 12 310 Heartbreak House 1938 6 342 Danton s Death 1938 6 347 Artef Players at the Mercury Theatre edit Clinton Street opening October 12 1939 Artef Players leasing the venue still named the Mercury Theatre 13 Uriel Acosta December 29 1939 February 18 1940 Artef Players leasing the venue still named the Mercury Theatre 2 14 15 16 Cultural references editRichard Linklater s 2008 film Me and Orson Welles is a romantic comedy set during the days before the opening of Caesar at the Mercury Theatre Like most Welles stage shows alas this one left few traces wrote Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout No part of the production was filmed and nothing else survives but the design sketches and some still photographs taken in 1937 What makes Me and Orson Welles uniquely interesting to scholars of American drama is that Mr Linklater s design team found the Gaiety Theatre on the Isle of Man This house closely resembles the old Comedy Theatre on 41st Street which was torn down five years after Julius Caesar opened there Using Samuel Leve s original designs they reconstructed the set for Julius Caesar on the Gaiety s stage Then Mr Linklater filmed some 15 minutes worth of scenes from the play lit according to Jean Rosenthal s plot accompanied by Marc Blitzstein s original incidental music and staged in a style as close to that of the 1937 production as is now possible Teachout wrote that he was floored by the verisimilitude of the results 17 References edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Artef Theatre Internet Broadway Database Retrieved 2015 08 07 a b c d e f g h i j k l Bloom Ken 2013 The Routledge Guide to Broadway Hoboken Taylor amp Francis p 52 ISBN 9781135871178 Retrieved 2015 09 03 a b c d e f Houseman John 1972 Run Through A Memoir New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 671 21034 3 Comedy Theatre Playbill Retrieved 2015 08 07 a b Anderson Arthur 2010 An Actor s Odyssey Albany Georgia BearManor Media ISBN 9781593935221 a b c d e f Welles Orson Bogdanovich Peter Rosenbaum Jonathan 1992 This is Orson Welles New York HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0 06 016616 9 a b Houseman Welles Quit at Mercury The New York Times June 16 1939 Retrieved 2015 09 03 Return of the Artef The New York Times October 8 1939 Retrieved 2015 09 03 Feder Chris Welles November 26 2009 Chris Welles Feder and Christian McKay unveil a plaque celebrating Orson Welles s Mercury Theater on Broadway Wellesnet Retrieved 2015 08 07 Archived copy Archived from the original on 2021 03 04 Retrieved 2017 04 21 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Plant in Sun Repeated Also I ve Got the Tune The New York Times February 21 1938 Retrieved 2015 09 08 Lehrman Leonard 2005 Marc Blitzstein A Bio bibliography Westport Connecticut Praeger ISBN 9780313300271 Artef Group Back The New York Times October 12 1939 Retrieved 2015 09 03 Clinton Street Louis Miller s Yiddish dramatization of Chaver Paver s book on East Side life opens tonight under the banner of the Artef Players at the Mercury Theatre Orson Welles and John Houseman have asked the Artef inactive since the Spring to remove the name Mercury from the theatre Mercury Row Settled Artef Players Houseman and Orson Welles Reach Agreement The New York Times December 1 1939 Retrieved 2015 09 03 The Artef Players may identify the theatre where they are now playing until Jan 1 then they must choose a new name By mid February the Mercury will be dropped altogether from the title of the Forty first Street house Uriel Acosta at Mercury The New York Times December 31 1939 Retrieved 2015 09 03 Warners Acquire Jupiter Laughs The New York Times January 18 1940 Retrieved 2015 09 03 The dispute between the Mercury Theatre and the Artef Players has apparently lapsed the latter group being able to use the name Mercury for its house until the close of its second production Uriel Acosta which has theatre parties through Feb 18 Jan 1 had been the supposed deadline for a change in name of the theatre For its third production the Artef may call the house the Forty first Street Theatre Teachout Terry October 29 2010 Relishing a Lost Production The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 2015 09 04 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Comedy Theatre New York City Artef Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Comedy Theatre New York City amp oldid 1208499845, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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