Billy Rose Theatre
| National Theatre, Billy Rose Theatre, Trafalgar Theatre | |
Nederlander Theatre shown with its Rent façade
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| Address | 208 West 41st Street New York City United States |
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| Owner | Nederlander Organization |
| Type | Broadway |
| Capacity | 1,232 |
| Production | War Paint |
| Opened | 1921 |
| Website | |
| nederlandertheatre |
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The David T. Nederlander Theatre (formerly the Billy Rose Theatre and National Theatre, commonly shortened to the Nederlander Theatre) is a 1,232-seat Broadway theater located at 208 West 41st Street, in New York City. One of the Nederlander Organization's nine Broadway theaters, the legacy of the theatre began with David Tobias Nederlander, for whom the theatre is named. The theater holds the distinction of being the southernmost theater in the theater district.
The commonly held history is that Walter C. Jordan built the theatre at a cost of $950,000. It opened September 1, 1921, as the National Theatre and seated 1,200 people.The Shubert Organization owned the venue until 1956, when Harry Fromkes purchased it as part of the settlement of the Shubert antitrust case. Fromkes died after a fall from his apartment, and his estate sold it to Billy Rose, who renamed it after himself in 1959. The Nederlander Organization purchased the venue in 1979 and briefly renamed it the Trafalgar Theatre before dubbing it the David T. Nederlander Theatre in 1980. It housed the Times Square Church before Nederlander sold the Mark Hellinger Theatre to the church's pastor, David Wilkerson. During the 2008 restoration of the venue, the owners discovered records indicating that the theatre was constructed as a carpenter's shop in 1920 before being converted to an entertainment venue the following year. This would mean that the Nederlander joins the Broadway and Winter Garden theatres as the only Broadway houses not originally built as such.
The venue has hosted a wide variety of shows, including the Mercury Theatre production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Noël Coward's Private Lives, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Tony award winning Rent. Lena Horne won a 1981 Tony Award for her performance at the Nederlander in her eponymous Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.
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