The History of our Broadway Theatre

Ted Mann and Jose Quintero

Circle in the Square Theater was originally founded in 1950 by Theodore Mann and José Quintero in an abandoned nightclub in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The name refers to the fact that it was a theater in the round located at 5 Sheridan Square. Mann remained its Artistic Director until his resignation in 1996.

Mann and Quintero had become acquainted while doing summer stock with the Loft Players at the Maverick Theater in Woodstock, New York, and hoped to create a year-round repertory company in the City, and ultimately, their project became the epicenter of a national movement for Off-Broadway theater. By 1951, Jason Wingreen, Aileen Cramer, Ed Mann, and Emily Stevens also joined the founding members.

In 1972, Circle moved to its current Broadway home on 50th Street – the first new Broadway theatre in fifty years.

Over the years, our theatre offered America’s finest actors the chance to take on demanding roles in an atmosphere free of commercial pressure. Circle encouraged these actors to make bold choices and responded to their desire to explore plays that fell outside the popular repertory. Circle committed to the presentation of plays not normally produced on Broadway, allowing our audiences to see challenging material unavailable to them elsewhere.

After the close of the theatre as a producing entity in 1998, Circle in the Square Theatre has remained a fixture on Broadway, hosting productions that carry on the tradition of excellence. In recent years, Circle has been home to 2015 Best Musical Tony Award Winner Fun Home, Jez Butterworth’s The River starring Hugh Jackman, Enemy of the People, Audra McDonald’s Tony-winning performance in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Lombardi, The Norman Conquests, and Circle in the Square’s longest running show in its history, the multiple Tony-Nominated production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

 

  • Circle produced over 150 shows while it was a producing theatre, earning a national reputation for its landmark presentations of Bellow, Capote, Moliere, Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Thomas, Wilder and Williams.

    Most influential were productions of O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Moon for the Misbegotten and two definitive productions of Hughie.

    Circle also introduced audiences in the U.S. to Genet’s The Balcony, Behan’s The Quare Fellow, Fugard’s Boesman and Lena, and offered major revivals of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, Webster’s The White Devil, Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Shaw’s Heartbreak House, Barry’s Holidat, Inge’s Bus Stop, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, The Night of the Iguana, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, and Garden District.

    Circle is also responsible for the New York premieres of such works as Weller’s Loose Ends, Sobel’s Ghetto, Howe’s Coastal Disturbances and Korder’s Search and Destroy.

    Thornton Wilder’s Plays for Bleeker Street and the McNally-Melfi-Horowitz triptych, Morning, Noon and Night were written specifically for Circle in the Square.

    In recent years, the Circle stage has been home to Metamorphoses (2002), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005), Fun Home (2015), The Norman Conquests (2009), Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014), The River (2014), Once on This Island (2017), Oklahoma! (2019), and An Enemy of the People (2024)

  • Josephine Abady, Alan Arkin, Wlliam Ball, Michael Cacoyannis, Liviu Ciuei, Robert Falls, Theodore Mann, Mike Nichols, Stephen Porter, Jose Quintero, David Saint, Susan Shulman and David Warren.

  • Jane Alexander
    Mary Alice
    Alan Arkin
    Elizabeth Ashley
    Annette Bening
    Kelly Bishop
    Philip Bosco
    Matthew Broderick
    Zak Brown
    David Carradine
    Myra Carter
    Dixie Carter
    Richard Chamberlain
    Julie Christie
    Liviu Ciulei
    Jill Clayburgh
    Michael Cocoyannis
    Frances Conroy
    Billy Crudup
    John Cullum
    Tim Daly
    Blythe Danner
    Colleen Dewhurst
    Griffin Dunne
    Mildred Dunnock
    Marsha Eck
    Gregg Edelman
    Melissa Errico
    Peter Falk
    James Farentino
    Jules Feiffer
    Jules Fisher
    Hallie Foote
    Horton Foote
    Elizabeth Franz
    Victor Garber
    Lillian Gish
    John Glover
    Tony Goldwyn
    Tammy Grimes
    George Grizzard
    Bob Gunton
    Uta Hagen
    Harry Hamlin
    Rosemary Harris
    Rex Harrison
    Glenne Headley
    Dustin Hoffman
    George S. Irving
    Dana Ivey
    Anne Jackson
    Salome Jens
    Michael Jeter
    James Earl Jones
    Raul Julia
    Lisa Kirk

  • Kevin Kline
    Swoosie Kurtz
    Nathan Lane
    Frank Langella
    Anthony LaPaglia
    Laura Linney
    John Lithgow
    John Malkovich
    Audra McDonald
    Frances McDormand
    Leonard Melfi
    Eve Merriam
    Sylvia Miles
    Rita Moreno
    Michael Moriarty
    Joe Namath
    Carrie Nye
    Al Pacino
    Geraldine Page
    Irene Papas
    Mary-Louise Parker
    Estelle Parsons
    Austin Pendleton
    Bronson Pinchot
    Larry Pine
    Amanda Plummer
    Robert Lu Pone
    Stephen Porter
    Aidan Quinn
    Ellis Raab
    Vanessa Redgrave
    Lynn Redgrave
    Jason Robards
    Reg Rogers
    John Rubinstein
    Mercedes Ruehl
    George C. Scott
    George Segal
    Martin Sheen
    Antony Sher
    Jamey Sheridan
    Gary Sinise
    Vitali Solomon
    Maureen Stapleton
    Frances Sternhagen
    Marlo Thomas
    Rip Torn
    Maria Tucci
    Cicely Tyson
    Eli Wallach
    Treat Williams
    Nicol Williamson
    Elizabeth Wilson
    Joanne Woodward
    Max Wright
    Theresa Wright

 
 
 

Circle’s first production was Howard Richardson and Richard Berney’s Dark of the Moon in 1951. Tickets were sold for $1.50 apiece. City officials determined that the Sheridan Square space had been zoned as a cabaret, so tables were built around the stage, and the audience was served cookies and punch in order to meet the requirements of the cabaret laws. Other shows staged during Circle’s inaugural season included Jean Anouihl’s Antigone and Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma.

