Brownstone is a brown Triassic – Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material . The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
148-660: The Al Hirschfeld Theatre , originally the Martin Beck Theatre , is a Broadway theater at 302 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1924, it was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh in a Moorish and Byzantine style and was constructed for vaudevillian Martin Beck . It has 1,404 seats across two levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment . Both
296-837: A 50 percent stake in Jujamcyn and assumed full operation of the firm when Landesman joined the National Endowments of the Arts. Elf the Musical opened at the Al Hirschfeld in late 2010 for a limited run, followed in 2011 by a revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying . Next, the play Fela! had a limited revival at the Al Hirschfeld in July 2012, and Elf the Musical
444-472: A 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. "curtain". The afternoon " matinée " performances are at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. This makes for an eight-performance week. On this schedule, most shows do not play on Monday and the shows and theatres are said to be "dark" on that day. The actors and the crew in these shows tend to regard Sunday evening through Monday evening as their weekend. The Tony award presentation ceremony
592-839: A Theater Advisory Council, which included Papp. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , Broadway theaters closed on March 12, 2020, shuttering 16 shows that were playing or were in the process of opening. The Broadway League shutdown was extended first to April, then to May, then June, then September 2020 and January 2021, and later to June 1, 2021. Then-governor Andrew Cuomo announced that most sectors of New York would have their restrictions lifted on May 19, 2021, but he stated that Broadway theatres would not be able to immediately resume performances on this date due to logistical reasons. In May 2021, Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters would be allowed to reopen on September 14, and
740-449: A booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory." Kenrick notes that "the late 1960s marked a time of cultural upheaval. All those changes would prove painful for many, including those behind the scenes, as well as those in the audience." Of the 1970s, Kenrick writes: "Just when it seemed that traditional book musicals were back in style,
888-663: A cast. There are still, however, performers who are primarily stage actors, spending most of their time "on the boards", and appearing in screen roles only secondarily. As Patrick Healy of The New York Times noted: Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, as Nathan Lane has for The Addams Family . In 2010, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments. According to Mark Shenton, "One of
1036-434: A challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only limited competition. By the end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer were presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if cinema would replace live theatre altogether. While live vaudeville could not compete with these inexpensive films that featured vaudeville stars and major comedians of the day, other theatres survived. The musicals of
1184-540: A company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia , and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist . The company moved to New York in 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida . During the Revolutionary War , theatre was suspended in New York City. But after
1332-565: A discount of 20 to 50%. The TKTS booths are located in Times Square , in Lower Manhattan , and at Lincoln Center . This service is run by Theatre Development Fund . Many Broadway theatres also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theatres are as full—and their grosses as high—as possible. According to The Broadway League , total Broadway attendance
1480-906: A few exceptions, compared with London runs, until World War I . A few very successful British musicals continued to achieve great success in New York, including Florodora in 1900–01. In the early years of the twentieth century, translations of popular late-nineteenth century continental operettas were joined by the "Princess Theatre" shows of the 1910s, by writers such as P. G. Wodehouse , Guy Bolton , and Harry B. Smith . Victor Herbert , whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas ( The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), and Naughty Marietta (1910)). Beginning with The Red Mill , Broadway shows installed electric signs outside
1628-532: A larger theatre. Other productions are first developed through workshops and then out-of-town tryouts before transferring to Broadway. Merrily We Roll Along famously skipped an out-of-town tryout and attempted to do an in-town tryout—actually preview performances —on Broadway before its official opening, with disastrous results. After, or even during, successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with new casts and crew for
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#17327732904991776-399: A marble base and is carved in a different Byzantine motif from the other columns. Albert Herter also designed the theater's original curtain, which was hung across the proscenium opening. The curtain was originally decorated in the same red, orange, blue, and gold color scheme as the rest of the auditorium. The stage, covering 2,914 square feet (270.7 m), was Broadway's largest stage before
