5. Stephen Sondheim Theatre
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre at 124 West 43rd Street dates back to 1918, becoming Manhattan’s first air-conditioned theater. The Neoclassical-style building was originally named for actor-producer Henry Miller (whose name is still etched on the frieze of the facade), and it housed 950 people. After wide success from Noël Coward’s The Vortex in 1926, the theater achieved its Golden Years through the 1960s, featuring regulars like Helen Hayes, Leslie Howard, and Douglas Fairbanks.
However, after being sold to Seymour Durst, the venue became a movie theater, then a porn theater, then a disco, then a number of nightclubs. In 1998, the facility briefly became the Kit Kat Club that housed Roundabout Theatre Company’s popular revival of the musical Cabaret. The theater ultimately closed in 2004, and its interior was demolished. The new theater opened in September 2009 with a production of the musical Bye Bye Birdie. A year later, the theater was renamed in honor of the legendary Stephen Sondheim, and since 2010 the theater has housed six shows including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. It will reopen on October 21, 2021 with performances of Mrs. Doubtfire.