In 1952, Circle produced a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke starring Geraldine Page, which had failed on Broadway a few years earlier. New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson attended the opening night performance, and wrote in his review that “nothing has happened for quite a long time as admirable as the new production at Circle in the Square.” Summer and Smoke became Circle’s first hit, and the Off-Broadway theater movement took root.

Mann and Quintero had lobbied tirelessly since Circle’s inception for permission from Carlotta Monterey O’Neill to produce one of her late husband’s plays, and in 1956 permission was granted for a production of The Iceman Cometh starring Jason Robards, Jr. Circle’s burgeoning reputation was solidified by the production which, like Summer and Smoke, had originally been a Broadway failure. This success has been credited for re-establishing Eugene O’Neill as one of America’s greatest dramatists, and brought Circle numerous awards. It was followed up later that year with the American premier of Long Day’s Journey into Night, starring Frederic March, Florence Eldridge, and Jason Robards, Jr. The production garnered Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor for Frederic March. Over the course of its lifespan, Circle in the Square produced nearly all of Eugene O’Neill’s major works.

Geraldine Page and Lee Richardson in a publicity photograph for Summer and Smoke in 1952

 
 
 

Paul Libin and Theodore Mann

The company moved to a new performance space at 159 Bleecker Street in 1960, the original home of the Amato Opera Company. The Bleecker Street Theater’s three-sided stage allowed for democratic seating, use of a minimal amount of scenery, and for the audience to be close to the action. This style, pioneered by Circle in the Square, later became a mainstay of regional theater. Also at this time, Quintero left the company to pursue other opportunities. Mann remained at the helm as Artistic Director, a position he would occupy until 1993. His partnership with Paul Libin, Circle’s long-time Managing Director and Producing Director, began in 1963 with their production of The Trojan Women.

Throughout the 1960s, Circle continued to develop as a home for both revivals of classic works, such as Othello and Iphigenia in Aulis, and for new and experimental works such as the American premiers of Jean Genet’s The Balcony and Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow. Additionally, Circle presented three critically-acclaimed seasons at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

 

In the fall of 1972, Circle moved its base of operations once again, this time at the invitation of Mayor John Lindsay to the Joseph E. Levine Theatre, a 650-seat house at 50th Street and Broadway, though the Bleecker Street theater continued to house workshops of experimental plays and productions of new works until the late 1970s. The first production in their new home was O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra starring Colleen Dewhurst.

Although Circle in the Square is most often associated with Off-Broadway theater, they had been producing shows in Broadway houses as far back as Alfred Hayes’ The Girl on the Via Flaminia in 1954. With the opening of the Uptown theater, Circle had a permanent home on Broadway.

Circle in the Square Uptown, as it came to be known, was also the home of the Circle in the Square Theater School, which opened in 1961 in Greenwich Village, and remains a highly regarded acting conservatory.

In its 70-year history, Circle in the Square launched or reinvigorated the careers of many playwrights, actors, and directors. Among the notable figures who worked on Circle productions are George C. Scott, Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Al Pacino, Audra McDonald, Geraldine Page, James Earl Jones, Mary Louise Parker, Vanessa Redgrave, and Norm Lewis.

It offered America’s finest actors the chance to take on demanding roles in an atmosphere free of commercial pressure, encouraging these actors to make bold choices and responded to their desire to explore plays that fell outside the popular repertory. Circle committed to the presentation of plays not normally produced on Broadway, allowing our audiences to see challenging material unavailable to them elsewhere.

 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005)

The River (2014)

Oklahoma! (2019)

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014)

Once on this Island (2017)

An Enemy of the People (2024)

 

The History of our Theatre School

Vanessa Redgrave with students

Circle in the Square Theatre School opened its doors in 1961 in Greenwich Village with the aim of helping professional actors improve their craft. Working actors could sign up for courses taught by producers and actors who were connected to the theatre, that lasted upwards of six weeks at a time. The atmosphere was that of colleagues teaching colleagues.

In 1972, Circle moved uptown to the current location on West 50th street and changed its focus. Instead of providing short-term classes exclusively to the professional actor, the School became a conservatory that opened its doors to aspiring professionals as well. A full-time training program — The Professional Theatre Workshop — was developed initially with the hope of training the next group of actors for Circle in the Square productions. This two-year workshop strove to combine a collegiate and eclectic style with a rigorous program meant to prepare an actor for any challenge, whether they had worked professionally or not. In addition, the school instituted the Summer Workshops, which offered similar training to the Full-Time program but in a condensed time period, originally seven weeks.

By 1996, the School introduced a musical theatre program. Like the initial workshop, The Professional Musical Theatre Workshop provided intense acting training, but added components that would be specific to the musical theatre actor.

At its inception, Circle in the Square Theatre School only had fifteen students. Now, every year, between its various programs, Circle has approximately 150 students walk through its doors to hone their craft and become great actors.