1924-418: A mezzanine level, and a curved sounding board . In addition, there are box seats at the balcony level, near the front of the auditorium. The auditorium has an octagonal ceiling with a multicolored dome. Beck had proposed the theater in 1923, and it opened with a production of Madame Pompadour on November 11, 1924. It was the only theater in New York City to be owned outright without a mortgage . The Beck
2072-526: A more experimental, challenging, and intimate performance than is possible in the larger Broadway theatres. Some Broadway shows, however, such as the musicals Hair , Little Shop of Horrors , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Rent , Avenue Q , In the Heights , Fun Home , A Chorus Line , Dear Evan Hansen , and Hamilton , began their runs Off-Broadway and later transferred to Broadway, seeking to replicate their intimate experience in
2220-539: A negative COVID-19 test (PCR within 72 hours or antigen within six hours of the performance start time). Beginning November 8, those ages 5–11 also had the option to provide proof of at least one vaccination shot. Effective December 14, in accordance with NYC's vaccination mandate, guests ages 5–11 were required to have at least one vaccination shot until January 29, 2022, where they had to be fully vaccinated. The vaccine mandate lasted until April 30, and attendees were also required to wear face masks until July 1. During
2368-1152: A new age of American playwright with the emergence of Eugene O'Neill , whose plays Beyond the Horizon , Anna Christie , The Hairy Ape , Strange Interlude , and Mourning Becomes Electra proved that there was an audience for serious drama on Broadway, and O'Neill's success paved the way for major dramatists like Elmer Rice , Maxwell Anderson , Robert E. Sherwood , Clifford Odets , Tennessee Williams , and Arthur Miller , as well as writers of comedy like George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart . Classical revivals also proved popular with Broadway theatre-goers, notably John Barrymore in Hamlet and Richard III , John Gielgud in Hamlet , The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing , Walter Hampden and José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac , Paul Robeson and Ferrer in Othello , Maurice Evans in Richard II and
2516-465: A promenade. Originally, the promenade had stained glass, bronze, marble, tapestries, and other objects from Martin Beck's collection. The orchestra level is raked , sloping down toward an orchestra pit in front of the stage. Near the front of the auditorium, stairs with wrought-iron railings lead up to the boxes. The side walls have exit doors, and the rear wall contains doorways from the inner lobby. In addition, wrought-iron lighting sconces are placed on
2664-500: A rate acceptable to the producers, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers—with the permission of their unions—take reduced salaries, to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend money to
2812-676: A residence known as the Quaker Mill House. Brownstone was prized by tombstone carvers in southern New England and the Mid Atlantic region during the Colonial era. Table-type memorials in particular were often carved out of brownstone as well as regular headstones. Especially valued for being easy to carve, those same characteristics often resulted in stones being less durable and prone to heavy erosion and wear over time, especially when compared to slate or schist graves of
2960-431: A run of 253 performances. The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook , which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and
3108-420: A seating area, with a niche enclosing a marble water fountain. On the northern end, a staircase with a wrought-iron railing and ceiling lantern descends directly into the orchestra seating. The western wall includes doors that lead to the auditorium. The lounge is directly below the top row of mezzanine seating and is at the same level as the bottom mezzanine row. This removes the need for ticket-holders to climb to
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#17327732904993256-481: A show to keep it running. Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season— Lincoln Center Theatre , Roundabout Theatre Company , Manhattan Theatre Club , and Second Stage Theater are the four non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for several reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of
3404-510: A translation of Jean Anouilh 's Ring Round the Moon , in 1950. The following year, Tennessee Williams 's The Rose Tattoo starred Eli Wallach and Maureen Stapleton , Maxwell Anderson's Barefoot in Athens had a short run in 1951, as did Truman Capote 's The Grass Harp in 1952. This was followed in 1953 by Arthur Miller 's The Crucible . The John Patrick comedy The Teahouse of
3552-580: A venue for plays under the name Burton's Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery Theatre objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper-class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper-middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for
3700-531: Is a "Greystone Belt" in Chicago, with large numbers of such structures located in the south and northwest quadrants of the city. It is estimated that around 30,000 of Chicago's greystones built between 1890 and 1930 are still standing. Brownstone, also known as freestone because it can be cut freely in any direction, was used by early Pennsylvanian Quakers to construct stone mills and mill houses. In central Pennsylvania, some 1700s-era structures survive, including
