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Music Box Theatre

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Music Box Theatre

The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theater at 239 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1921, the Music Box Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane in a Palladian-inspired style and was constructed for Irving Berlin and Sam H. Harris. It has 1,025 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.

The facade is made of limestone and is symmetrically arranged, with both Palladian and neo-Georgian motifs. At ground level, the eastern portion of the facade contains the theater's entrance, with a marquee over it, while the stage door is to the west. A double-height central colonnade at the second and third floors conceals a fire-escape staircase; it is flanked by windows in the outer bays. The auditorium contains Adam style detailing, a large balcony, and two outwardly curved box seats within ornate archways. The theater was also designed with a comparatively small lobby, a lounge in the basement, and mezzanine-level offices.

Harris proposed the Music Box Theatre in 1919 specifically to host his productions with Berlin, and the Shubert family gained an ownership stake shortly after the Music Box opened. The theater initially hosted the partners' Music Box Revue nearly exclusively, presenting its first play, Cradle Snatchers, in 1925. Many of the Music Box's early productions were hits with several hundred performances. There were multiple productions by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman in the 1930s, including Once in a Lifetime and The Man Who Came to Dinner. After Harris died in 1941, Berlin and the Shuberts shared ownership of the theater, and the Music Box largely showed dramas rather than musicals. The theater hosted several plays by William Inge in the 1950s. Though the length of production runs declined in later years, the Music Box has remained in theatrical use since its opening. The Shuberts acquired the Berlin estate's ownership stake in 2007.

The Music Box Theatre is on 239 West 45th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The square land lot covers 10,050 square feet (934 m2). The theater has a frontage of 100 feet (30 m) on 45th Street and a depth of about 100 feet.

The adjoining block of 45th Street is also known as George Abbott Way, and foot traffic on the street increases box-office totals on the theaters there. The Music Box shares the block with the Richard Rodgers Theatre and Imperial Theatre to the north, as well as the New York Marriott Marquis to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Paramount Hotel to the north; the Hotel Edison and Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to the northeast; One Astor Plaza to the southeast; the Gerald Schoenfeld, Booth, Shubert, and Broadhurst Theatres to the south; and the Majestic, Bernard B. Jacobs, and John Golden Theatres to the southwest.

The Music Box Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane in a Palladian-inspired style and was constructed from 1920 to 1921 for Irving Berlin and Sam H. Harris. The interior was decorated by Crane and William Baumgarten, with many Adam style details. The Longacre Engineering and Construction Company built the theater, with M. X. C. Weinberger as consulting engineer. Numerous other contractors were involved in the theater's development. The Music Box is operated by the Shubert Organization.

The facade is made of limestone. It is symmetrically arranged, though the theater is shorter than its width. For the design of the facade, Crane drew from both Palladian and neo-Georgian motifs. The facade's largest feature is a double-height central colonnade at the second and third floors. According to theatrical historian Ken Bloom, the facade design was inspired by that of the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.

The easternmost side on 45th Street includes four pairs of glass and bronze doors leading to the ticket lobby. There are bronze sign boards on either side, and the entrance is topped by a marquee. Just west of the ticket-lobby entrance is a single doorway. The center of the ground story includes three pairs of glass and bronze doors from the auditorium. There are wood-and-glass sign boards on either side of the central doors, with colonettes on either side and sheet metal-wood pediments above them. A bronze fire-escape gate, accessed by two granite steps, and two wide sign boards are to the west of the center doors. The westernmost part of the facade contains a double door, a narrow sign board, and a single door. These doors, adjacent to the Imperial Theatre's entrance, constitute the stage doors. Above the ground floor is a horizontal band course with motifs of swags, urns, and vertical bars.

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