Henry Miller's Theatre
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Henry Miller's Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 124 West 43rd Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue, in midtown-Manhattan.
Designed in the Neo-classical style by architects Paul R. Allen and Ingalls & Hoffman, it was built by and named for actor-producer Henry Miller. It opened on April 1, 1918 with the play The Fountain of Youth. It was the first air-conditioned theater in Manhattan.
The theatre had its first major hit with Noel Coward's The Vortex in 1926. Following Miller's death that same year, the theatre was managed by his son Gilbert, who bought it in 1930. From the 1930s through the late-1960s, the theater enjoyed its golden years, with performances by Helen Hayes, Leslie Howard, Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, and Ruth Chatterton gracing its stage.
In 1968, it was sold to Seymour Durst. It showed feature films as the Park-Miller until it became a porn palace called Avon-at-the-Hudson. In 1978, it was converted into the discotheque Xenon. Twenty years later, it returned to legitimate use as the Kit Kat Club, borrowing its name from the club featured in the popular revival of Cabaret it was then housing. It was rechristened the Henry Miller when Urinetown opened in 2001.
The theatre was closed in 2004 and subsequently demolished to make way for the 57-story Bank of America Tower. Its facade, landmarked by the city, remains, and the Durst Organization will include a 950-seat theatre within the new structure. In 2007, it was announced that the Roundabout Theatre Company would operate the Henry Miller as its third Broadway house.
[edit] Notable productions
- 1936: The Country Wife
- 1938: Our Town
- 1948: Born Yesterday
- 1953: The Trip to Bountiful
- 1954: Witness for the Prosecution
- 1963: Enter Laughing
- 1965: The Subject Was Roses
- 1983: The Ritz
- 2001: Urinetown
[edit] External links
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