3848-475: Is an internationally prominent tourist attraction in New York City . According to The Broadway League , shows on Broadway sold approximately US$ 1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022-2023 and the 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each. Most Broadway shows are musicals . Historian Martin Shefter argues that "Broadway musicals, culminating in
3996-429: Is at the rear of the balcony, while light boxes are mounted onto the front rail. Moldings and bands divide the mezzanine's underside into paneled sections. Five of these panels contain circular wrought-iron grills with light fixtures. On either side of the proscenium is a box at the mezzanine level, which contains a shallow S-curve that appears to spiral downward. At the orchestra level, decorated groups of columns support
4144-671: Is extremely popular along the East Coast of the United States, with numerous government buildings throughout West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Delaware being faced entirely with the stone, which comes from the Hummelstown Quarry in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania , a small town outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Hummelstown Quarry is the largest provider of brownstone on the east coast. Typically,
4292-495: Is known for its Victorian brownstone homes – considered some of the best-preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States. Although some brownstones exist in Chicago, a similar residential form known as "greystones" is far more prevalent. A greystone is a type of residential structure that utilizes Indiana limestone for its facade , regardless of its overall architectural style. As in Brooklyn, there
4440-667: Is rectangular. The lot covers 13,389 square feet (1,243.9 m), with a frontage of 133.33 ft (40.64 m) on 45th Street and a depth of 100.42 ft (31 m). The Al Hirschfeld Theatre shares the city block with the Film Center Building and the off-Broadway Davenport Theatre to the west. Across Eighth Avenue to the east are the Row NYC Hotel and the Majestic , John Golden , and Bernard B. Jacobs theaters. In addition, St. Luke's Lutheran Church ,
4588-685: Is the stoop , a steep staircase rising from the street to the entrance on what amounts to almost the second-floor level. This design was seen as hygienic at the time many were built, because the streets were so foul with animal waste. It has become fashionable to use the term "brownstone" to refer to almost any townhouse from a certain period, even though they may not have been built of brownstone. For example, many townhouses in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn are built of brick, but have concrete masonry cladding which resembles stone. There are also many brick townhouses that have brownstone-built stoops throughout
Al Hirschfeld Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
4736-571: Is usually held on a Sunday evening in June to fit this schedule. In recent years, some shows have moved their Tuesday show time an hour earlier to 7:00 pm. The rationale for this move was that since fewer tourists take in shows midweek, Tuesday attendance depends more on local patrons. The earlier curtain makes it possible for suburban patrons to get home by a reasonable hour after the show. Some shows, especially those produced by Disney , change their performance schedules fairly frequently depending on
4884-610: The American Theatre Wing , a service organization. While the League and the theatrical unions are sometimes at loggerheads during those periods when new contracts are being negotiated, they also cooperate on many projects and events designed to promote professional theatre in New York. Of the four non-profit theatre companies with Broadway theatres, all four ( Lincoln Center Theater , Manhattan Theatre Club , Roundabout Theatre Company , and Second Stage Theatre ) belong to
5032-558: The COVID-19 pandemic . It reopened on September 24, 2021, with Moulin Rouge! returning. Jujamcyn and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) agreed to merge in early 2023; the combined company would operate seven Broadway theaters, including the Al Hirschfeld. In July 2023, Jordan Roth sold a 93 percent stake in Jujamcyn's five theaters, including the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, to ATG and Providence Equity . Productions are listed by
5180-594: The Group Theatre )'s first production. In 1930, the Theatre Guild presented George Bernard Shaw 's The Apple Cart , Philip Barry 's Hotel Universe , and Sergei Tretyakov 's Roar China! at the Beck. The Theatre Guild hosted Maxwell Anderson 's play Elizabeth the Queen to the Beck in early 1931, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne . The Group Theatre had its first production that September with
5328-580: The League of Resident Theatres and have contracts with the theatrical unions which are negotiated separately from the other Broadway theatre and producers. ( Disney also negotiates apart from the League, as did Livent before it closed down its operations.) The majority of Broadway theatres are owned or managed by three organizations: the Shubert Organization , a for-profit arm of the non-profit Shubert Foundation, which owns seventeen theatres;
5476-919: The Lower East Side to Washington Heights , with notable concentrations in the Upper West Side , Upper East Side , Harlem and East Harlem . In Queens and The Bronx, the historic districts of Long Island City and Mott Haven also host many brownstones. Brownstones also predominate in some Hudson County neighborhoods directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, especially in Hoboken and around Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park in Jersey City . New York City brownstones can cost several million dollars to purchase. A typical architectural detail of brownstones in and around New York City
