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Broadway’s Smallest Theater Is Reopening, This Time as a Nonprofit

Once named the Little Theater, the playhouse now known as the Helen Hayes is about to be reincarnated again.

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The marquee of the Helen Hayes Theater, promoting the building's new nonprofit owner, Second Stage, and the production that opens next month, “Lobby Hero.”Credit...George Etheredge for The New York Times

The theater was so small, it was named the Little Theater. That was 106 years ago, and since then it has been reincarnated many times — renamed, repurposed, rehabilitated.

Now known as the Helen Hayes Theater, the smallest house on Broadway is about to reopen yet again, this time run by a nonprofit, becoming the sixth of today’s 41 Broadway theaters to operate outside the commercial marketplace.

The 589-seat playhouse has a new mission: Second Stage Theater, the nonprofit group that now owns the structure, says it will be used to present work by living American playwrights, a form of counterprogramming at a time when Broadway is dominated by musicals, revivals and British imports.

A city landmark, the theater, at 240 West 44th Street, has a new look that reflects the contemporary aspirations of Second Stage and the simple benefits of modernization. Long said to have the worst dressing rooms on Broadway, the Helen Hayes has been renovated to remedy that situation, as well as to expand the bathrooms substantially, enable access for those with disabilities and add better equipment for maneuvering sets.

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A pixelated tribute to a historic tapestry covers the walls of the theater.Credit...George Etheredge for The New York Times

The remodel is by the architect David Rockwell, who is also a Broadway set designer. He has sought to preserve the building’s history (for example: molding that depicts angels holding garlands) while adding what he calls “contemporary language.” The most visible example is the design of the theater’s side walls, which he has covered with a pixelated blue ombré riff on a François Boucher tapestry depicting Bacchus and Ariadne — a nod to a set of fabric reproductions of Boucher tapestries that once adorned the theater walls.

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The renovated playhouse has 589 seats, making it the smallest on Broadway.Credit...George Etheredge for The New York Times

“We didn’t want it to look like the other theaters,” said Carole Rothman, Second Stage’s longtime artistic director, “and we don’t think it does.”

The project has been in the works for a decade, delayed by the unexpectedly long run of “Rock of Ages” at the theater, followed by litigation over the sale. The price tag ballooned to $64 million, about 83 percent of which has been raised — much of it from the city, foundations and individual donors, with the addition of substantial revenue from transferring an adjacent alley to Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns the neighboring St. James Theater and is using the space to expand its stage as it prepares to mount Disney’s “Frozen.”

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Clockwise from top left: molding in the ceiling of the theater; a new rigging system; copper-colored seating; and a historic lobby chandelier with new color and crystals.Credit...Photographs by George Etheredge for The New York Times

The Hayes, which will be renamed if and when a donor steps up to buy the rights, held a dedicatory lighting ceremony Monday morning. Its first post-renovation show — “Lobby Hero,” written by Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”) and starring Chris Evans (“Captain America”) — is to begin previews March 1 and to open March 26. “Lobby Hero” is to be followed this summer by a production of “Straight White Men,” written by Young Jean Lee and starring Armie Hammer (“Call Me by Your Name”); the play will be the first by an Asian-American woman presented on Broadway.

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A crew member upgrades a historic light fixture in the theater.Credit...George Etheredge for The New York Times

Second Stage, which will continue to produce Off Broadway shows on West 43rd Street and on the Upper West Side, will dramatically increase its annual budget (to $18 million, from $10 million) to finance the expanded operations.

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An undated photo of the theater’s lobby.Credit...The Shubert Archive

Winthrop Ames, a wealthy producer, director and playwright, built the Little Theater, in 1912, as an elegant and intimate playhouse, with no balcony, 299 seats, a ticket price set at a steep $2.50, and the goal of creating “a place of entertainment for intelligent people.” The building, designed in a neo-Georgian style, with a red brick facade, by Ingalls & Hoffman, was a visual contrast with the more ornate Beaux-Arts and classical theaters that dominated Broadway. And it had some unusual features, including a custom-designed seat up front to accommodate J.P. Morgan. Its first play was a comedy, “The Pigeon,” by John Galsworthy; President Woodrow Wilson was an early patron.

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The theater interior after a balcony was added.Credit...The Shubert Archive

In 1920, a balcony was added, increasing the theater’s capacity to about 600.

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The finale of the first act of “Fashion of the Times,” a New York Times fashion show in 1947, when the building was owned by the newspaper.Credit...The New York Times

The New York Times purchased the building in 1931, but continued to lease it for the presentation of plays until 1941. The building was then renamed The New York Times Hall, and used for newspaper events and television broadcasts.

The building was sold again in 1962, and in 1963 it reopened as a theater, with a production of “Tambourines to Glory,” by Langston Hughes. But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it returned to television — Merv Griffin’s show was among those broadcast from there.

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“Rock of Ages” ran for four years at the theater, and its unexpected popularity delayed the building’s sale.Credit...Paul Kolnik, via Getty Images

The building has been in consistent use for stage performances since 1974, and was christened the Helen Hayes in 1983, after another theater named for the actress was torn down. Among the building’s best-known productions was “Torch Song Trilogy,” by Harvey Fierstein, which ran there from 1982 to 1985 and won the Tony Award for best new play in 1983. The theater had a long-running hit with “Rock of Ages,” from 2011 to 2015 (after an initial two years at the Brooks Atkinson Theater), delaying the Second Stage purchase as that musical became an unexpected destination for hard-partying theatergoers. The theater’s final production before it closed for the current renovation was “The Humans,” by Stephen Karam, which won the 2016 Tony Award for best new play.

A correction was made on 
Jan. 6, 2020

A picture with an earlier version of this article was published in error. While some episodes of the Merv Griffin show were broadcast from the Little Theater, as the article correctly stated, the image showed a 1969 taping at the Cort Theater.

How we handle corrections

Michael Paulson is the theater reporter. He previously covered religion, and was part of the Boston Globe team whose coverage of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. More about Michael Paulson

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Broadway Jewel Box Is Reopening. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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