Photo FeaturesBroadway's American Airlines Theatre Turns 100: Look Back at 23 Shows That Played Its Historic StageThe theatre opened as the Selwyn Theatre with Information Please on October 2, 1918.
By
Hannah Vine
October 02, 2018
The American Airlines Theatre was originally the Selwyn Theatre, built by brothers Arch and Edgar Selwyn, celebrated producers of the 1910s. George Keister was the architect, and the intimate theatre (1,051 seats) with one balcony was designed in the Italian Renaissance style.
The October 2, 1918, opening-night program boasted that the Selwyn was the most modern theatre in New York. The opening production starred acclaimed actor and playwright Jane Cowl in Information Please, written by Cowl and Jane Murfin.
After functioning as a grindhouse since the Depression, the Selwyn Theatre was fully restored in 2000 by the Roundabout Theatre Company and renamed the American Airlines Theatre.
The American Airlines Theatre opened on July 27, 2000, with a revival of Kaufman and Hart’s 1939 comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner, starring Nathan Lane as Sheridan Whiteside, a thinly disguised, acerbic portrait of critic Alexander Woollcott. Both the comedy and the new theatre on 42nd Street were warmly welcomed back.
Currently playing at the theatre is Theresa Rebeck's new play Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer, which opened at the theatre September 25.
Flip through 23 of the shows to play on the stage over the past 100 years:
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The American Airlines Theatre Celebrates 100 Years on Broadway: Look Back at 23 Shows to Have Played Its Historic Stage
The American Airlines Theatre Celebrates 100 Years on Broadway: Look Back at 23 Shows to Have Played Its Historic Stage
The theatre opened as the Selwyn Theatre with Information Please on October 2, 1918.
46 PHOTOS
Information Please opened at the Selwyn Theatre October 2, 1918.
Selwyn Theatre stage door
Selwyn Theatre
Charles Sidney Gilpin in The Emperor Jones (1920)
Charles Sidney Gilpin and cast in The Emperor Jones
Two By Two Playbill - March 1925
Ann Andrews, Haidee Wright, and Otto Kruger in The Royal Family (1927)
Otto Kruger and Haidee Wright in The Royal Family
The Man Who Came to Dinner Playbill - July 2000
The cast of The Man Who Came to Dinner
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Boys from Syracuse Playbill - Opening Night
Tom Hewitt and cast in The Boys from Syracuse, 2002
Joan Marcus
Day in the Death of Joe Egg Playbill - Opening Night
Victoria Hamilton and Eddie Izzard in a scene from A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Big River Playbill - Opening Night
Tyrone Giordano and the company of Big River.
Photo by Joan Marcus
Twentieth Century Playbill - Opening Night, March 2004
Alec Baldwin (left), Dan Butler, Anne Heche, Julie Halston, and Tom Aldredge in Twentieth Century
Photo by Joan Marcus
Twelve Angry Men (2004)
The cast of Twelve Angry Men.
Photo by Joan Marcus
The Pajama Game Playbill - Opening Night
Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O'Hara in The Pajama Game.
