Westport Country Playhouse: A Small Town, A Big Stage

The Westport Country Playhouse has been a fixture of American theater since 1931, but its history stretches back nearly a century earlier. Built in 1835 by R&H Haight, the structure originally operated as a tannery producing leather for the hat-making industry, a booming trade at the time. In 1860, Charles H. Kemper took over, renaming it C.H. Kemper Co., and by 1880, the building was repurposed as a steam-powered cider mill, taking advantage of Westport’s apple orchards.

By the 1920s, however, it had fallen into disuse and sat abandoned—until Broadway producer Lawrence Langner saw potential in its rustic charm. In 1930, he purchased the barn for $14,000, transformed it into a 500-seat theater with the help of designer Cleon Throckmorton, and opened the Westport Country Playhouse the following summer with The Streets of New York.

Over the next few decades, the Playhouse became a major stop on the New England summer stock circuit and a testing ground for Broadway-bound productions. Gene Kelly, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green performed there early in their careers, and John Ford directed Green Grow the Lilacs in 1940, a production that later inspired Oklahoma! William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba and Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful premiered there before heading to Broadway. Stars like Henry Fonda, Tallulah Bankhead (who famously took her bows with a live lion cub), Olivia de Havilland, and Helen Hayes graced the stage, while a young Stephen Sondheim apprenticed there in 1950.

Under longtime director James McKenzie, the Playhouse remained relevant through the 1960s and beyond by introducing “star packages,” rehearsing productions in New York with big-name actors before staging them in Westport. Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Blythe Danner, and Christopher Walken were among the talents who performed there. The Playhouse launched 36 Broadway productions, further cementing its reputation. By the 1980s, financial struggles put it at risk, but a group of dedicated theater supporters saved it from developers, securing its place on the Connecticut Register of Historic Places in 1990.

The 21st century saw a revival led by longtime Westport residents Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Woodward became Artistic Director in 2000 and spearheaded a multimillion-dollar campaign to renovate the theater. Newman starred in Our Town in 2002, earning Tony and Emmy nominations, while Gene Wilder, James Earl Jones, and Neil Patrick Harris helped bring renewed attention to the Playhouse. After an 18-month, $30.6 million renovation, it reopened in 2005 as a year-round venue.

Today, the Westport Country Playhouse remains one of the country’s premier regional theaters, drawing top talent, developing new works, and staging classics.