ABOUT ROUNDABOUT

A Short History of Roundabout Theatre Company

A Bright Idea

Gene Feist and his wife, actress Elizabeth Owens, conceived the idea of the non-profit Roundabout Theatre Company in 1965. Feist wanted to do classic plays by authors like Ibsen and Shaw and thought that a subscription series at an affordable price would be of interest to New Yorkers. Roundabout's first production of Strindberg's The Father was presented in a 150-seat theatre in the basement of a supermarket in Chelsea. In that first season, the company had four hundred subscribers who paid only $5.00 for three plays.

In 1974, with a growing reputation for good productions of classic plays, Roundabout moved and converted a 299-seat movie theatre on 23rd Street, calling it Roundabout Stage One. For the next ten years, both the new and the original, called Roundabout Stage Two, presented plays that attracted well-known actors such as Kim Hunter, Vincent Price, Irene Worth, Tammy Grimes, Malcolm McDowell, and Philip Bosco.

Stockard Channing in the Roundabout's 1985 production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

While Roundabout was growing in leaps and bounds artistically, the company was struggling financially, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1978. By 1983, the company had an accumulated $2.5 million deficit on a $1.5 million budget. Todd Haimes, a 26 year-old recent Yale School of Management graduate, came on board as Managing Director. Just two weeks later, the Board voted to close the theatre due to such seemingly insurmountable financial troubles. Board member Christian C. Yegen was not ready to throw in the towel, however; he and his family agreed to write checks to cover the payroll, giving Haimes the time and staff he needed to turn the theatre's bleak financial picture around. Within two years, Roundabout emerged from Chapter 11 protection.

In 1984, Roundabout was forced out of its 23rd Street home and moved once again, this time to Union Square. The company converted Tammany Hall into a 499-seat theatre. During the $1 million renovation, Roundabout staged its most acclaimed production up to that time, Peter Nichols' A Day in the Death of Joe Egg starring Jim Dale and Stockard Channing. The production moved to Broadway where it won the 1985 Tony®, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Revival. Roundabout's growth continued with the opening of the 17th Street Theatre on January 30, 1985 with The Playboy of the Western World, starring Kate Burton and Ken Marshall.

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