![]() December 2019 | |
Location in the United States Location in Washington, D.C. | |
Address | 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. United States |
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Coordinates | 38°53′47″N77°01′50″W / 38.8963°N 77.0305°W |
Owner | Quadrangle Development Corporation [1] |
Operator | The Nederlander Organization |
Capacity | 1,705 |
Construction | |
Opened | 1835 |
Reopened | 1923 |
Tenants | |
National Theatre Foundation | |
Website | |
www |
The National Theatre in the United States is located in downtown Washington, D.C., just east of the White House, and functions as a venue for live stage productions with seating for 1,676. Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization. It is the second-oldest continuously operating theater in the United States. [2]
The National Theatre was founded on December 7, 1835, by William Wilson Corcoran and other prominent citizens who wanted the national capital to have a first-rate theatre. [3] The theatre's initial production was Man of the World. [3] It was purchased in 1844 by Benjamin Ogle Tayloe of the B.O. Tayloe House for $13,950. [4]
The theatre has been in almost continuous operation since, at the same Pennsylvania Avenue location a few blocks from the White House. Its name was changed at times to "Grover's National Theatre," and "Grover's Theatre" when it was managed by Leonard Grover. [5] Famed actor Joseph Jefferson managed the theatre at one time. The structure has been rebuilt several times, including partial reconstructions after five fires in the 19th century. The current building, at 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, was constructed in 1923, opening in September of that year.
Located three blocks from the White House, the theater has entertained every U.S. President since Andrew Jackson. On April 14, 1865, Tad Lincoln was attending a performance of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp at Grover's Theater when his father, President Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated at nearby Ford's Theatre. [6]
Like many theatres in the U.S. before the Civil Rights Movement, the National Theatre was racially segregated. Black actors were allowed to appear on stage, but African American audience members were relegated to a special section. During the Washington run of Porgy and Bess in 1936, the cast, led by Todd Duncan, protested the audience's segregation. [7] Duncan stated that he "would never play in a theatre which barred him from purchasing tickets to certain seats because of his race." Management allowed for the first integrated performance at National Theatre. [8] A movement to integrate the playhouse was spearheaded by actor Helen Hayes, educator Gilbert V. Hartke, O.P., Washington art impresario Patrick Hayes, and Washington Post theatre critic Richard L. Coe. When that effort failed, they persuaded Actors Equity performers to refuse to play at the theatre. Rather than desegregate, the New York management discontinued live performances in 1948. One prestige attraction, the Washington premier of the British film The Red Shoes , was presented. Earlier in 1941, Walt Disney's Fantasia played at the theatre for seven weeks, also as a prestige attraction. Then the theatre remained dark until it reopened as an integrated theater in 1952. [9]
In 1970, the theatre came under the management of the Nederlander Organization. [10] In 1974, the not-for-profit National Theatre Corporation was established by Roger L. Stevens, Maurice B. Tobin, Donn B. Murphy, and others to save the failing enterprise, in the wake of racial riots, and a downtown made unfashionable by the growth of the surrounding suburbs.
The theatre underwent a major renovation in 1982–1983 when the original wing housing dressing rooms was replaced with a modern structure. The refurbished structure opened in concert with the redevelopment of that part of downtown Washington, D.C., which included The Shops at National Place, the 774-room flagship JW Marriott Hotel, and National Press Club. Stage designer Oliver Smith supervised the interior design.
The 1835 stone foundations and brick stage house still exist, although the rock work is now reinforced with steel caissons to resist erosion by the Tiber Creek, which flows beneath the building. From the stage, President Ronald Reagan saluted the refurbished "neighborhood theatre" in January 1984.
Among the Broadway productions which have had out-of-town try-outs at the National are Amadeus, Beetlejuice , Crazy for You, Hello, Dolly! , If/Then , Show Boat, Mean Girls, and West Side Story .
In 2012, Jam Theatricals assumed operations for the theatre from the Shubert Organization. [11] Jam Theatricals and Nederlander National Markets LLC merged in 2019, and the Nederlander family resumed management of the theater. [12]
In May 2024, it was announced that the D.C. government was in talks to buy the venue and renovate it. The government is then planning on leasing the theater for 99 years To the company that currently owns it. [13]
The many performers who have appeared at the theatre include Pearl Bailey, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore, Warren Beatty, Sarah Bernhardt, Claire Bloom, Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth, Fanny Brice, Tom Burke, Carol Channing, George M. Cohan, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Cornell, Hume Cronyn, Tim Curry, Denishawn, Ruth Draper, Todd Duncan, Maurice Evans, Craig Ferguson, Lillian Gish, Ruth Gordon, Valerie Harper, Julie Harris, Rex Harrison, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Jefferson, James Earl Jones, Lucille La Verne, Eva LeGallienne, Jerry Lewis, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Eartha Kitt, Ian McKellen, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Idina Menzel, Virginia Monier, Rita Moreno, Helen Morgan, Rosie O'Donnell, Laurence Olivier, Annie Oakley, Geraldine Page, Robert Redford, Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Will Rogers, Rosalind Russell, George C. Scott, Kevin Spacey, Sting, Jessica Tandy, Norma Terris, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin, Franchot Tone, Rip Torn and Liv Ullmann. Winston Churchill once spoke from the stage.
