The venue has hosted a variety of shows, including the plays Cyrano de Bergerac, Inherit the Wind, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[15] When the theater was renamed the Billy Rose Theatre in 1959, the facade was repainted white, leading Newsweek magazine to describe it as "an architect's memory of New Orleans' French Quarter".

[15] The backstage area contained dressing rooms with bathrooms and windows, which local media described at the time as "the last word in utility and luxury".

[25] As such, Jordan renamed the structure the National Theatre at the end of July 1921,[26] shortly after booking Swords (Sidney Howard's first play[8]) as the theater's first production.

[29][30] John Willard's melodrama The Cat and the Canary, which opened at the National in February 1922,[31] was a major critical success[8] and ran for three months.

[61][66] Subsequently, Guthrie McClintic's production of the drama Ethan Frome was presented there in January 1936,[67][68] as well as Noël Coward's anthology of plays Tonight at 8:30 that November.

[69][70] The Mercury Theatre company, led by John Houseman and Orson Welles, performed revivals of the plays Julius Caesar and The Shoemaker's Holiday at the National in 1937 and 1938.

[85] These included Lerner and Loewe's musical The Day Before Spring in 1945;[86][87] the revue Call Me Mister in 1946;[87][88] and the tragedy Medea with Judith Anderson in 1947.

[87][89] The next several shows were relatively short-lived, including an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment in 1947, as well as revivals of Tonight at 8:30 and Macbeth in 1948.

[87][90][91] This was followed the next year by Clifford Odets's The Big Knife,[92][93] as well as a revival of Caesar and Cleopatra with Cedric Hardwicke and Lilli Palmer.

[87][94][95] In 1950, the theater featured live performances by Les Ballets de Paris[85][96] and a revival of King Lear with Louis Calhern.

[97][98] The musical Courtin' Time,[99][100] followed by a revival of The Constant Wife with Brian Aherne, Katharine Cornell, and Grace George, arrived at the theater the following year.

[101][102][103] Tennessee Williams's play Camino Real was staged at the National in early 1953,[104][105] and the comedy of manners Sabrina Fair opened later the same year.

[119] Fromkes's firm defaulted on its mortgage after his death, and the New York Supreme Court appointed a receiver to manage the theater that March.

[126] Rose spent $500,000 to renovate the theater, hiring Oliver Messel to redecorate the auditorium in a red, gold, and white color scheme.

[129] The next year, the theater hosted Dear Liar,[130][131] which was notable as Katharine Cornell's last Broadway appearance,[132] as well as a drama based on John Hersey's novel The Wall.

[133][134] The Billy Rose's next hit was Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which opened in 1962[135][136] and ran for 660 performances over the next two years.

[139] Albee's play Tiny Alice, featuring John Gielgud and Irene Worth, opened at the theater at the end of 1964,[140] but it was not successful.

[133][145] Following a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in early 1969,[146] the revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives was presented later the same year.

[176] The next several productions had relatively short runs,[139] including one show, Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap, which closed on its opening day in 1983.

[177][178] The theater's productions in the mid-1980s included 84 Charing Cross Road, Amen Corner, Strange Interlude and Raggedy Ann,[179] as well as a live show taped by Robert Klein in June 1986.

[186][c] David Wilkerson, founding pastor of the Times Square Church, leased the theater in January 1988,[188] a month after the play Sherlock's Last Case had closed.

[194][195] The Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn formed the Broadway Alliance in June 1990, wherein each company set aside one of its theaters to present dramas and comedies at reduced ticket prices.

[199][200] More than one year elapsed before the Nederlander hosted its next production, the one-man show Solitary Confinement with Stacy Keach,[201] which ran for two weeks in November 1992.

[3] A revival of Guys and Dolls, starring Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham, opened in March 2009;[219][220] the show played 113 performances before closing that June.

[224][225] Simon also canceled the planned production of Broadway Bound, blaming the theater's location for the rapid closure of Brighton Beach Memoirs.

[7] The musical Million Dollar Quartet made its Broadway debut at the theater in April 2010,[226] running for 489 performances[227][228] before moving off-Broadway in June 2011.

[248][249] The Nederlander then hosted two live appearances in late 2019: Kristin Chenoweth's For The Girls in November[250][251] and Harry Connick Jr.'s A Celebration of Cole Porter the following month.

[257][258] The musical Mr. Saturday Night then ran from April to September 2022,[259][260] and it was followed by Jefferson Mays's solo production of A Christmas Carol at the end of the year.

[333] Newsies achieved the box office record for the Nederlander Theatre in 2012, playing to 101 percent[334] capacity and grossed $1,024,516.60 for eight performances the week ending April 15, 2012.