Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly Biltmore Theatre) (Broadway)

The Chanin Brothers, construction moguls who were bitten by the show biz bug in the 1920s, built six legitimate theatres. The Biltmore, at 261 West Forty-seventh Street, was their second project. When this theatre opened on December 7, 1925, the New York Times reported that it was the first theatre to be built on the north side of 47th Street, just east of Eighth Avenue. The theatre was designed by the busiest architect in town, Herbert J. Krapp, with a single balcony, 1,000 seats, and a color scheme of cerise and brown.

The opening show at the Biltmore was not new. It was an Owen Davis farce called Easy Come, Easy Go, which moved here from the George M. Cohan Theatre on Broadway. Otto Kruger and Victor Moore played bank robbers and Edward Arnold was also involved in the fracas. It had a run of 180 performances.

Next came a very steamy drama, Kongo (1926), with Walter Huston as "Deadleg Flint," a bitter man in the Belgian "Kongo" who gets even with a man who not only stole his wife but caused his legs to be paralyzed. This jungle rot lasted for 135 perfor-mances. A comedy called Loose Ankles (1926) followed, with Osgood Perkins, and it was sufficiently foolish to run for 161 performances. Walter Huston returned to the Biltmore in a solid hit, The Barker (1927), a play about carnival life by Kenyon Nicholson. Huston played a tent show barker; Claudette Colbert played a snake charmer who vamps Huston's son, acted by Norman Foster. She vamped him so well that they got married, off-stage. The critics admired Claudette's legs and this lively show ran for 225 performances.

A comedy called Jimmie's Women was a hit in 1927, but moved to another theatre after a month. Noel Coward's The Marquise was chi-chi nonsense about an errant society woman (Billie Burke) who returns to her family years later just in time to save her daughter (Madge Evans) from mistakenly marrying her half-brother (Rex O'Malley). Coward's fans supported this fluff for eighty-two performances.

There were a number of flops in 1928, including another play, Tin Pan Alley, with Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster. There was also a cause celebre at this theatre on October 1, 1928, when the incomparable Mae West opened her new play The Pleasure Man. This time, Mae did not appear in her show, but her plot was sufficiently lurid to shock the populace, and the police closed the play after its second performance. The Pleasure Man was about an actor who has impregnated so many women that the brother of one of them decides to perform a brutal operation on him that will curtail his love life. The operation is performed at a party largely attended by transvestites and the lover dies under the knife.

Wall Street laid an egg in 1929 and so did the Biltmore Theatre. It housed seven flops, including Man's Estate, a Theatre Guild production with Dudley Digges, Elizabeth Patterson, Earle Larimore, Armina Marshall, and Margalo Gillmore.

The 1930s began with an interesting but depressing play by Edwin Justus Mayer called Children of Darkness. Set in the notorious debtors' prison of Newgate in London, the drama dealt with the last days of the infamous criminal Jonathan Wild. The seamy play starred Basil Sydney, Mary Ellis, and Eugene Powers and lasted ten weeks.

George Kelly's play Philip Goes Forth was a near-hit in 1931, playing for ninety-eight performances. Madge Evans, Thurston Hall, Dorothy Stickney, Cora Witherspoon, and Harry Ellerbe were in the comedy about a young man who fails as a playwright and ends up in his father's business. From May 1931 until January 1934, the Biltmore housed a number of mediocre plays, such as Her Supporting Cast, Zombie, Border-land, and The Scorpion. One drama, a biographical study called Carry Nation, was unsuccessful, but featured this interesting cast: James Stewart, Joshua Logan, Mildred Natwick, Esther Dale, and Katherine Emery. New Year's Day, 1934, brought a comedy hit at last to the Biltmore. It was called Big Hearted Herbert and starred J.C. Nugent as a mean miser who upsets all his family's plans until they turn the tables on him. It amused theatregoers for 154 performances. Emmet Lavery's religious play The First Legion, with Bert Lytell, John Litel, Charles Coburn, and Frankie Thomas, moved in from the 46th Street Theatre in October and stayed through December.

The Chanin Brothers, who built this theatre, plus five others, lost all six during the depression. In 1936 the Federal Theatre Project took over the theatre and presented some of its "Living Newspaper" productions. These consisted of a series of news sketches written by a staff of seventy reporters and writers and about sixteen dramatists. A cast of a hundred actors appeared in such striking productions as Triple A Plowed Under and 1935. In June 1936 the Federal Theatre presented Stars on Strings, a marionette show, at this theatre.

