The National Theatre in the United States is located in downtown Washington, D.C., just east of the White House, and functions as a venue for live stage productions with seating for 1,676.

Black actors were allowed to appear on stage, but African American audience members were relegated to a special section.

During the Washington run of Porgy and Bess in 1936, the cast, led by Todd Duncan, protested the audience's segregation.

[10] In 1974, the not-for-profit National Theatre Corporation was established by Roger L. Stevens, Maurice B. Tobin, Donn B. Murphy, and others to save the failing enterprise, in the wake of racial riots, and a downtown made unfashionable by the growth of the surrounding suburbs.

The theatre underwent a major renovation in 1982–1983 when the original wing housing dressing rooms was replaced with a modern structure.

The 1835 stone foundations and brick stage house still exist, although the rock work is now reinforced with steel caissons to resist erosion by the Tiber Creek, which flows beneath the building.

Among the Broadway productions which have had out-of-town try-outs at the National are Amadeus, Beetlejuice, Crazy for You, Hello, Dolly!, If/Then, Show Boat, Mean Girls, and West Side Story.

[13] The many performers who have appeared at the theatre include Pearl Bailey, Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore, Warren Beatty, Sarah Bernhardt, Claire Bloom, Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth, Fanny Brice, Tom Burke, Carol Channing, George M. Cohan, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Cornell, Hume Cronyn, Tim Curry, Denishawn, Ruth Draper, Todd Duncan, Maurice Evans, Craig Ferguson, Lillian Gish, Ruth Gordon, Valerie Harper, Julie Harris, Rex Harrison, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Jefferson, James Earl Jones, Lucille La Verne, Eva LeGallienne, Jerry Lewis, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Eartha Kitt, Ian McKellen, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Idina Menzel, Virginia Monier, Rita Moreno, Helen Morgan, Rosie O'Donnell, Laurence Olivier, Annie Oakley, Geraldine Page, Robert Redford, Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Will Rogers, Rosalind Russell, George C. Scott, Kevin Spacey, Sting, Jessica Tandy, Norma Terris, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin, Franchot Tone, Rip Torn and Liv Ullmann.

The National Theatre has expanded its activities to include not only Broadway musical performances, but also concerts, lectures, opera, ballet, seminars, and receptions.