Helen Hayes Theatre

240 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10019

Helen Hayes Theatre Information, Shows and Tickets

Directions & Box Office

  • Directions: By Subway, take the A/C/E to 42nd Street, walk north on Eight Avenue and then turn right onto 44th Street. Or take the 1/2/3 to 42nd Street, walk north on Seventh Avenue and then make a left onto 44th Street.
  • Entrance: 44th street between 7th and 8th avenue The Helen Hayes Theatre is located on the south side of 44th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenue.
  • Box Office Hours:
    Monday - Saturday:
    10am - 8pm
    Sunday:
    12pm - 7:30pm

Best Seats In The House

  • Seats: 597

With only 597 seats, the Helen Hayes Theatre is small enough that audiences are hard-pressed to find a bad seat.

Because the theatre is more long than it is wide, you probably don't want to sit too far back. The middle of the orchestra and the front mezzanine offer the best views. The side seating is fine for the Helen Hayes Theatre, and there are no obstructed view seats.

Though some seats in the orchestra under the overhang may have a poor view of the very top of the stage, few plays at this theater utilize the upper level space on the stage, rendering this concern insignificant.

Helen Hayes Theatre Seating Chart

Helen Hayes Theatre Seating Chart

Parking for Helen Hayes Theatre

The closest parking garages for Helen Hayes Theatre are located at:

Champion Show Biz Parking
256-262 W 46th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-757-7925
ICON Astor Parking
224 W 45th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-869-3543

The closest parking is not always the best as it often takes longer to park and retrieve your vehicle as fellow theatre goers have the same idea. A better choice of parking may be the second choice or further away by a couple of Avenues.

Additional Notes

Landlord: Second Stage

Official Ticketer: Telecharge

Notes:

The smallest theater on Broadway.

Elevator: Yes

Escalator: No

Upcoming Shows

Cult Of Love

  • Previews Begin: November 20, 2024
  • Opens: December 12, 2024
  • Show Closes: February 2, 2025
A fractious holiday gathering of a good Christian family centers on the four adult children of the Dahl family and their partners as they return home for the rocky holiday …more
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Purpose

  • Previews Begin: March 12, 2025
  • Opens: April 2, 2025
  • Show Closes: June 25, 2025
Purpose is a gripping family drama directed by Phylicia Rashad that delves into identity, societal pressures, mental health, and generational conflict within the family …more
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Previous Shows

Job

  • Opened: July 30, 2024
  • Show Closed: October 27, 2024
An employee at a big-tech company fights to get her job back after a viral video derails her career. All she has to do is get the company crisis therapist …more

Mother Play

  • Opened: April 25, 2024
  • Show Closed: June 16, 2024
Honest and bitingly funny play about the hold our family has over us, and coming to terms with the scars we leave on each other. …more

Appropriate (2023)

  • Opened: December 18, 2023
  • Show Closed: March 3, 2024
Hidden secrets and buried resentments can’t be contained when this family has a long-awaited reunion and forced to face the ghosts of their past. …more

The Cottage

  • Opened: July 24, 2023
  • Show Closed: October 29, 2023
“Seinfeld” alum Jason Alexander directs a farce that skewers the works of Noël Coward where an extramarital affair brings a group of interconnected people together at a country house in …more

The Thanksgiving Play

  • Opened: April 20, 2023
  • Show Closed: June 11, 2023
Satirical comedy about four white people devising a "politically correct" Thanksgiving play for "Native American Heritage Month" that goes horribly wrong …more

Between Riverside and Crazy

  • Opened: December 19, 2022
  • Show Closed: February 19, 2023
Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy about an Ex-Cop and his struggle to try to hang on to the last great rent stabilized apartment on Riverside Drive in NYC …more

The Kite Runner

  • Opened: July 21, 2022
  • Show Closed: October 30, 2022
A tale of a friendship that spans across cultures and continents in one man’s journey to confront his past and in his personal bid for redemption with a backdrop of war …more

Take Me Out 2022

  • Opened: April 4, 2022
  • Show Closed: June 11, 2022
Broadway revival from 2002 in which a gay, black baseball player comes out of the closet and both his team and the sport reveals its prejudices as the season progresses …more

Clyde's

  • Opened: November 22, 2021
  • Show Closed: January 16, 2022
A sandwich shop offers its kitchen staff the opportunity to create the perfect sandwich, while the owner attempts to manipulate them. …more

