Princess Theatre
	Selected productions
1913	Fear
1915	The Critic The Critic (play) The Critic: or, a Tragedy Rehearsed is a satire by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first staged at Drury Lane Theatre in 1779. It is a burlesque on stage acting and play production conventions, and Sheridan considered the first act to be his finest piece of writing...
1915	Hobson's Choice
1915	Nobody Home
1915	Very Good Eddie Very Good Eddie Very Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...
1917	Oh, Boy! (musical) Oh, Boy! (musical) Oh, Boy! is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The story concerns befuddled George, who elopes with Lou Ellen, the daughter of Judge Carter. He must win over her parents and his Quaker aunt...
1918	Oh, Lady! Lady!! Oh, Lady! Lady!! Oh, Lady! Lady!! is a musical with music by Jerome Kern, a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse and lyrics by Wodehouse. It was written for the Princess Theatre on Broadway, where it played in 1918 and ran for 219 performances. The story concerns an engaged young man, Bill, whose ex-fiancée...
1918	Oh, My Dear!
1921	Diff'rent
1922	Six Characters in Search of an Author Six Characters in Search of an Author Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...
1923	Mister Malatesta
Lucille La Verne Theatre
1928	Sun-Up
Assembly Theatre
1930	Everything's Jake
Labor Stage Theatre
1937	Pins and Needles
Princess Theatre
1947	Virginia Reel

The Princess Theatre was a joint venture between the Shubert Brothers (Lee Shubert

Lee Shubert

Levi "Lee" Shubert was a Polish-born American theatre owner/operator and producer and the oldest of seven siblings of the theatrical Shubert family....

, Samuel S. Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert

Jacob J. Shubert

Jacob J. Shubert was naturalized American theatre owner/operator and producer and a member of the famous theatrical Shubert family....

), producer Ray Comstock, theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury

Elisabeth Marbury

Elisabeth Marbury was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater...

 and actor-director Holbrook Blinn

Holbrook Blinn

Holbrook Blinn was an American actor, born in San Francisco. He appeared on the legitimate stage as a child, and played throughout the United States and in London. He appeared in silent films, and was the director of popular one-act plays at New York's Princess Theatre.In 1900, he appeared in...

. It was built on a narrow slice of land on 39th Street, just off Sixth Avenue

Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)

Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...

 in New York City, and seated 299 people, one of the smallest Broadway theaters when it opened in early 1913. The architect was William A. Swasey, who designed the Winter Garden Theatre

Winter Garden Theatre

The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway in midtown Manhattan.-History:The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange....

 two years earlier.

Though small, the theatre had a profound effect on the development of American musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

, producing a series of sophisticated pieces that were believable and humorous, musically innovative, and integrated their songs with their stories.

Theatre building

Though fairly drab on the outside, looking like a six-story office building, except for its marquees and gaudy electric sign over the main entrance, the Princess was elegant inside. A blend of Georgian and French Renaissance styles, the auditorium contained fourteen rows of seats, twelve boxes off the proscenium arch, and was hailed for its excellent acoustics and sight-lines. The decor included neoclassical inspired plasterwork and antique French tapestries hung from the side walls.

1910s

Originally planned as a venue for short dramatic plays, the early shows at the Princess failed to attract an audience. Even so, some of these plays found success elsewhere. For example, Hobson's Choice (1915) played well in London the following year and became a success on film. Theatre agent Elisabeth Marbury

Elisabeth Marbury

Elisabeth Marbury was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater...

 was tasked with booking the theatre to improve its fortunes and approached young Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

, who suggested a collaboration with Guy Bolton

Guy Bolton

Guy Reginald Bolton was a British-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the U.S., he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G...

, to write a series of musicals specifically tailored to its smaller setting, with an intimate style and modest budgets. She and Comstock asked for meaningful, modern, sophisticated pieces that would provide an alternative to the star-studded revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

s and extravaganzas of Ziegfeld and others or the thinly-plotted, slapdash, gaudy Edwardian musical comedies and operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 imports from Europe.

Kern and Bolton's first "Princess Theatre musical" was Nobody's Home (1915), an adaptation of a 1905 London show by Paul Rubens

Paul Rubens (composer)

Paul Alfred Rubens was an English songwriter and librettist who wrote some of the most popular Edwardian musical comedies of the early twentieth century. He contributed to the success of dozens of musicals....

 called Mr. Popple (of Ippleton). The show was notable for Bolton's realistic take on courtship complications and Kern's song "The Magic Melody", the first Broadway showtune with a basic jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 progression. Their second show, with Philip Bartholomae and lyrics by Schuyler Green, was an original musical called Very Good Eddie

Very Good Eddie

Very Good Eddie is a musical with a book by Guy Bolton and Philip Bartholomae, music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Schuyler Green and Herbert Reynolds, with additional lyrics by Elsie Janis, Harry B. Smith and John E. Hazzard and additional music by Henry Kailimai. The story was based on the farce...

