FDNY Battles Three-Alarm Fire at Eugene O'neill Theatre

FDNY units were battling a fire at the eugene o'neill theatre in Midtown Manhattan after the blaze was upgraded from two alarms to three. The theatre, at 230 West 49th Street between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, sits in a 6-story, 125x100 building in the theater district.

No injuries were reported in the source text. The theatre is home to The Book of Mormon on Broadway, which opened there on March 24, 2011 and has been the venue's resident production for nearly 15 years.

230 West 49th Street

The fire drew attention because the building is a Broadway house with a long operating history. It first opened on November 24, 1925 as the Forrest Theatre with Mayflowers as its inaugural production, was renamed the Coronet in 1945 after a renovation, and was rechristened the Eugene O'Neill in 1959.

Herbert J. Krapp designed the theatre, and the venue later passed through new ownership when Neil Simon acquired it in the late 1960s. Jujamcyn purchased the theatre in 1982.

The Book of Mormon

The venue's current production links the building to a show that has anchored the house for years. Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez created The Book of Mormon, and the show has been the resident production since 2011.

The immediate issue for anyone tied to the theatre is the fire itself and its escalation to three alarms. That change sent more FDNY units to the scene inside a 6-story building, and the only documented outcome so far is continued firefighting at the Broadway address.