Imperial Theatre - Definition and Overview

The Imperial Theater can also refer to the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo, Japan

The Imperial Theater was the Schubert brothers' fiftieth theater in New York City. Built in 1923 at 249 West Forty-fifth Street, it seats 1,650. It was designed by Herbert J. Krapp as a musical comedy house. Mary Jane McKane was the first production, opening on Christmas night, 1923.

Some notable productions include:

• Cole Porter and Moss Hart's musical Jubilee, featuring two classic Porter songs, "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things".
• Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott's Russian ballet spoof On Your Toes, with two George Balanchine ballets.
• John Gielgud played the title role in Hamlet, which ran for 132 performances.
• Kurt Weill, S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash scored 567 performances with One Touch of Venus (1943), with Mary Martin as the classical goddess of Love out of place in the modern world. This was his New York premiere for Weill (most famous as Bertolt Brecht's collaborator), who had fled both Germany and France to excape the Nazis.
• Dreamgirls opened on December 20, 1981 and ran for 1522 performances. This musical featured the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", sung by Jennifer Holliday. Holliday's performance of this song stopped the show and became her signature song.
• Ethel Merman ran up an impressive 1,147 performances in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun.
• Zero Mostel opened in the multi-Tony Award-winning Fiddler on the Roof.

External links

• The Imperial Theater (http://www.imperialtheater.net/) home page.

Example Usage of Imperial