Eugene O'Neill Theatre

Eugene O'Neill Theatre (New York). The Georgian‐style playhouse on West 49th Street opened in 1925 as the Mansfield Theatre, named after the actor Richard Mansfield, and housed a series of flops until 1934 when it struck pay dirt with the long‐running Tobacco Road. Designed by Herbert J. Krapp with 1,200 seats and a substantial backstage area, the playhouse has successfully presented both plays and musicals over the decades. It was renamed the Coronet Theatre in 1945, but when producer Lester Osterman bought it in 1959 he named it after playwright O'Neill, who had died six years before. In the late 1960s and 1970s playwright Neil Simon owned the O'Neill and presented a handful of his new plays there. But he sold it to Jujamcyn Theatres in 1982 and the company still owns it.