The Biltmore was next taken over by Warner Brothers, the film studio, to serve as a showcase for the productions of the famed producer/ playwright/director George Abbott. PLAYBILL magazines for the Biltmore, beginning in 1937 and continuing into the 1940s, stated that the theatre was managed by Bernard Klawans. George Abbott's production of Brother Rat, a comedy about life at the Virginia Military Institute by John Monks, Jr., and Fred F. Finklehoffe, was a huge hit in 1936. The sprightly cast included Eddie Albert, Jose Ferrer, Frank Albertson, and Ezra Stone and it turned out to be the Biltmore's longest-running show thus far, registering 575 performances. Abbott's next two shows, Brown Sugar and All That Glitters, were not successful, but his production of Clifford Goldsmith's What a Life, a hilarious comedy about a squeaky-voiced high-schooler who is always in trouble (perfectly played by Ezra Stone), turned into a gold mine. Henry Aldrich became such a popular character that he ended up on a successful radio series and, years later, on TV. Eddie Bracken, Betty Field, Joyce Arling, Edith Van Cleve, and Butterfly McQueen were also in the cast of the play, which ran for 538 performances.

George Abbott's 1939 show was a shocker and quite unlike the type of farce comedy in which he excelled. It was called The Primrose Path and it was based on Victoria Lincoln's sultry novel February Hill. The language was salty and the morals very loose in this saga of a slattern and her family. Helen Westley, Betty Field, Betty Garde, and Russell Hardie were in the cast of this moderate success.

In 1940, Warner Brothers and Bernard Klawans produced a play called Jupiter Laughs, by A.J. Cronin, starring Jessica Tandy, Alexander Knox, Mary Orr, Edith Meiser, and Philip Tonge. This drama about doctors only ran for 24 performances. But on December 26, 1940, a comedy opened that brought distinction to the Biltmore. It was the fabulous My Sister Eileen, by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on The New Yorker stories of Ruth McKenney. Ms. McKenney had written charming vignettes about her adventures with her wacky blonde sister Eileen when they moved from Ohio to Manhattan. This uproarious comedy, skillfully staged by George S. Kaufman, played for 866 performances. The cast included Shirley Booth as Ruth, Jo Ann Sayers as Eileen, and Morris Carnovsky as their Greek landlord in Greenwich Village. Only one tragic note marred this joyous production. The real Eileen was driving from Ohio to attend the opening night of her sister's play when she was killed in an auto accident.

Another enormously successful comedy, Janie, moved here from another theatre for two months in 1942. On March 17, 1943, a play called Kiss and Tell, by F. Hugh Herbert, opened and broke all records at this theatre. It ran for 962 performances. The comedy about teenage pregnancy had in its cast Richard Widmark, Jessie Royce Landis, Joan Caulfield, and Robert Keith. It was produced and directed by the incredible George Abbott and was made into a hit movie and a successful radio series.

Bernard Klawarls, who continued as manager of the Biltmore, presented (with Victor Payne-Jennings) an adaptation of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin by Thomas Job called simply Therese in 1945. Starring Dame May Whitty, Eva Le Gallienne, and Victor Jory, it played for 96 performances. In February 1946 Walter Huston returned once again to this theatre in Apple of His Eye, written by Charles Robinson and Kenyon Nicholson (who wrote Huston's big hit The Barker, at this theatre in 1927). Jed Harris directed the comedy, which played for 118 performances, and coproduced it with Mr. Huston.

Jed Harris produced another comedy here called Loco, with Jean Parker, Elaine Stritch, and Jay Fassett in 1946, but it ran for a brief thirty-seven performances. Paul Bowles's adaptation of Sartre's play about three characters trapped in a room in hell, No Exit, only played for a month, but it was memorable for performances given by Claude Dauphin, Annabella, and Ruth Ford. One of the drama critics complained that movie star Annabella's performance gave him a stomach ache and she promptly sent him a laxative.

In March 1947 Russian playwright Konstantine Simonov's comedy The Whole World Over, with Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, and Jo Van Fleet, opened and managed to stay for 100 performances. It was directed by Harold Clurman. On September 29, 1947, Jed Harris returned to this theatre with a fine play--Ruth and Augustus Goetz's excellent adaptation of Henry James's novel Washington Square. The play, called The Heiress, starred Basil Rathbone, Wendy Hiller, Patricia Collinge, and Peter Cookson and ran for 410 performances. It was directed by Jed Harris and produced by Fred F. Finklehoffe. Mr. Rathbone won a Tony Award for his chilling performance as Ms. Hiller's father.

More hits arrived at the Biltmore: Jose Ferrer, George Matthews, and Doro Merande in The Silver Whistle (1948), a comedy set in an old people's home that ran for 219 performances: Clutterbuck (1949), a British comedy by Benn W. Levy about a Don Juan named "Clutterbuck" which was David Merrick's first Broadway production (in association with Irving L. Jacobs).

The 1950s brought a dramatic adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd. This excellent play, with Charles Nolte in the title role and Dennis King, James Daly, and Lee Marvin in the cast, had an unfortunate opening-night incident. A critic for a major newspaper arrived at the theatre intoxicated. The management called the newspaper and the editor quickly sent another staff critic without telling the inebriated reviewer. Both critics wrote their reviews; the drunk raved, the sober critic panned it. Unfortunately, the pan appeared in the paper, which helped to shorten the run to 105 performances for this superb drama.

