St James Theatre

St James Theatre, New York, on West 44th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue. This large theatre, seating 1,583, opened as Erlanger's in 1927 for spectacular and musical shows, and received its present name in 1932. Among its early productions were revivals of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Sardou's Diplomacy (both 1928), and Lion Feuchtwanger's Jew Süss (1930) dramatized by Ashley Dukes. The theatre then housed light opera and musical shows, returning to straight drama with a dramatization of James Hilton's Lost Horizon in 1934. In 1937 Margaret Webster's highly acclaimed production of Richard II starred Maurice Evans, who also appeared in her production of Hamlet in 1938 and Henry IV, Part One in 1939. A year later he was seen with Helen Hayes in Twelfth Night, and in 1941 Canada Lee gave a fine performance in Paul Green's Native Son. The theatre was then occupied for several years by Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943); their The King and I (1951), with Gertrude Lawrence, was also successful. Anouilh's Becket (1960) did well, as did Osborne's Luther (1963), in which Albert Finney made a successful Broadway début, the latter moving in 1964 to make way for another long-running musical Hello, Dolly! Later hits were Papp's musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1971; the London National Theatre's production of Molière's The Misanthrope in 1975; two notable new musicals, On the Twentieth Century (1978) and Barnum (1980); and an evening of music and lyrics by the Gershwins, My One and Only (1983).