(1915). The little show ran for 341 performances on a modest budget then toured into the 1918-19 season.

British humorist and lyricist/playwright P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

 had supplied some lyrics for Very Good Eddie but now joined the team and collaborated with Kern and Bolton at the theatre for Oh, Boy!

Oh, Boy! (musical)

Oh, Boy! is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The story concerns befuddled George, who elopes with Lou Ellen, the daughter of Judge Carter. He must win over her parents and his Quaker aunt...

(1917), which ran for 463 performances and was one of the first American musicals to have a successful London run. According to Bloom and Vlastnik, Oh, Boy! represents "the transition from the haphazard musicals of the past to the newer, more methodical modern musical comedy ... the libretto is remarkably pun-free and the plot is natural and unforced. Charm was uppermost in the creators' minds ... the audience could relax, have a few laughs, feel slightly superior to the silly undertakings on stage, and smile along with the simple, melodic, lyrically witty but undemanding songs". Next, the team wrote Oh, Lady! Lady!!

Oh, Lady! Lady!!

Oh, Lady! Lady!! is a musical with music by Jerome Kern, a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse and lyrics by Wodehouse. It was written for the Princess Theatre on Broadway, where it played in 1918 and ran for 219 performances. The story concerns an engaged young man, Bill, whose ex-fiancée...

(1918). Two other shows, Leave It to Jane

Leave It to Jane

Leave It to Jane is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, based on the 1904 play College Widow, by George Ade. The story concerns the football rivalry between Atwater College and Bingham College, and satirizes college life in a...

and Have a Heart, were written by the three in 1917 for the Princess but presented elsewhere. They also wrote several musicals for other theatres.

The shows featured modern American settings and simple scene changes (one set for each act) to more aptly suit the small theatre, eschewing operetta traditions of foreign locales and elaborate scenery. According to historian Gerald Bordman, writing in The Musical Times

The Musical Times

The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...

,
The collaboration among Kern, Bolton and Wodehouse was much praised. An anonymous admirer (believed by some critics to be the young Lorenz Hart

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...

), wrote a verse in praise of the trio that begins:

This is the trio of musical fame,

Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern.

Better than anyone else you can name

Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern.

In February 1918, Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....

 wrote in Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)

Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...

:
Oh, Lady! Lady!! was the last successful "Princess Theatre show". Kern and Wodehouse disagreed over money, and the composer decided to move on to other projects. Kern's importance to the partnership was illustrated by the fate of the last musical of the series, Oh, My Dear! (1918), to which he did not contribute. It was composed by Louis Hirsch

Louis Hirsch

Louis Hirsch was a popular composer of songs and musicals in the early 20th century.-Life and career:...

, and ran for 189 performances: "Despite a respectable run, everyone realized there was little point in continuing the series without Kern."

1920s

In 1922, drama returned to the Princess for another seven years, but success did not. The theatre's most popular plays in this decade were Diff'rent by Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...

 (1921) and a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...

(1922). After a brief stint as the Lucille La Verne

Lucille La Verne

Lucille La Verne was an American actress known for her appearances in silent, scolding, and vengeful roles in early color films, as well as for her triumphs on the American stage....

 Theatre in 1928, the Shuberts sold the theater. In 1929, the New York Theatre Assembly took over the Princess, and renamed it The Assembly Theatre. However, within half a year, the theater was closed, and remained unused until 1933, when it reopened as the Reo Theatre, and was, like so many other former legitimate houses, now being used as a movie theater. A year later, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) acquired the theater, and used it as a recreation center for neighborhood workers.

1930s to 1950s

However, in 1937, legitimate theater returned to the theater, now called the Labor Stage, with a surprise hit. The revue

Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

 Pins and Needles

Pins and Needles

Pins and Needles is a musical revue with a book by Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emmanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, David Gregory, Joseph Schrank, Arnold B. Horwitt, John Latouche, and Harold Rome and music and lyrics by Rome...

became the longest-running Broadway show of the day, running for 1,108 performances. When the show moved to the Windsor Theatre, the ILGWU reclaimed the theater briefly as its recreation hall.

On October 5, 1947 by Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...

, Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford

Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation, she moved to New York City and enrolled at the Theatre Guild's school...

, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow

Anna Sokolow

Anna Sokolow was a Jewish American dancer and choreographer.-Training:...

 met in a rehearsal space form what would become the Actors Studio

Actors Studio

The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...

.

In 1947, movies returned to the theater, now renamed the Cinema Dante, screening foreign features. A year later, it got another name change, The Little Met, and in 1952, yet one final name, the Cine Verdi. By the mid-50s, the old Princess was on the outskirts of the theater district, and in 1955, the little theater was torn down, replaced by an office building.

External links

• Princess Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
  Internet Broadway Database
  The Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....