Hudson Theater
overview
Opened in 1904, the Hudson Theater has staged multiple productions involving major LGBT creators and performers, including W. Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde, Oliver Smith, Laurence Olivier, Barbara Stanwyck, and Eva Le Gallienne, among others.
Two plays with gay male characters that appeared here included Whiteoaks (1938) and the 1963 revival of Strange Interlude (1928).
Clyde Fitch, playwright of the 1908 play Her Sister. Source: www.clydefitchreport.com.
Under Fire ad, 1915. Source: wplreferenceblog.blogspot.com.
Blythe Daly, actress in the 1921 play The Varying Shore.
George Kelly, playwright of the 1921 play The Show-Off. Source: www.imdb.com.
Zoe Akins, playwright of the 1921 play The Varying Shore.
Barbara Stanwyck in The Noose, 1927.
W. Somerset Maugham, playwright of three productions at the Hudson Theater. Photo by Kay Vaughan, c. 1930.
Whiteoaks postcard, 1938.
Playbill credits page for Strange Interlude, 1963.
History
The Hudson Theater opened in 1904. Despite the Wales Padlock Law (1927), which forbade the depiction of “sex perversion” on stage, and which remained on the books until 1967, the Hudson Theater presented two plays with gay male characters. According to theater historian Kaier Curtin, Mazo de la Roche’s play Whiteoaks (1938) had “the very first gay character on the English-speaking stage who is rewarded, rather than punished or condemned, for being different.” Actress Ethel Barrymore tells her grandson “I know you’re a queer boy, but I like you – yes, I like you very much.” In 1963, the first revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude (1928) took place here, which had included an early closeted gay man on stage. The Hudson only had one huge LGBT-associated hit – The Voice of the Turtle (1947-48) by John Van Druten (opened at the Morosco Theater).
Productions by LGBT creators and with LGBT performers at the Hudson included:
- Ranson’s Folly (1904), with actor Harrison Ford
- Strongheart (1905), with actor Harrison Ford
- Her Sister (1907-08) by Clyde Fitch and Cosmo Gordon Lennox
- Lady Frederick (1908-09) by W. Somerset Maugham
- The Builder of Bridges (1909), with actor Eugene O’Brien
- Lady Windermere’s Fan (revival, 1914) by Oscar Wilde
- Under Fire (1915-16) by Roi Cooper Megrue
- Our Betters (1917) by W. Somerset Maugham
- Clarence (1919-20), with actor Alfred Lunt
- The Varying Shore (1921-22) by Zoe Akins, with actor Blythe Daly
- Cobra (1924), with actor Judith Anderson
- The Noose (1926-27), with actor Barbara Stanwyck
- To-Night at 12 (1928-29), with actor Spring Byington
- The Show-Off (revival, 1932-33) by George Kelly
- Grey Farm (1940) by Hector Bolitho and Terence Rattigan
- Theatre (1941-42) by W. Somerset Maugham and Guy Bolton
- Uncle Harry (1942-43; opened at the Broadhurst Theater), with actor Eva Le Gallienne
- Set My People Free (1948), with actor Musa Williams
- Man and Superman (1948; opened at the Alvin Theater), with actor Maurice Evans
- Becket (1961), with scenic design by Oliver Smith, and with actor Laurence Olivier (opened at the St. James Theater)
- Ross (1962) by Terence Rattigan (opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theater)
Legitimate theater ceased here in 1968, and the building was used as a porn theater by 1974. In 1981, it became the Savoy nightclub. Productions resumed at the Hudson Theater in 2017.
Entry by Jay Shockley, project director (June 2019, with multiple additions).
NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.
Building Information
- Architect or Builder: J.B. McElfatrick & Son and Israels & Harder
- Year Built: 1902-04
Sources
Hudson Theater Designation Report (New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1987).
Internet Broadway Database.
Kaier Curtin, “We Can Always Call Them Bulgarians”: the Emergence of Lesbians and Gay Men on the American Stage (Boston: Alyson Publications, 1987), 220.
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