Celebrate 100 Years of the Walter Kerr Theatre With André De Shields, Stephanie J. Block, More | Playbill

Video Celebrate 100 Years of the Walter Kerr Theatre With André De Shields, Stephanie J. Block, More An interactive timeline highlights the Broadway venue’s historic milestones.

In celebration of the Walter Kerr Theatre’s 100th anniversary, Jujamcyn Theaters has released an interactive timeline filled with historic milestones and collected memories that took place at the storied Broadway venue. Check out a teaser above, featuring Tony winners André De Shields, Stephanie J. Block, Cherry Jones, Kenny Leon, Adriane Lenox, Anäis Mitchell, and more.

The timeline follows the venue’s production history from the earliest shows, musicals, and revues, through its times as a television and radio studio, brief spans as an adult film theatre and later a children’s theatre, and finally a Broadway house. In addition, digitized ephemera has been included, with old production photos, Playbill covers, sheet music, and press clippings all available to explore.

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Walter Kerr Theatre auditorium Marc J. Franklin

Additional memory contributors include Crystal Dickinson, Tovah Feldshuh, Lewis Flinn, John Earl Jelks, Andrew Lippa, Omar Metwally, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Jeremy Shamos, Jason Tam, and Frederick Weller.

BROADWAY CHECKLIST: Broadway Checklist: How Many of These Shows at the Walter Kerr Theatre Have You Seen?

Designed by Herbert J. Krapp and built in 1921 as the Ritz Theatre, it was renamed the Walter Kerr Theatre in 1990 after the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York theatre critic. The Kerr has been home to over 150 Broadway productions, including four plays by August Wilson, seven Tony winners for Best Play, and two Tony winners for Best Musical (including Hadestown, its current occupant, albeit now dark due to the pandemic).

“It is no coincidence that this 100th anniversary of the Walter Kerr is also the beginning of spring,” said Jordan Roth, president of Jujamcyn Theaters. "Hadestown affirms that however deep in our personal, communal, societal darkness we may feel, spring will indeed come again. As much as we have all lost in this past year, we can place ourselves in this long legacy and see that we are at a turning point, that we are the turning point.”

View the interactive timeline here. Audiences are invited to join the centennial celebration by sending Kerr memories either as short videos (under 3 minutes), photos, and/or short written statements to [email protected].

Step Inside Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre

 
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