The venue's initial production was
Peg o’ My Heart (1912), starring Laurette Taylor and directed by Oliver Morosco. John Cort’s first production at the theatre was
The Princess Pat (1915), an operetta, and the first of only 12 musicals to play here (4 were produced by Cort himself). The longest running musical at this theatre was
The Magic Show (1974), which ran 1,920 performances. Three recent musical productions include
Sarafina (1988),
Kat and the Kings (1999), and
A Year with Frog and Toad (2002).
Early non-musical hits at the Cort gave it the reputation of being a “lucky” house. They include Roi Cooper Megrue’s first big hit,
Under Cover (1914), John Drinkwater’s
Abraham Lincoln (1919) starring Frank McGlynn, and George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly’s
Merton of the Movies (1922) with Glenn Hunter. The Cort also featured performers such as Ethel Barrymore and Henry Daniell in
The Second Mrs. Tanquerray (1924), Judith Anderson in
Behold the Bridegroom (1927), and Katharine Hepburn in
These Days (1928)--The actress had only a few lines, and the play closed after 8 performances.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Cort welcomed shows such as classic works. Lillian Gish, Osgood Perkins and Walter Connelly in
Uncle Vanya (1930), Ruth Gordon in
The Three-Cornered Moon (1933), and Lawrence Olivier in
The Green Bay Tree (1933). The Theatre Guild presented
The Winter’s Tale (1946) and Wesley Addy, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Marlon Brando were featured in
Antigone and
Candida, produced in repertory in 1946. Eva Le Gallienne translated and starred in Ibsen’s
Ghosts and
Hedda Gabler (1948), and Grace Kelly made her Broadway debut in Strindberg’s
The Father (1949).
Among the notable stars and productions of the 1950s and 1960s were Katharine Hepburn and William Prince in
As You Like It (1950);
Saint Joan (1951) with Uta Hagen; the Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Shrike (1952) featuring José Ferrer; Darren McGavin and Geraldine Page in
The Rainmaker (1954);
The Diary of Anne Frank (1955);
Purlie Victorious (1961) with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; and
Sunday in New York (1961) with Robert Redford.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest had a short run of only 82 performances at the Cort in 1963, but bolstered the careers of Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder. Jane Fonda made her Broadway debut in
There Was A Little Girl (1960), and Al Pacino starred in
Richard III (1969).
Productions of the 1980s and 1990s include Tennesee Williams’s
Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980), Glenda Jackson and Jessica Tandy in
Rose (1981), Zoe Caldwell in
Medea (1982),
The Grapes of Wrath (1990),
Twilight, Los Angeles (1994), Cherry Jones in
The Heiress (1995), Wendy Wasserstein’s
An American Daughter (1997), John Leguizamo in
Freak (1998), and Nicole Kidman in
The Blue Room (1998).
The Cort also hosted the Julie Taymor-directed
The Green Bird (2000) and the Carol Burnett-penned
Hollywood Arms (2002). It has also been home to a revival of
On Golden Pond (2005) with James Earl Jones, Douglas Carter Beane’s comedy
The Little Dog Laughed (2006), August Wilson’s final play
Radio Golf (2007), Will Ferrell's
You're Welcome America (2009), and the revivals of
A View from the Bridge (2010) with Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, and the Tony Award winning
Fences (2010) with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Most recent residents include
Time Stands Still (2010) with Laura Linney,
Born Yesterday (2011) with Nina Arianda, the Tony nominated revival of
This is our Youth (2014), Larry David's
A Fish in the Dark (2015), the Tony nominated musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell,
Bright Star (2016) and the Tony winning play,
Indecent (2017).
Visit the Internet Broadway Database for a complete list.
