Pincus helped finance the construction, along with the Shuberts and the 45th Street Leasing Company Inc. The Imperial Theatre was not named as such until December 1923, a few weeks before its opening. At that time, Arthur Hammerstein and Vincent Youmans's production Mary Jane McKane was booked for the theater, with a musical score by Oscar Hammerstein II. Arthur had been negotiating with Lee Shubert to name the Imperial Theatre after Arthur's late father Oscar Hammerstein I, but Shubert rejected the proposal. Mary Jane star Mary Hay formally dedicated the Imperial on December 21, 1923, and the Imperial had its first performance when Mary Jane premiered four days later, December 25. Ultimately, Mary Jane was a hit that ran for 151 performances. The Moscow Art Theatre performed at the Imperial in May 1924. Another Oscar Hammerstein II score was featured in Rudolf Friml's operetta Rose-Marie, which opened that September and eventually staged over 500 performances. Rose-Marie grossed enough to fund a dedicated memorial theater for Oscar Hammerstein I, which subsequently became Hammerstein's Theatre. The Shuberts proposed expanding the Imperial in 1925, incorporating it into the base of an 15-story residential building designed by Krapp, but this never occurred. The Imperial's next production, the 1926 musical Sweetheart Time, was moderately successful. The same year, the Imperial staged Oh, Kay!, featuring Victor Moore and Gertrude Lawrence with music from George and Ira Gershwin. The Imperial then hosted Sigmund Romberg's operetta The New Moon in 1928, with a Hammerstein score; it was among Broadway's last hit operettas, as well as the only Broadway production in the 1928 season to have over 500 performances. The musical Sons o' Guns opened in November 1929 with Lili Damita; it ran 297 performances in spite of the onset of the Great Depression. 1930s to 1950s The 1930s began with some short runs, but the Imperial still hosted several successful shows despite the Shuberts' Depression-era financial troubles. Ed Wynn staged the vaudeville-style The Laugh Parade in 1931, while Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz had a successful score the next year in the musical Flying Colors. Two productions by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind were shown in 1933: Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake. Meanwhile, the theater had gone into receivership in March 1933, though the receiver then deeded the theater to the Imperial Theatre Corporation. The Imperial hosted the musicals Say When in 1934