5624-503: The Nederlander Organization , which controls nine theatres; and ATG Entertainment , which owns seven Broadway houses. Both musicals and straight plays on Broadway often rely on casting well-known performers in leading roles to draw larger audiences or bring in new audience members to the theatre. Actors from film and television are frequently cast for the revivals of Broadway shows or are used to replace actors leaving
5772-592: The Norman Krasna comedy Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? had 208 performances in 1958, while Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth lasted for 375 performances in 1959. Other appearances at the Beck in the late 1950s included performances from Israel's Inbal Dance Theater in 1958 and Les Ballets Africains in 1959. Louis Lotito's group City Playhouses Inc. took a ten-year lease on the theater in August 1958. Charles Strouse and Lee Adams 's first collaboration,
5920-906: The Passaic Formation in northern New Jersey once supplied most of the brownstone used in New York City and New Jersey. Devonian aged sandstone is commonly used in Southern Wales . There are many brownstones throughout numerous NYC neighborhoods , especially in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Park Slope , Clinton Hill , Fort Greene , Cobble Hill , Carroll Gardens , Boerum Hill , Gowanus , Windsor Terrace , Prospect Heights , Crown Heights , Brooklyn Heights , Bedford Stuyvesant , and Sunset Park . Smaller concentrations exist in parts of Bay Ridge , Williamsburg , Bushwick , Greenpoint , and Prospect Lefferts Gardens . Brownstones are also scattered throughout Manhattan from
6068-476: The Roaring Twenties , borrowing from vaudeville, music hall , and other light entertainment, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs. Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. Typical of
Al Hirschfeld Theatre - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-633: The Robert Brush and Martin Charnin musical The First . This was followed in 1982 by the Michael Stewart play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean with Cher , as well as A Little Family Business with Angela Lansbury . The Royal Shakespeare Company returned in 1983 with All's Well That Ends Well , and the musical The Rink with Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera
6364-636: The St. James Theatre , offered Louise Beck $ 1.5 million for the Martin Beck Theatre in December 1965. McKnight also offered to buy out Lotito's lease on the theater, which was to expire in three years. The sale was finalized in February 1966, with McKnight paying $ 1.35 million to Louise Beck and $ 150,000 to Lotito. McKnight would not receive the property title until the next month, after Marat/Sade
6512-401: The facade and the interior are New York City landmarks . The facades of the Al Hirschfeld's auditorium and stage house are designed as one unit. There is a double-height arcade with cast-stone columns at the base of the theater. The eastern section of the arcade contains the auditorium entrance, the center section includes a staircase with emergency exits, and the western section leads to
6660-419: The sounding board . Between either box and the mezzanine seats is another opening, formed by the clustered columns on one side and the auditorium wall on the opposite side. Next to the boxes is the proscenium with an elliptically arched opening. On either side of the proscenium are half-columns containing geometric designs, which support four concentric arches. Each column on either sides is made of stone upon
6808-409: The 1920s were lighthearted productions such as Sally ; Lady Be Good ; Sunny ; No, No, Nanette ; Harlem ; Oh, Kay! ; and Funny Face . Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards from George Gershwin , Cole Porter , Jerome Kern , Vincent Youmans , and Rodgers and Hart , among others, and Noël Coward , Sigmund Romberg , and Rudolf Friml continued in
6956-551: The 19th century, Basswood Island , Wisconsin was the site of a quarry run by the Bass Island Brownstone Company , which operated from 1868 into the 1890s. The brownstone from this and other quarries in the Apostle Islands was in great demand, with brownstone from Basswood Island being used in the construction of the first Milwaukee County Courthouse in the 1860s. Hummelstown brownstone
7104-523: The August Moon , starring David Wayne , opened in October 1953 and ultimately ran for 1,027 performances over two and a half years. The Beck then hosted a revival of Shaw's Major Barbara in 1956, as well as a musical version of Candide . Tennessee Williams's Orpheus Descending opened in 1957, featuring Maureen Stapleton and Cliff Robertson , but it only ran for 68 performances. By contrast,
7252-574: The Beck hosted the play Barchester Towers with Ina Claire , for which some of the orchestra seating was temporarily removed and walled off. In 1938, the theater hosted Victoria Regina , featuring Helen Hayes , for 87 performances. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company hosted yet another season of Gilbert and Sullivan shows early the next year. Hayes returned later in 1939, performing in the drama Ladies and Gentlemen for 105 performances. The play Lady in Waiting , adapted from Margery Sharp 's novel of
