Mae West: Coronet

Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, this playhouse was originally named for the great nineteenth-century tragedian Edwin Forrest; the Forrest Theatre [230 West 49th Street] was officially opened in November: 24 November 1925. This Broadway mainstage had 1075 seats.

• • It was rechristened the Coronet Theatre and reopened in December 1945. A few years later, this playhouse hosted the revival of Mae West's enormously successful Bowery classic. "Diamond Lil" met her public at the Coronet beginning on 5 February 1949. Mae West wrote the play and starred in it. Without Mae as the central dame, "Diamond Lil" would have been like Hamlet without the Dane.
• • It was a curious twist when the Coronet became the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in the month of November [19 November 1959].
• • Fascinated by the dramatist Eugene O'Neill, Mae West made sure she saw his plays.
• • Eugene O'Neill was born in New York, NY [16 October 1888] and introduced to the theatre world via the Provincetown Playhouse during the 1920s.
• • Though Mae found O'Neill's outlook depressing, she was well aware of his enormous popularity. His characters fueled a few of Mae's well-crafted spoofs. In 1922 Mae prepared a send-up of "The Hairy Ape"; yelling in the style of O'Neill's tragic hero Yank Smith, the comedienne rehearsed a song "Eugene O'Neill, You Put a Curse on Broadway," which contained this bit: "She don me doit! Lemme up! I'll show her who's an ape!"
• • The Pulitzer-winning "Beyond the Horizon" [published in 1920] was O'Neill's first important play. Eugene O'Neill, age 65, died in Boston, Mass. in November: 27 November 1953.
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Mae West
• • Illustration: Mae West performed at the Coronet Theatre • • built in 1925 • •
NYC
Mae West.