The Longacre Theatre is on 220 West 48th Street, on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

[5] At the time of the theater's construction, the site to the east contained a carriage factory, while the Union Methodist Church was across 48th Street.

[9] The three inner bays (directly above the marquee) contain double-height openings, each with a window and a transom bar that is divided horizontally into three sections.

Above this, an entablature wraps across the width of the facade; it contains fluted tiles on either side of an inscription with the words "The Longacre Theatre".

An entablature runs atop the front portion of the second balcony's walls; it wraps above the boxes on both sides of the auditorium, as well as above the proscenium arch.

[30] Harry Frazee was a theatrical personality (and later a baseball executive) from Peoria, Illinois, who entered the industry as a 16-year-old theater usher in 1896.

[34] By January 1912, Henry B. Herts had been selected as the architect,[7][35] and he filed plans for the theater that month with the New York City Department of Buildings.

[56][59] During 1915, the Longacre's productions included Inside the Lines with Lewis Stone,[60][61] A Full House with May Vokes,[60][62] and The Great Lover with Leo Ditrichstein.

[60][66] In November 1916, during the run of Nothing but the Truth, Frazee sold his interest in the Longacre to Anderson, L. Lawrence Weber, and F. Ray Comstock.

[73][75] Ethel Barrymore then leased the theater in June 1922,[76][77] appearing in three plays there: Rose Bernd, Romeo and Juliet, and The Laughing Lady.

[92][94] The Longacre's offerings in the late 1920s included Jarnegan with Richard and Joan Bennett,[95][96] Hawk Island with Clark Gable,[95][97] and A Primer for Lovers with Alison Skipworth.

[115] The Longacre's productions during this time included a Hedda Gabler revival with Alla Nazimova,[116][117][118] followed by The Lady Has a Heart with Elissa Landi.

[132][133] A year after moving into the theater, MBS added some offices on the Longacre's top story to alleviate crowding at its other buildings.

[134] The Longacre also served as the home of AM radio station WOR, which used the theater for shows like Broadway Talks Back,[110] as well as The American Forum of the Air starting in 1947.

[137] By 1949, as a result of a shortage of studios in New York City, MBS rival CBS had started broadcasting This is Broadway from the Longacre.

[127] The Broadway theatre industry had improved by mid-1953, when a shortage of available theaters prompted the Shuberts to return the Longacre to legitimate productions.

[143][144] More successful was Lillian Hellman's version of Anouilh's The Lark,[145] which opened in 1955[146] and featured Julie Harris, Boris Karloff, and Christopher Plummer.

[148][149] Another hit at the Longacre was Samuel Taylor's 1958 comedy The Pleasure of His Company, which featured Cornelia Otis Skinner, Walter Abel, Dolores Hart, George Peppard, Cyril Ritchard, and Charlie Ruggles.

[161][162] Holbrook, Teresa Wright, and Lillian Gish starred in Robert Anderson's play Never Sang for My Father at the Longacre in 1968.

[166] According to theatrical historian Louis Botto, this reinforced "the notion that no hits open there", creating a cycle of flops in the early 1970s.

[182][185] The Longacre often remained dark for several consecutive months during the 1980s,[186] and a 1987 New York Times article reported that the theater had been empty for 201 of the past 208 weeks.

[187] Shows during the decade included Passion,[188][189] Play Memory,[182][190] Harrigan 'N Hart,[191][192] A Day in the Death of Joe Egg,[193][194] Precious Sons,[195][196] The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,[197][195] Don't Get God Started,[195][198] and Hizzoner!.

[210] No other shows had been staged when, in November 1991, the city and state government officials proposed setting up a community courtroom in the theater to process misdemeanor summonses.

[211] Theatrical personalities heavily opposed the plan, not only because it would require extensive renovations, but also because another Broadway house (the Mark Hellinger Theatre) had been converted to non-theatrical use.

[195][217] A revival of Medea with Diana Rigg was hosted in 1994,[195][218] followed by a short run of Phillip Hayes Dean's Paul Robeson with Avery Brooks in 1995.

[219][220] Horton Foote's The Young Man from Atlanta opened at the Longacre in 1997,[221][222] followed by David Henry Hwang's Golden Child the next year.

[236][237] As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2003, the Shuberts agreed to improve disabled access at their 16 landmarked Broadway theaters, including the Longacre.

The interior spaces were extensively rebuilt with new seats and lounges, as well as restored decorations, including an approximation of the original color scheme.

[253] Productions in the early 2010s included La Cage aux Folles in 2010, Chinglish in 2011, Magic/Bird and The Performers in 2012, First Date the Musical in 2013, and Of Mice and Men and You Can't Take It with You in 2014.

[16][22] A Bronx Tale achieved the box office record for the theater, grossing $1,293,125.32 over nine performances for the week ending January 1, 2017.