Located at 1537 Broadway at 45th Street, the Astor Theatre was built in 1906. The theatre was designed by architect George Keister and backed by producers Wagenhals and Kemper. Their first production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, starred Annie Russell and John Bunny. The Shuberts assumed management in 1916, and the Astor Theatre soon premiered the first Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Why Marry? This theatre featured Jerome Kern’s Rock-A-Bye Baby, the Shubert revue Artists and Models, and George Gershwin’s Sweet Little Devil. The Astor Theatre became the primary Broadway showcase for MGM films beginning in 1925. The theatre was demolished in 1982, a decade after mechanical problems forced its closure in 1972.