Neil Simon Theater
| Alvin Theatre (1927-1983) |
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Neil Simon Theatre showing Hairspray, 2003
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| Address | 250 West 52nd Street New York City United States |
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| Owner | Nederlander Organization |
| Type | Broadway |
| Capacity | Approx. 1,362 |
| Production | Cats |
| Construction | |
| Opened | November 22, 1927 |
| Architect | Herbert J. Krapp |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
As of 2011, the record for its longest running show is held by the musical Hairspray, which opened August 15, 2002, and ran for 2,642 performances before closing on January 4, 2009.
Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the developer, real estate mogul Alexander Pincus originally named it the "Alvin Theatre" as an amalgam of the names of producers ALex Aarons and VINton Freedley. It opened on November 22, 1927, with George and Ira Gershwin's Funny Face starring Fred and Adele Astaire. In 1930, Ethel Merman made her Broadway debut in Girl Crazy; in 1934, she appeared again in Cole Porter's Anything Goes and again in 1936 in Porter's Red, Hot and Blue. In 1935, the Gershwins' American folk opera Porgy and Bess had its world premiere at the venue. Due to the Great Depression, Aarons and Freedley lost control of their venue in 1932. For a period, CBS used it as a radio studio. In 1960, Lucille Ball appeared in her only Broadway show, the musical Wildcat. In 1965, Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut in Flora the Red Menace. The original Broadway production of Annie opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin.
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