Morosco Theatre

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The Morosco Theatre was a legitimate theatre located at 217 West 45th Street in the heart of the theater district in midtown-Manhattan.

It was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp for the Shuberts, who constructed it for Oliver Morosco in gratitude for his helping them break the monopoly of the Theatrical Syndicate. It opened on February 5, 1917 with the musical Canary Cottage, with a book by Morosco and a score by Earl Carroll.

The Shuberts lost the building in the Depression and City Playhouses, Inc. bought it at auction in 1943. It was sold in 1968 to Bankers Trust Company and, after protests failed, destroyed in 1982, along with the Helen Hayes, the Bijou, and remnants of the Astor and the Gaiety Theatre, to build the Marriott Marquis hotel and Marquis Theatre.

Bob Martin's musical comedy "The Drowsy Chaperone" makes mention of the Morosco Theatre. The title is a reference to a fictional show which, according to the narrative, opened at the Morosco in 1928. The narrator goes on to say that the Morosco was demolished in 1982, and a hotel was built in its place. That hotel, of course, is the Marriott Marquis, which houses the Marquis Theatre, where "The Drowsy Chaperone" opened in 2006.

[edit] Notable productions

• The Lady From Dubuque by Edward Albee, 1980
• Da by Hugh Leonard, 1978
• Side By Side By Sondheim, a musical revue, 1978
• Golda by William Gibson, 1977
• The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, 1977
• A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green, a musical revue, 1977
• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams, 1976
• The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn, 1975
• In Praise of Love by Terence Rattigan, 1974
• A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill, 1973
• The Changing Room by David Storey, 1973
• Butley by Simon Gray, 1972
• And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little by Paul Zindel, 1971
• Forty Carats by Jay Allen, 1968
• The Price by Arthur Miller, 1968
• Don't Drink the Water by Woody Allen, 1966
• Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr, 1964
• Alfie! by Bill Naughton, 1964
• The Three Sisters by Anton Chekov, 1964
• The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore by Tennessee Williams, 1963
• The Best Man by Gore Vidal, 1960
• The Visit by Friedrich Duerrenmatt, 1958
• Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw, 1956
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, 1955
• The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan, 1952
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, 1949
• The Voice of the Turtle by John Van Druten, 1943
• Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, 1943
• Old Acquaintance by John Van Druten, 1940
• Our Town by Thornton Wilder, 1938
• A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, 1937
• Camille by Alexandre Dumas, fils, 1932
• Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, 1929
• The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham, 1927
• Craig's Wife by George Kelly, 1925
• Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, 1923
• Beyond the Horizon by Eugene O'Neill, 1920