Grand Horizons

  • Opened: January 23, 2020
  • Show Closed: March 1, 2020
After fifty years of marriage, a loving couple head towards calling it quits after moving into their new home at the retirement community of Grand Horizons …more

Linda Vista

  • Opened: October 10, 2019
  • Show Closed: November 10, 2019
A 50-year-old divorced man is dealing with a classic mid-life downward spiral and he attempts to figure out blind dating, old friends and find new love, in the most unexpected …more

What the Constitution Means to Me

  • Opened: March 31, 2019
  • Show Closed: August 24, 2019
Heidi Schreck channels her inner fifteen-year-old self in this strictly 12-week engagement in a play directed by Oliver Butler …more

Torch Song

  • Opened: November 1, 2018
  • Show Closed: January 6, 2019
A shortened two-hour version of a the famous four-hour trilogy of three one-act plays called International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! …more

Straight White Men

  • Opened: July 23, 2018
  • Show Closed: September 9, 2018
Straight White Men is a play by Obie Award winning playwright Young Jean Lee (Untitled Feminist Show, We’re Gonna Die, Lear, The Shipment, Church, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals). …more

Lobby Hero

  • Opened: March 26, 2018
  • Show Closed: May 13, 2018
Lobby Hero is set in the lobby of a Manhattan building and tells the story of a twenty-something security guard, his strict supervisor an overbearing cop and his rookie partner. Tensions …more

Dames At Sea

  • Opened: October 22, 2015
  • Show Closed: January 3, 2016
Dames at Sea is an homage to the gaudy musicals of the 1930s, telling the tale of an understudy of a struggling Broadway show who makes her way to stardom. …more

Rock of Ages

  • Opened: April 7, 2009
  • Show Closed: January 18, 2015
Rock of Ages is a full-out, awesome ride that will make you feel like you are back in the 1980s. It is about a young woman named Sherrie Christian who …more

By Jeeves

  • Opened: October 28, 2001
  • Show Closed: December 30, 2001
Musical based on the 'Jeeves' stories by English author P.G Wodehouse, portraying the fun-filled stories of Bertie Wooster, a wealthy entertainer, and his faithful servant Jeeves …more

Helen Hayes Theatre History

In 1912, producer Winthrop Ames built the littlest theater on Broadway and called it, appropriately, the Little Theatre.

At first the theatre had a mere 299 seats, the idea being to have a space to present more experimental works. Ames had limited success in doing this, and financial troubles forced him to add more seats and eventually to begin leasing the theater to other producers.

In the 1940s and '50s, the Little Theatre stopped presenting legit shows altogether and spent several years as The New York Times Hall and and then later as a TV studio.

1963 Began As A Broadway Theatre Again

It once again became a part of the Great White Way in 1963, spent a brief year as the Winthrop Ames Theatre in 1964 while housing The Subject Was Roses, and then reverted back to being the Little Theatre once more.

1983 Restoration And Renaming

In 1983, after receiving a thorough restoration, it finally became the Helen Hayes Theatre. Hayes, the beloved actress whose stage career spanned much of the 20th century, is often called "the First Lady of the American Theatre." These days, her theater is spoken of with as much fondness as the lady herself by aficionados who appreciate having this rare intimate space on Broadway.

In the quaint but dingy little lobby is a lovely plaque that reads "Dedicated to Helen Hayes, who has given life to the theatre."

Notable Productions At This Theatre

A couple of the greatest playwrights of the early 20th century had shows at the Helen Hayes Theatre (technically it was called the Little Theatre back then).

George Bernard Shaw's The Philanderer and Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, both played here. Later notable plays and musicals included Gemini, Torch Song Trilogy, The Nerd, Romance/Romance, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and Dirty Blonde.

In the last several years, the Helen Hayes has hosted some excellent one-person shows, such as Lynn Redgrave's Shakespeare For My Father, Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman, Say Goodnight, Gracie starring Frank Gorshin, and Golda's Balcony starring Tovah Feldshuh.

Helen Hayes Theatre Design

Although the awning above the entrance says "Helen Hayes Theatre", the building itself still bears the imprint of "The Little Theatre," providing both a reminder and a description of this cozy house.

The theater is the smallest on Broadway, and its intimate design lends well to small plays. The theater has a neo-Colonial design, with an exterior of red brick and white shutters that could probably use a paint job.