The Drama Nerds Database
Astor Theatre

Astor Theatre

Shows · Astor Theatre

Broadway Closed 1906–1925 on this page43 productions

The Astor Theatre was located at 1537 Broadway, at the corner with 45th Street, on Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It opened on September 21, 1906, with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and continued to operate as a Broadway theatre until 1925. It then operated as a movie theater, showing first runs of films, until it closed in 1972. == History == The Astor was first managed by Lincoln A. Wagenhals and Collin Kemper, then by George M. Cohan and Sam Harris, and later by the Shubert Organization. The theater was designed by architect George W. Keister. Among the plays that debuted at the Astor were Cohan's Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) and Why Marry? (1917) by Jesse Ly…

By decade43 productions across 3 decades

  1. 1900s 8
  2. 1910s 22
  3. 1920s 13

Counted from the productions we hold, which are Broadway and a partial West End. A quiet decade here can mean a dark theatre and can mean a gap in the record.

Longest runs hereby performances

1918 East is West December 25, 1918 680 perf.
1924 Artists and Models [1924] October 15, 1924 · Seymour Felix 519 perf.
1908 The Man from Home August 17, 1908 · Hugh Ford 496 perf.
1915 Hit-the-Trail-Holiday September 13, 1915 336 perf.
1913 Seven Keys to Baldpate September 22, 1913 320 perf.
1916 Her Soldier Boy December 6, 1916 · J. J. Shubert 198 perf.
1908 Paid in Full February 25, 1908 · Colin Kemper 167 perf.
1916 The Cohan Revue of 1916 February 9, 1916 165 perf.

Everything that played here43 productions

1906 A Midsummer Night's Dream September 21, 1906 · Revival 34 perf.
1907 Before and After April 25, 1907 · Revival 32 perf.
1907 The Builders May 20, 1907 · Original 16 perf.
1907 The Yankee Tourist August 12, 1907 · Original 111 perf.
1907 Tom Jones November 11, 1907 · Original 65 perf.
1908 Irene Wycherley January 20, 1908 · Original 39 perf.
1908 Paid in Full February 25, 1908 · Original 167 perf.
1908 The Man from Home August 17, 1908 · Original 496 perf.
1910 The Girl in the Taxi October 24, 1910 · Original 48 perf.
1911 Judith Zaraine January 16, 1911 · Original 16 perf.
1911 The Boss January 30, 1911 · Original 88 perf.
1911 The Red Widow November 6, 1911 · Original 128 perf.
1912 The Greyhound February 29, 1912 · Original 108 perf.
1912 The Woman Haters October 7, 1912 · Original 32 perf.
1913 Seven Keys to Baldpate September 22, 1913 · Original 320 perf.
1914 Hello, Broadway! December 25, 1914 · Original 123 perf.
1914 The Beauty Shop April 13, 1914 · Original 88 perf.
1914 The Miracle Man September 21, 1914 · Original 97 perf.
1915 Hit-the-Trail-Holiday September 13, 1915 · Original 336 perf.
1915 Young America August 28, 1915 · Original 105 perf.
1916 Her Soldier Boy December 6, 1916 · Original 198 perf.
1916 His Majesty Bunker Bean October 2, 1916 · Original 72 perf.
1916 The Cohan Revue of 1916 February 9, 1916 · Original 165 perf.
1916 The Guilty Man August 17, 1916 · Original 52 perf.
1917 His Little Widows April 30, 1917 · Original 72 perf.
1917 Why Marry? December 25, 1917 · Original 120 perf.
1918 East is West December 25, 1918 · Original 680 perf.
1918 Fancy Free April 11, 1918 · Original 116 perf.
1918 Little Simplicity November 4, 1918 · Original 112 perf.
1918 Rock-a-Bye Baby May 22, 1918 · Original 85 perf.
1920 Cornered December 8, 1920 · Original 143 perf.
1920 The Unwritten Chapter October 11, 1920 · Original 24 perf.
1921 The Blue Lagoon September 14, 1921 · Original 21 perf.
1921 The Detour August 23, 1921 · Original 48 perf.
1921 The Squaw Man December 26, 1921 · Revival 50 perf.
1922 The Blushing Bride February 4, 1922 · Original 144 perf.
1922 The Bronx Express April 26, 1922 · Original 58 perf.
1923 Dew Drop Inn May 17, 1923 · Original 83 perf.
1923 Sun Showers February 5, 1923 · Original 48 perf.
1924 Artists and Models [1924] October 15, 1924 · Original 519 perf.
1924 Sweet Little Devil January 21, 1924 · Original 120 perf.
1924 The Moon-Flower February 25, 1924 · Original 48 perf.
1925 June Days August 6, 1925 · Original 84 perf.

In the literature3 passages

  • I’m standing on Broadway in front of the no longer existing Astor Theatre with my father. A huge sign says Home of the Brave in lights, but my father is staring at one at the bottom, much smaller but in lights just as bright. That sign says: Based on a play by Arthur Laurents. The pride in my father’s face outshines all the lights.Rest of the Story_ A Life Completed, The - Arthur Laurents
  • Fred Niblo and Katherine La Salle in Hit-the-Trail Holiday. New York, Astor Theatre, 1915. [Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations]McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 1 (A-C)
  • Lotus Robb, Edmund Breese, and Harold West (1. to r.) in Wlty Marry? New York, Astor Theatre, 1917. [Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations]McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 5 (T-Z)

What this page does not know

  • What played here before Broadway record-keeping starts, and what played here outside it: concerts, benefits, film runs, anything that was not a listed production.
  • When 21 of these runs ended. They carry an opening date and no closing date, and they are old enough that they certainly closed. Nobody wrote down the date.

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