Helen Hayes Theatre,, is a Broadway theatre located at 240 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan. With 597 seats, it is the smallest theatre on Broadway.HistoryLittle Theatre / New York Times HallThe Little Theatre was designed by the architect Harry Creighton Ingalls of the firm Ingalls & Hoffman, and built by Winthrop Ames; its name was chosen due to both the theatre's small size (with a seating capacity of only 300), and its goal to create intimate productions.The theatre opened on March 12, 1912, with John Galsworthy's play The Pigeon. Other plays opening that year include:The Terrible Meek by Charles Rann KennedyThe Flower of the Palace of Han by Charles Rann Kennedy and Louis LaloyA revival of The Affairs of Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler (as translated by Harley Granville-Barker)Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Jessie Graham WhiteRutherford and Son by K.G. Sowerby In the 1920s, Herbert J. Krapp redesigned the theatre to increase its seating capacity to 590 and to improve its acoustics. In 1931, the building was sold to The New York Times and converted into a conference hall named New York Times Hall.
