The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 50th Street, within the basement of Paramount Plaza, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

The Broadway venue was designed by Allen Sayles; it originally contained 650 seats and uses a thrust stage that extends into the audience on three sides.

The Gershwin Theatre and Circle in the Square's Broadway house were built as part of Paramount Plaza (originally known as the Uris Building).

[23] Upon the recommendation of Mann's father Martin M. Goldman,[24] the team opted for a location in Greenwich Village, which had a myriad of empty theaters.

[27] The Circle tended to stage productions by well-known playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Giraudoux, Dylan Thomas, and Jules Feiffer.

[31] The Circle's founders raised $7,500,[32] and Goldman formed Onyx Restaurants Inc. to lease the inn on behalf of the team, which was responsible for paying $1,000 a month in rent.

[25][30] Mann said Atkinson's review prompted guests to line up for tickets during July, at a time when theaters traditionally closed in the summer due to a lack of air conditioning.

[25] Quintero directed some of the theater's most popular early productions, including The Grass Harp, American Gothic,[36] and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night.

[31] City officials closed the 5 Sheridan Square location in March 1954 because the venue did not comply with fire-safety regulations[37][38] and because the space was only licensed as a cabaret.

[46] In July 1959, Mann, Quintero, and Leigh Connell announced that they had to relocate by that October because the building's owner was planning to redevelop the site.

[51] At the end of August 1959, Mann, Quintero, and Connell leased space at 159 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, which at the time was occupied by the Amato Opera Company.

[8] Even though the company's Broadway theater opened in 1972,[2] the Bleecker Street location continued to host off-Broadway shows through the late 1970s.

[75] The company's productions at Ford's included revivals of such plays as Moon for the Misbegotten,[76][77] Ah, Wilderness!,[76][78] and Arsenic and Old Lace.

[79][78] However, the company's offerings were ultimately constrained by the fact that the managers of Ford's Theatre were selective about what constituted "acceptable audience entertainment".

[91][92] Richard Weinstein, the head of the CPC's Lower Manhattan office, asked Mann whether he was interested in occupying the Uris Building's second theater.

[100] Prior to the Broadway house's opening, the theater hosted a gala on October 26, 1972. featuring several actors who had performed at the Circle's off-Broadway locations.

[107] During the Broadway house's first two seasons, the Circle staged productions such as Medea, Here Are Ladies, Uncle Vanya, The Waltz of the Toreadors, and The Iceman Cometh in 1973,[108][109] as well as The American Millionaire and Scapino in early 1974.

[119] For 1976–1977, the Circle continued its tradition of staging four Broadway shows per season,[120] and the Levine Theatre hosted The Days in the Trees, The Night of the Iguana, Romeo and Juliet, and The Importance of Being Earnest.

[126][128] Due to recurring financial issues that nearly prompted the theater company to declare bankruptcy, the Circle delayed the start of its 1979–1980 season to February 1980, extending the run of Loose Ends to cover the gap.

[145][146] In 1987, the Circle hosted Second Stage Theater's revival of the play Coastal Disturbances,[147][126] which featured Annette Bening and Timothy Daly and ran for ten months.

[154] Pacino had to scale back his appearances in Salome and Chinese Coffee after straining his vocal cords;[167][168] as a result, these productions only broke even.

[16] By November 1992, the theater had a $1.3 million deficit, prompting managing director Robert A. Buckley to fire 10 of the 25 staff members and postpone the start of the 1992–1993 season by four months.

[179][180] Afterward, the Circle was dark for over a year;[173] a planned engagement of the play Belmont Avenue Social Club during late 1993 had been canceled.

[181] Many of the Circle's board members blamed Mann for selecting shows that did not appeal to audiences and claimed that he was too focused on a "theatrical community that was rooted in the past".

[190][191] Hughie was initially supposed to have fewer regular performances than previews,[192][193] but the play was extended several times,[194][195] ultimately running until November 1996.

[202] Mosher also scrapped the proposed 1996–1997 season and announced plans to stage the play Stanley, which had been successful on London's West End.

[209] Subsequently, the men began looking for tenants; by August 1998, there were rumors that the Manhattan Theatre Club, which was looking for a Broadway house, would move into the space.

[240] It was followed by two relatively short-lived shows: the musical Soul Doctor, which had 66 performances in late 2013,[241][242] and the play Bronx Bombers, which ran for less than a month in early 2014.

[243][244] The Circle also hosted two more successful plays in 2014: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill[245][246] and The River,[247][248] both of which recouped their production costs.

[269] Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People opened at the theater in March 2024, running for three months;[270] it was followed in October by a limited-run revival of Romeo and Juliet.