239 West 45th StreetThe Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The Music Box Theatre was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed specifically to house Irving Berlin's and Sam H. Harris's Music Box Revue. It was announced on November 11, 2022 that a revival of the show, styled as Bob Fosse's Dancin' and directed by original cast member Wayne Cilento, would play at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, with opening night scheduled for March 19, 2023.
It opened in 1921 and hosted a new musical production every year until 1925, when it presented its first play, Cradle Snatchers, starring Humphrey Bogart. The following year, Chicago, the Maurine Dallas Watkins play that served as the basis for the musical, opened at the theatre. It housed a string of hits for the playwriting team of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, from their first collaboration Once in a Lifetime to their play The Man Who Came to Dinner. Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin also presented shows here.
In the 1950s, playwright William Inge had success at the Music Box with Picnic, Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
One of the smaller Broadway theatres, with a seating capacity of 990, the Music Box was co-owned by Berlin's estate and the Shubert Organization until the latter assumed full ownership in 2007. Its box seats are unusually large and round, and Dame Edna described them as "ashtrays" during her run there. The lobby features a plaque and wall exhibit commemorating the theatre's history.