From 1952 to 1961, the Biltmore ceased its legitimate theatre policy. It was leased to the Columbia Broadcasting System. On December 21, 1961, it reverted to being a legitimate house with Harold Prince's production of the hit comedy Take Her, She's Mine, directed by the old Biltmore genius George Abbott. Art Carney, Phyllis Thaxter, and Elizabeth Ashley starred in this play about a father's concern when his daughter is ready to go to college. It ran for 404 performances. Ms. Ashley won a Tony for her performance. The actress returned to this theatre in October 1963 in an even bigger hit comedy, Barefoot in the Park. Neil Simon's play about the problems of newlyweds (attractively portrayed by Ms. Ashley and Robert Redford, with brilliant support by Mildred Natwick and Kurt Kasznar, directed by Mike Nichols) became the longest-running play at the Biltmore up to this time. It played there from October 1963 to mid-June of 1967. Mike Nichols won a Tony Award for his direction.

Several short-lived plays followed--Dyan Cannon and Martin Milner in The Ninety-Day Mistress (1967); Milo O'Shea and Eli Wallach as homosexuals in the British play Staircase (1968); and Joe Orton's black comedy Loot (1968). Then came one of the high points of the Biltmore's history when the rock musical Hair opened there on April 29, 1968. This free-wheeling look at the Flower Generation had been an Off-Broadway hit at the downtown New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp. It then moved to an uptown disco called Cheetah, but it failed, until a producer named Michael Butler took it over and hired director Tom O'Horgan. A very salable commodity was added to this show--total nudity, something that had not been seen on Broadway since some of the 1920s revues--and the show became the biggest hit in town, running a record four years and two months at the Biltmore. With book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot, Hair became a symbol of the 1960s. Among the many performers that the musical introduced were Melba Moore and Diane Keaton.

Some highlights of the 1970s at this theatre included Michael Moriarty in his Tony Award winning performance as a homosexual in Find Your Way Home (1974); Jules Feiffer's farce Knock, Knock (1976), with Lynn Redgrave and Leonard Frey; Barry Bostwick winning a Tony Award in the musical The Robber Bridegroom (1976); Lily Tomlin in her dazzling one-woman show Appearing Nitely; an unsuccessful return engagement of Hair (1977); a revival of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1978), starting Shelley Winters; Claudette Colbert in her third appearance at this theatre, in The Kingfisher (1978), with Rex Harrison and George Rose; Peter Allen in a spectacular personal appearance called Up in One.

The 1980s brought such divergent fare as an exciting courtroom drama, Nuts (1980), with Anne Twomey; Arthur Miller's play The American Clock (1980), which failed; Eva Le Gallienne and Shepperd Strudwick in To Grandmother's House We Go (1981); Claudette Colbert again in A Talent for Murder (1981), with Jean Pierre Aumont; the longest-running thriller in the American theatre, Deathtrap (1982), from the Music Box; and Anthony Shaffer's spoof of mystery plays, Whodunnit (1983). Later in 1983, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist G.B. Trudeau turned his famous comic strip "Doonesbury" into a musical of the same name. He wrote the book and lyrics and Elizabeth Swados supplied the music. In 1984, film actress Barbara Rush appeared in a one-woman show, A Woman of Independant Means, and the following year, John Pieliemer's play The Boys of Winter starring Matt Dillon opened here and shocked some with its realistic scenes of the Vietnam War. A musical called Honky Tonk Nights arrived here in 1986 and in 1987, a musical revue, Stardust, celebrated the famed songs of Mitchell Parish. This was the last production to play this theatre for many years. The Biltmore suffered damage by fire, vandalism and weather and was dark until the Manhattan Theatre Club purchased it in 2001.

The glorious restoration of the Biltmore Theatre—where the not-for-profit Manhattan Theatre Club now has its Broadway home—was the miracle of the 2003–2004 theatrical season. MTC has restored the theatre in partnership with Biltmore Theatre Associates, which built a 51-story apartment tower adjacent to it. The theatre’s auditorium has been reduced from 950 seats to 650 to give it greater intimacy, which has allowed for the addition of an upper lobby and patrons’ lounge. The Biltmore’s restoration was designed by Polshek Partnership Architects.

A highlight of MTC’s inaugural season at the Biltmore was Donald Margulies’s Sight Unseen starring Laura Linney. MTC had originally produced this drama Off-Broadway in 1992, with Linney in a featured role. Productions after that included Reckless, Brooklyn Boy, After the Night and the Music and Absurd Person Singular.

Theatre Information:
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
US

Public Transportation:
SUBWAY: Take the N,R,W to 49th Street or 1,9 to 50th Street, walk South to 47th Street and West to the theatre; Take the C,E to 50th Street, walk South to 47th Street and East to the theatre.

Handicap Access:

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