History
The theatre opened as the Stuyvesant Theatre on October 16, 1907 with the musical A Grand Army Man with Antoinette Perry. The theatre was outfitted with the most advanced stagecraft tools available including extensive lighting rigs, a hydraulics system, and vast wing and fly space. Meyer R. Bimberg was the actual owner of the Stuyvesant/Belasco. He made his fortune selling political campaign buttons.
In 1910 Belasco attached his own name to the venue. After his death in 1931, it was leased first by actress Katharine Cornell and then playwright Elmer Rice. Marlon Brando had his first widely noticed success in this theater, in a production of Maxwell Anderson's Truckline Cafe which opened on Feb. 27th, 1946. He played the small but crucial role of Sage MacRae. The play flopped, but the press celebrated Brando as a new genius actor. The Shuberts bought it in 1949 and leased it to NBC for three years before returning it to legitimate use.
This theater is the subject of an urban legend that David Belasco's ghost haunts the theater every night. Some performers in the shows that played there have even claimed to have spotted him or other ghosts during performances. It was also reported that after Oh! Calcutta! (a musical revue with extensive full frontal male & female nudity) played the theater the ghost of David Belasco stopped appearing.
Read more about this topic: Belasco Theatre
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