The National Theatre has expanded its activities to include not only Broadway musical performances, but also concerts, lectures, opera, ballet, seminars, and receptions. The National Theatre Foundation [14] is the non-profit organization that oversees operations of the theatre, as well as management of a suite of free community engagement programs including Saturday Morning Live! At The National, Community Stage Connections, and Teens Behind the Scenes. David J. Kitto is the Executive Director. The National Theatre Group (Nederlander National Markets LLC) manages the daily activities of the theatre and provides content for the main stage.
Helen Hayes MacArthur was an American actress whose career spanned 82 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. She was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy.
Robert Todd Duncan was an American baritone opera singer and actor. One of the first African-Americans to sing with a major opera company, Duncan is also noted for appearing as Porgy in the premier production of Porgy and Bess (1935).
Broadway theatre, or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters, each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world.
The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the three Shubert brothers — Lee, Sam, and Jacob J. Shubert — in the late 19th century. They steadily expanded, owning many theaters in New York and across the United States. Since then it has gone through changes of ownership, but it is still a major theater chain.
Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.
Located in Olney, Maryland, the Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of professional productions year-round that enrich, nurture, and challenge a broad range of artists, audiences and students. One of the two official state theaters of Maryland, Olney Theatre Center is situated on 14 acres (57,000 m2) in the middle of the Washington–Baltimore–Frederick "triangle." There are three indoor venues: the Historic Theatre, the Roberts Mainstage, and the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. There is also an outdoor venue, the Root Family Stage at Omi’s Pavilion.
Avon Long was an American Broadway actor and singer.
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.
The American Theater Hall of Fame was founded in 1972 in New York City. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the organization's executive committee. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre, which was then under construction, and is now the Gershwin Theatre. James M. Nederlander and Gerard Oestreicher, who leased the theater, donated the space for the Hall of Fame; Arnold Weissberger was another founder. Blackwell noted that the names of the first honorees would "be embossed in bronze-gold lettering on the theater's entrance walls flanking its grand staircase and escalator." The first group of inductees was announced in October 1972.
Herbert J. Krapp (1887–1973) was a 20th-century theatre architect and designer, notable for his contributions to Broadway theater district architecture. Known for his innovative approach to design, his built work favors width, rather than depth, to create better sightlines for an "intimate theatre" experience.
Tazewell Thompson is an American theatre director, the former artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse (2006–07) in Westport, Connecticut and the Syracuse Stage (1992–95) in New York state. Prior to that he was an assistant director at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He is the Director of Opera Studies at Manhattan School of Music.
Rachel York is an American actress and singer. She is known for stage roles, including award winning performances in Camelot, Hello, Dolly!, Into the Woods, and Anything Goes. She also has performed in film and on television, including her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the 2003 television film Lucy.
Marie Anne Chiment has created sets and costumes for hundreds of productions across the United States for opera, theatre and dance. Chiment’s sets and costumes have been used on the stages of Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Kennedy Center, Wolftrap Opera and Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre. She has designed national tours of Grease and Carousel, as well as the GLAMA award winning world premiere of Patience & Sarah for the Lincoln Center Festival.
The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander in Detroit, and currently based in New York City, is one of the largest operators of live theaters and music venues in the United States. Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in 1928. It later operated the Shubert Lafayette Theatre until its demolition in 1964 and the Riviera Theatre, both in Detroit. Since then, the organization has grown to include nine Broadway theaters, making it the second-largest owner of Broadway theaters after the Shubert Organization, and a number of theaters across the United States, including five large theaters in Chicago, plus three West End theatres in London.
Charles Randolph-Wright is an American film, television, and theatre director, television producer, screenwriter, and playwright.
Zev Buffman was a Broadway producer who served as president and CEO of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. He produced more than 40 Broadway shows. He partnered with Elizabeth Taylor to present her in her Broadway debut, The Little Foxes. Buffman was also the co-founding general partner of the NBA champion basketball team the Miami Heat.
Porgy: A Play in Four Acts is a play by Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward, adapted from the short novel by DuBose Heyward. It was first produced by the Theatre Guild and presented October 10, 1927 – August 1928 at the Guild Theatre in New York City. Featuring a cast of African Americans at the insistence of its authors—a decision unusual for its time—the original production starred Frank Wilson, Evelyn Ellis, Jack Carter, and Rose McClendon. Porgy marked the Broadway directing debut of Rouben Mamoulian. The play ran a total of 55 weeks in New York, and the original cast toured the United States twice and performed for 11 consecutive weeks in London.
Tony Cisek is an American scenic designer.
Emilio Sosa is a costume designer for Broadway and is as of 2024 Chair of the American Theatre Wing Board of Trustees in New York City. He has been nominated for a Tony Award as a costume designer, and is best-known for his work on Topdog/Underdog, Porgy and Bess, and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.