Cort Theatre

138W 48th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Ave.s) / New York City

The Cort Theatre was built by and named for John Cort, general manager of the Northwestern Theatrical Association, a theatre
circuit centered in Seattle with playhouses scattered throughout the western US and British Columbia. A fugitive from a vaudeville
comedy team called Cort and Murphy, Cort moved from performing to management in the 1890s.

see: The Cincinnati Enquirer; February 18, 1883 (pg.12)
           Hermes Garden Theatre; Covington, Ohio / "Cort and Murphy, song and dance"

The theater's dedication was held on December 20, 1912, but the previous March Cort had already been planning three new theaters.

- New York Tribune / December 7, 1912 (pg.9) -            - New York Times / December 15, 1912 (pg.86) -

- New York Sun / March 7, 1912 (pg.9) -            - New York Tribune / March 7, 1912 (pg.7) -

- New York Evening World / July 14, 1915 (pg.20) -

Cort became known as an avid developer, as the news articles reported over the years:

- New York Times / April 9, 1913 (pg.17) -            - New York Sun / September 27, 1913 (pg.15) -

He also became a donor to worthy causes:

- New York Times / March 15, 1913 (pg.6) -            - New York Tribune / June 9, 1914 (pg.9) -

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And he always needed to be in the forefront of the theatrical production business:

- New York Times / July 14, 1913 (pg.7) -            - New York Times / March 1, 1914 (pg.64) -

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Cort Theatre (left) 1912 - and (right), today.

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The venue's initial production was Peg o' My Heart (1912), starring Laurette Taylor and directed by Oliver Morosco.

- New York Times / December 22, 1912 (pg.6) -            - New York Times / September 7, 1913 (pg.60) -

John Cort's first production at the theatre was The Princess Pat (September 29, 1915 - February 12, 1916, 158 performances), an operetta,
and the first of only 12 musicals to play here (4 were produced by Cort himself).

The Shuberts acquired the theatre in 1927, two years before Cort's death.

- New York Sun / September 26, 1915 (pg.21) -                      - San Francisco_Chronicle / October 17, 1915 (pg.24) -

Early non-musical hits at the Cort gave it the reputation of being a "lucky" house. They include Roi Cooper Megrue's first big hit,
Under Cover (August 26, 1914 - June 1915, 349 performances), John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln (December 15, 1919 - May 1920, 193 performances) starring Frank McGlynn, and George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's Merton of the Movies (1922) with Glenn Hunter
(November 13, 1922 - October 20, 1923, 392 performances).

- New York Evening World / January 30, 1915 (pg.6) -                      - New York Sun / July 13, 1914 (pg.7) -

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- scene from Abraham Lincoln -                              - Merton at the Movies -

And unlike many early legitimate theatrical managers, Cort was not above putting movies into his palaces:

- New York Sun / May 31, 1914 (pg.9) -                      - New York Times / May 31, 1914 (pg.66) -

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The Cort also featured performers such as Ethel Barrymore and Henry Daniell in The Second Mrs. Tanquerray (1924),
Judith Anderson in Behold the Bridegroom (1927), and Katharine Hepburn in These Days (1928)
The actress had only a few lines, but was recognized. The play closed after 8 performances.

- New York Daily News / November 14, 1928 (pg.47) -

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Cort welcomed shows such as classic works. Lillian Gish, Osgood Perkins and Walter Connelly
in Uncle Vanya (1930), Ruth Gordon in The Three-Cornered Moon (1933), and Lawrence Olivier in The Green Bay Tree (1933).
The Theatre Guild presented The Winter's Tale (1946) and Wesley Addy, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Marlon Brando were featured
in Antigone and Candida, produced in repertory in 1946. Eva Le Gallienne translated and starred in Ibsen's Ghosts and
Hedda Gabler (1948), and Grace Kelly made her Broadway debut in Strindberg's The Father (1949).

Among the notable stars and productions of the 1950s and 1960s were Katharine Hepburn and William Prince in As You Like It
(1950); Saint Joan (1951) with Uta Hagen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Shrike (1952) featuring Jose Ferrer; Darren McGavin and
Geraldine Page in The Rainmaker (1954); The Diary of Anne Frank (1955); Purlie Victorious (1961) with Ossie Davis and
Ruby Dee; and Sunday in New York (1961) with Robert Redford. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest had a short run of only 82
performances at the Cort in 1963, but bolstered the careers of Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder. Jane Fonda made her Broadway
debut in There Was A Little Girl (1960), and Al Pacino starred in Richard III (1969).

The longest running musical at this theatre was The Magic Show (1974), which ran 1,920 performances.
Three recent musical productions include Sarafina (1988), Kat and the Kings (1999), and A Year with Frog and Toad (2002).

Productions of the 1980s and 1990s include Tennesee Williams's Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980), Glenda Jackson and Jessica Tandy
Tin Rose (1981), Zoe Caldwell in Medea (1982), The Grapes of Wrath (1990), Twilight, Los Angeles (1994),
Cherry Jones in The Heiress (1995), Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter (1997), John Leguizamo in Freak (1998),
and Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room (1998).

The Cort also hosted the Julie Taymor-directed The Green Bird (2000) and the Carol Burnett-penned Hollywood Arms (2002).
More recently, it has also been home to a revival of On Golden Pond (2005) with James Earl Jones, Douglas Carter Beane's
comedy The Little Dog Laughed (2006), August Wilson's final play Radio Golf (2007), and Will Ferrell's
You're Welcome America (2009).