7400-543: The Beck with Carol Burnett and Philip Bosco ; it lasted for 308 performances. The Beck was renovated in 1996, a project that involved extending the mezzanine level forward by three rows. Magician David Copperfield performed in the show Dreams & Nightmares that year. Afterward, a revival of the musical Annie opened in March 1997, running for 238 performances. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music , featuring Rebecca Luker and Richard Chamberlain ,
7548-478: The Beck's productions in the 1970s were short-lived. In 1971, the Beck hosted Albee's All Over with Tandy, Dewhurst, Betty Field , and George Voskovec , as well as the musical The Grass Harp , based on Capote's play two decades earlier. Two productions during the decade had just one performance : Ring Around the Bathtub on April 29, 1972, and No Hard Feelings on April 8, 1973. The British play Habeas Corpus
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#17327732904997696-536: The Broadway national tour, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country. Sometimes when a show closes on Broadway, the entire production, with most if not all of the original cast intact, is relaunched as a touring company, hence the name "Broadway national tour". Some shows may even have several touring companies out at a time, whether the show is still running in New York or not, with many companies "sitting down" in other major cities for their own extended runs. For Broadway national tours of top-tier cities,
7844-619: The Broadway orchestra is governed by an agreement with the musicians' union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians) and The Broadway League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be eighteen, while at the Music Box Theatre it is nine. Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that
7992-686: The COVID-19 shutdown, the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization, and Jujamcyn had pledged to increase racial and cultural diversity in their theaters, including naming at least one theater for a Black theatrical personality. The August Wilson Theatre , owned by Jujamcyn, had been renamed after Black playwright August Wilson in 2005. The Shuberts announced in March 2022 that the Cort Theatre , which
8140-574: The Cakewalk (1898), and the highly successful In Dahomey (1902). Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s made up of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley involving composers such as Gus Edwards , John Walter Bratton , and George M. Cohan ( Little Johnny Jones (1904), 45 Minutes From Broadway (1906), and George Washington Jr. (1906)). Still, New York runs continued to be relatively short, with
8288-556: The Colonel opened at the Beck, running for 417 performances. The Beck hosted the play Foolish Notion with Tallulah Bankhead and Donald Cook in 1945, followed the same year by Leonard Bernstein , Betty Comden , and Adolph Green 's popular musical On the Town , the latter of which ran for six months. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer 's musical St. Louis Woman was presented at the Beck in 1946, and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
8436-456: The Erlanger syndicate. During this time, the play Lightnin' by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon became the first Broadway show to reach 700 performances. From then, it would go on to become the first show to reach 1,000 performances. Lightnin' was the longest-running Broadway show until being overtaken in performance totals by Abie's Irish Rose in 1925. The motion picture mounted
8584-410: The League confirmed that performances would begin to resume in the fall season. Springsteen on Broadway became the first full-length show to resume performances, opening on June 26, 2021, to 1,721 vaccinated patrons at the St. James Theatre . Pass Over then had its first preview on August 4, and opened on August 22, 2021, becoming the first new play to open. Hadestown and Waitress were
8732-604: The Opera at the Majestic Theatre became the longest-running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtaking Cats . The Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway on April 16, 2023, soon after celebrating its 35th anniversary, after a total of 13,981 performances. Attending a Broadway show is a common tourist activity in New York. The TKTS booths sell same-day tickets (and in certain cases, next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at
8880-535: The Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy". Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ( The Mulligan Guard Picnic ) and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham . These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from
9028-597: The Sad Café with Colleen Dewhurst and Michael Dunn . The play The Physicists with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn , as well as the musical I Had a Ball with Richard Kiley and Buddy Hackett , both opened at the Beck in 1964. This was followed the next year by the Royal Shakespeare Company 's production of Marat/Sade . Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing president William L. McKnight , who headed Jujamcyn Theaters and already operated
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#17327732904999176-528: The Theater District westward. Beck initially planned to open his namesake theater with a production of Imre Madách 's The Tragedy of Man , but he instead decided to book the operetta Madame Pompadour after seeing it in London and several other European cities. Since Charles Dillingham had the rights to present Madame Pompadour in the United States, Beck convinced Dillingham to jointly produce
