The upper stories of both sections are made of brick and terracotta; the auditorium facade has arched windows, niches, and a central pediment, while the stage house has a more plain design.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, the Alvin hosted long runs of shows such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, High Spirits, The Great White Hope, Company, Shenandoah, and Annie.

The Neil Simon Theatre is on 250 West 52nd Street, on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

[25] The balcony level is divided into front and rear sections by an aisle halfway across its depth, which in turn is delineated by a metal railing.

At the front of the auditorium is a recessed circular dome encircled by ornamental bands, with a crystal chandelier hanging from a central medallion.

[7][39] By October 1927, Aarons and Freedley had leased the theater and planned to stage George and Ira Gershwin's musical Funny Face, starring Fred and Adele Astaire.

[56] The Players brought their production of Uncle Tom's Cabin to the Alvin in May 1933;[66][67] the play was so popular that it was extended two weeks past its original one-week run.

[70][71][72] Freedley next produced Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes at the Alvin in 1934, featuring Merman, William Gaxton, Victor Moore, and Vivian Vance;[70][73] it ran for 420 performances.

[88][86] The Alvin's first production of the 1940s was a limited run of The Taming of the Shrew in February 1940, staged by acting couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne for the Finnish Relief Fund.

[93] The next year, the Alvin hosted Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart, and Kurt Weill's psychiatry-themed musical Lady in the Dark;[94][95] featuring Gertrude Lawrence, it had 467 performances.

[106] More successful was Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Morton Gould's musical Billion Dollar Baby, which opened at the end of 1945[107][108] and lasted for 200 performances.

[125][126] It was followed immediately afterward by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan's comedy Mister Roberts with Henry Fonda,[127] which ran for 1,157 performances.

[158][159][160] In addition, Jerome Robbins choreographed his dance special Ballet U.S.A. in 1958,[161][162] and the musical Bells Are Ringing relocated from the Shubert to the Alvin that year.

[158][171] The Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman musical Wildcat opened that December with Lucille Ball,[172][173] who made her only Broadway appearance there.

[158][175][176] The next year, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened,[177][178] running for 967 performances.

[179][180] During A Funny Thing's run in October 1962, Lester Osterman (owner of the 46th Street and O'Neill theaters) leased the Alvin for five years.

[181] Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray's musical comedy High Spirits, with Beatrice Lillie and Tammy Grimes, opened in 1964[182][183] and ran for 367 performances.

[24] The Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened at the Alvin in October 1967,[198][199] running for 421 total performances across two theaters.

[200][201] It was succeeded in 1968 by Howard Sackler's drama The Great White Hope with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander,[202][203] which had 557 performances.

[211] The Nederlander Organization acquired the Alvin in 1975, and the venue became the family's fourth Broadway theater after the Palace, Uris, and Brooks Atkinson.

[1] The producers of The Little Prince, as well as those of Little Johnny Jones (which closed on opening night), successfully sued the Nederlanders in 1986, on the grounds that the company had unfairly evicted both shows.

[252][253] A dance troupe of Don Cossacks from Russia had a limited engagement at the Neil Simon in January 1990,[247][254] That October, comedian Jackie Mason launched his solo series Brand New,[255][256] which ran for eight months.

[277][278] The Neil Simon hosted the dance special Swan Lake in late 1998,[279][280] as well as a concert by Natalie Merchant[281][282] and a revised version of the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1999.

[290][291] After the closure of Elaine Stritch at Liberty, the Neil Simon was expanded from 1,328 seats to a potential 1,467 in preparation for its next engagement: the musical Hairspray,[292] which opened in August 2002.

[295][296] Robin Williams was to perform his comedy tour Weapons Of Self-Destruction at the Neil Simon in April 2009, but he canceled his engagement after undergoing surgery.

[302][303] Musician Harry Connick Jr. had a limited performance at the Neil Simon in July 2010;[304][305] his appearance was recorded for the 2011 album In Concert on Broadway.

[312] A revival of Jesus Christ Superstar ran at the Neil Simon from March to July 2012,[313][314] followed at the end of that year by the short-lived musical Scandalous.

[318][319] This was followed by two similarly short runs: Robert Schenkkan's play All the Way from March to June 2014,[320][321] and Sting's musical The Last Ship from October 2014 to January 2015.

[322][323] A revival of Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner's musical Gigi opened at the Neil Simon in April 2015, only for the show to close after two months.

[329][330] A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Cats opened at the Neil Simon in August 2016 and ran until the end of the next year.