Klaw Theatre

The Klaw Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 251–257 West 45th Street (now a part of George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1921 for producer Marcus Klaw, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa. Rachel Crothers' Nice People was the opening production in 1921 with Tallulah Bankhead and Katharine Cornell in her debut Broadway role albeit a small one. As the Klaw Theatre and later the Avon few productions had a very long run. Exceptions were the comedy Meet the Wife running for 232 performances in 1923 with Humphrey Bogart as juvenile lead Gregory Brown and playwright Hatcher Hughes's melodrama Hell-Bent Fer Heaven running for 122 performances in 1924 and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1924. Arnold Schoenberg's musical composition Pierrot Lunaire was performed for the first time in the western hemisphere at the Klaw on February 4, 1923, with George Gershwin and Carl Ruggles in attendance. On November 28, 1926 Martha Graham and others in her company gave a dance recital at the Klaw, they were accompanied by pianist Louis Horst. Maxwell Anderson's Gypsy, directed by George Cukor, had a short run of 64 performances from January 14, 1929, to March 1929 but was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1928 - 1929. It was renamed the Avon Theatre in 1929. Strictly Dishonorable, written by Preston Sturges, had the longest run at the Avon of 557 perform

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