Ethel Barrymore Theatre

Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York, on West 47th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue. Built by Lee Shubert, with a seating capacity of 1,099, it opened in 1928 with Ethel Barrymore, in whose honour it was named, in Martínez Sierra's The Kingdom of God. Its subsequent history has been one of almost unvaried success. Among its outstanding productions were Coward's Design for Living (1933) and Point Valaine (1935); Night Must Fall (1936) by Emlyn Williams, who also appeared in it; and Clare Boothe's scathing comedy The Women (also 1936). In 1947 Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, with Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy, won a Pulitzer Prize, as did Ketti Frings's adaptation of Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel ten years later. Other productions included Frederick Knott's Wait until Dark (1966); Peter Shaffer's double bill Black Comedy and White Lies (1967); and Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist (1971) with Alec McCowen. A musical about Black life, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971), scored a great success. Later came the double bill Noël Coward in Two Keys (1974) with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, David Mamet's American Buffalo (1977), Rabe's Hurlyburly (1984), and Lillian (1986), based on Lillian Hellman's writings.