Ethel Barrymore Theater

Completed 1928

Architect Herbert J Krapp

The Shuberts gave Krapp freer reign than usual in designing this theater for its namesake, Ethel Barrymore. Gone are the simplicity of the Broadhurst's and Plymouth's facades, replaced here with an elaborate Romanesque window laced with terra cotta. A bit more paint and plaster than the norm was used in the now-landmarked Elizabethan interior, as befitted the queen of the stage. A more republican approach was taken to the 'royal' boxes to either side of the stage: they were strictly decorative, with no room for seats

The Barrymore's premier production, on December 20, 1928, fittingly enough starred Ethel Barrymore in The Kingdom of God. Unlike many other Broadway theaters, the Barrymore was able to survive the depression years as a legitimate house. It, along with other Shubert properties, was air-conditioned in the late '30s to better compete with the lower-priced, already air-cooled movie house 

1932 Its his first time on Broadway without sister Adele and his last Broadway show before making the move to Hollywood. Fred Astaire stars in Cole Porter's musical The Gay Divorcee.

1933 What a trio! Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and Noel Coward appear in Coward's comedy Design for Living

1936 A comedy hit, The Women, with Marjorie Main, Ilka Chase, Margalo Gilmore and Audrey Christie, starts a 657 performance run

1939 S N Behrman's comedy, No Time for Comedy, stars Katharine Cornell and Laurence Olivier

1939 Can you believe it: Paul Muni, Uta Hagen, Jose Ferrer and Karl Malden on stage together in Maxwell Anderson's Key Largo

1940 Audiences are still 'bewitched' by the John O'Hara-Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical Pal Joey. It starred Gene Kelly, Vivienne Segal, June Havoc and Van Johnson.

1941 Nancy Walker is known as Myrtle Swoyer when the 19-year-old makes her Broadway debut in Richard Rodger's Best Foot Forward. Best known later for her television work, this is the start of a long musical-comedy stage career for the feisty Walker

1942 Judith Anderson and Katharine Cornell share a stage in Chekhov's Three Sisters, supported by Kirk Douglas

1943 Tomorrow the World, but tonight the Barrymore, as Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Sands and Shirley Booth take to the boards in this long-running drama

1945 Raymond Massey. Gertrude Lawrence. Pygmalion. 'Nuff said.

1947 A milestone of the theater's century. Elia Kazan directs Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in Tennessee William's powerful, Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Streetcar Named Desire

1950 Rex Harrison stars opposite Lilli Palmer in John van Druten's comedy Bell Book and Candle

1951 Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy are on stage together for the first time. Jose Ferrer wins a Tony for his direction of the duo in The Fourposter

1953 Deborah Kerr and John Kerr are acclaimed in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy

1955 George Grizzard makes his Broadway debut alongside Karl Malden and Paul Newman in the Tony-winning The Desperate Hours

1956 Maggie Smith and Inga Swenson are two of the New Faces of 1956

1957 George Hill directs Anthony Perkins and Jo Van Fleet in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe

1959 Broadway's first black director, Lloyd Richards, directs Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil and Louis Gosset in A Raisin in the Sun. Author Lorraine Hansberry is Broadway's first black playwright.

1966 Robert Duvall terrorizes Lee Remick in Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark

1967 Lynn Redgrave and Geraldine Page share the stage with Broadway newcomer Michael Crawford in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy White Lies

1967 Who's the star of The Little Foxes? Anne Bancroft, George C Scott, Margaret Leighton or E G Marshall

1974 Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy on stage in Noel Coward in Two Keys, this time joined by Ann Baxter

1975 John Wood takes home the Tony for his performance in Tom Stoppard's Tony-winning drama Travesties

1979 For 396 performances Anthony Perkins shares the stage with Mia Farrow in A Romantic Comedy

1980 Gilda Radner takes to the boards opposite Sam Waterston in the Mike Nichol's directed Lunch Hour

1982 Jessica Tandy receives a third Tony for her performance in Foxfire, a drama scripted by Susan Cooper and Tandy's husband Hume Cronyn

1984 David Rabe's Hurly Burly stars William Hurt, Christopher Walken, Jerry Stiller and Judith Ivey

1986 How's this for laughs: Mike Nichols directs Ron Silver, Olympia Dukakis, Marlo Thomas and Joanna Gleason in Social Security

1990 One of the New Faces of 1956, Maggie Smith receives a Tony for her leading-actress-in-a-play performance in Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage

1992 A Streetcar Named Desire takes to the boards again, this time with Alec Baldwin, Jessica Lange and Amy Madigan. There's no desire on the audience's part on the show dies a slow death

1992 Madelaine Kahn is Tony's leading actress for her performance in Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosenweig. She's joined on stage by Jane Alexander, Robert Klein and Frances McDormand

1999 A Stephen Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, starring Carol Burnett