Music Box Theatre

Toward the close of 1919, the prominent theatrical producer Sam H. Harris made a proposition to his friend Irving Berlin: If the popular songwriter would devise a musical revue, Harris would find a theatre for it. Berlin responded with The Music Box Revue and in 1920 the Music Box Theatre was built to house the show. The Shuberts began acquiring shares of the venue from Harris in the 1920s. When Harris died in 1941, his wife sold half the shares in the theatre to the Shuberts, and half to Berlin. From that point on, Berlin and Shubert became equal partners in the ownership of the house. In 2007, the Berlin share of the theatre was sold to Shubert, now the sole owner of the theatre. Because of its dainty, jewellike qualities, the Music Box Theatre is aptly named. Designed by architect Charles Howard Crane in collaboration with E. George Kiehler, it was built in the neo-Georgian style, more in the manner of a dignified manor or country home than in the typical theatrical style of most other Broadway playhouses. Suffs is currently playing at the Music Box Theatre. The Music Box Theatre has 1,025 seats and is one of the Shubert Organization’s 17 Broadway theatres.