Brooks Atkinson Theater

Completed 1926

Architect Herbert J Krapp

This 1920s Irwin Chanin-built theater was originally named for 19th-century actor Richard Mansfield. The neo-Spanish exterior is combined with dashes of imperial grandiosity within. Chanin and Krapp teamed with Roman Meltzer, a former favorite of Czar Nicholas II, to incorporate lavishly painted-and-gilded plasterwork in the landmarked interior

The Mansfield opened its doors February 15, 1926 with a performance of The Night Duel. In Jan 1942, striking workers put up a picket line. Eleanor Roosevelt, arriving to see In Time to Come, would not cross the line. The $3.30 price of her ticket was refunded. The Mansfield was operated as a television studio in the '50s, but otherwise functioned as a legitimate Broadway venue. Upon it's reopening in September 1960 it was renamed for the influential New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson, recently retired

1926 Frank Davie's drama Ladder does not deserve to be on Broadway, even though it stars Antoinette Perry. Backer Edgar B Davis' devotion to the show causes him to keep it open for 794 performances, even as it is bleeding money

1930 Marc Connelly scores a Pulitzer with his biblical comedy The Green Pastures

1941 John Huston and Howard Koch authored Time to Come, starring Richard Gaines and produced by Otto Preminger

1946 Fredric March and Patricia Kirkland star in Ruth Gordon's comedy Years Ago. March earns an outstanding performance Tony

1961 Neil Simon makes himself heard on Broadway for the first time with Come Blow Your Horn, with Hal March and Lou Jacobi

1964 It just goes to show, nothing in life is guaranteed. Tallulah Bankhead has been on Broadway forever. Tennessee Williams is America's playwright. After 5 shows, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is an apt description. Bankhead's last Broadway show

1964 Gripping. Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy stars Ron Liebman and Emlyn Williams. Director Herman Shumlin earns a Tony

1968 Peter Nichol's A Day in the Death of Joe Egg garners a Tony recognition for Zena Walker's performance

1968 Dustin Hoffman stars in Murray Shisgal's comedy Jimmy Shine

1969 You know the names: Sam Waterston, Stacey Keach, Raul Julia and Charles Durning share the stage in Arthur Kopit's Indians

1971 Cliff Gorman plays Lenny Bruce and earns a Tony for his performance in Lenny

1974 John Hopkin's drama Find Your Way Home stars Michael Moriarity and Jane Alexander. Moriarity takes home a Tony for his performance

1975 Same Time Next Year takes off on a 1,453 performance run. The Bernard Slade comedy stars Ellen Burstyn and Charles Grodin. Burstyn earns the best actress in a Broadway play Tony

1979 Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce lives up to it's genre and makes Michael Gough and Joan Hickson earn their keep. They each come out with a Tony

1980 Talley's Folly stars Judd Hirsch opposite Trish Hawkins. The show earns author Lanford Wilson a Pulitzer Prize

1983 Noises Off is Michael Frayn's fury of a farce. Somehow Victor Garber and Dorothy Loudon keep track of which door is open, which is closed

1985 It seems like everybody saw Benefactors. With Glenn Close, Sam Waterston and Mary Beth Hurt, the show closes after 217 performances

1986 We have to mention Jackie Mason. Why? He'll be hurt if we don't. He's on stage 367 times in his one-man show entitled, appropriately enough, Jackie Mason's The World According to Me

1990 Jane Alexander and Nigel Hawthorne. That's acting. That's Shadowlands. Hawthorne's performance earns a Tony for (this year's flavor of best actor) leading actor in a play

1992 Glenn Close is back, and look who she's back with: Gene Hackman and Richard Dreyfuss. The cast drives this Arial Dorfman drama; Death and the Maiden expires at 159, but not before Close takes home a leading actress Tony

1996 Sam Shepard finally gets a show on Broadway. Directed by Gary Sinese, Buried Child is staged with James Gammon, Lois Smith and Jim True on the boards