Cafe Crown is a three-act play by Hy Kraft that premiered on Broadway on January 23, 1942, at the Cort Theatre.
Its action presented "a motley group of amiable squatters found in a Second Avenue restaurant ... members of the Yiddish theatre", 21 characters in all.
[1] Brooks Atkinson, writing in The New York Times, called it a "hospitable comedy", "simple but warm-hearted", set in the cafe where:[2] Every one knows every one else.
They are not exactly one happy family, but they are clannish, emotional, self-contained, cultivated, and loyal to Second Avenue.It ended its run on May 23 after 140 performances.
The Broadway musical version starred actors Sam Levene and Theodore Bikel and co-starred Alan Alda, sopranos Monte Amundsen and Brenda Lewis, dancer Tommy Rall, and Betty Aberlin.