9324-620: The United States . In the early 1910s, he expanded to the East Coast and developed the Palace Theatre in New York City, which he soon lost to his rival Edward Albee . Although Beck was supplanted as the leader of the Orpheum Circuit in 1923, he wished to continue doing business in the city, and he planned a theater for legitimate shows. In July 1923, Martin Beck acquired six dwellings at 302 to 312 West 45th Street, with
9472-405: The Western World . The Abbey Theatre departed in January 1933, and the Beck hosted the play The Lake , featuring film star Katharine Hepburn , the same year. Sidney Howard 's docudrama Yellow Jack was presented next in 1934. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company commenced a season of Gilbert and Sullivan works at the Beck in September 1934, performing 11 operettas and running for 15 weeks. Next
9620-407: The air rights above the Al Hirschfeld were sold to two developers as part of a special zoning provision. The musical The Wedding Singer opened in 2006 and ran for 285 performances, followed in 2007 by Curtains for 511 performances. A musical version of A Tale of Two Cities had a short run in 2008, while the musical Hair opened the next year with 519 performances. In 2009, Roth acquired
9768-475: The arcade gives the theater's exterior a three-dimensional quality compared to other Broadway theaters' relatively flat facades. The three easternmost arches contain the theater's main entrance. The doorway to the lobby is recessed within the second-easternmost arch (at the center of the three arches). It contains two bronze-and-glass double doors, which have bronze grilles with arch motifs. There are sheet-metal ceiling panels with light fixtures directly in front of
9916-441: The authors and also in numerous unlicensed productions). They were imitated in New York by American productions such as Reginald Dekoven 's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa 's El Capitan (1896), along with operas, ballets, and other British and European hits. Charles H. Hoyt 's A Trip to Chinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion when it surpassed Adonis and its 603 total performances in 1893, holding
10064-435: The beginning of the nineteenth century, the area that now comprises the Theater District was owned by a handful of families and comprised a few farms. In 1836, Mayor Cornelius Lawrence opened 42nd Street and invited Manhattanites to "enjoy the pure clean air." Close to 60 years later, theatrical entrepreneur Oscar Hammerstein I built the iconic Victoria Theater on West 42nd Street. Broadway's first "long-run" musical
10212-420: The biggest changes to the commercial theatrical landscape—on both sides of the Atlantic—over the past decade or so is that sightings of big star names turning out to do plays has [sic] gone up; but the runs they are prepared to commit to has gone down. Time was that a producer would require a minimum commitment from his star of six months, and perhaps a year; now, the 13-week run is the norm." The minimum size of
10360-427: The bill was not passed. The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts to supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a registered historic district . In December 1983, Save the Theatres prepared "The Broadway Theater District, a Preservation Development and Management Plan", and demanded that each theater in the district receive landmark designation. Mayor Ed Koch ultimately reacted by creating
10508-455: The bottoms of the boxes, which are paneled. The fronts of the boxes are ornamented with geometric patterns in plasterwork. There are also large clustered columns at the centers of each box, which support a fan vault . Within either box, between the proscenium and the clustered columns is an opening with four marble pilasters, topped by Byzantine and Moorish capitals, which support three arches. Above these triple arches are half-domes, which support
10656-483: The construction of the Vivian Beaumont Theater in the 1960s. A perforated-plaster sounding board curves onto the ceiling above the boxes, in front of the proscenium arch. The ceiling itself is decorated with moldings, which divide the surface into recessed panels. The main section of the ceiling is an octagonal canopy. The center of the ceiling contains a large, circular wooden dome, which hangs from
10804-422: The decade ended with critics and audiences giving mixed signals." Ken Bloom observed that "The 1960s and 1970s saw a worsening of the area [Times Square] and a drop in the number of legitimate shows produced on Broadway." By way of comparison, in the 1950 to 1951 season (May to May) 94 productions opened on Broadway; in the 1969 to 1970 season (June to May) there were 59 productions (fifteen were revivals). In
10952-474: The doors, as well as engaged columns flanking the doors. To the left (east) of the lobby entrance is a metal service door, a sign board, and a gate to a service alley. To the right (west) is a box office window with a marble sill and iron shutters ; a panel above the window is inscribed with the words "Martin Beck Theatre". The box office window is also flanked by two pairs of engaged columns rounded and
11100-628: The effort. At Papp's behest, in July 1982, a bill was introduced in the 97th Congress , entitled "H.R.6885, A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site". The legislation would have provided certain U.S. government resources and assistance to help the city preserve the district. Faced with strong opposition and lobbying by Mayor Ed Koch's Administration and corporate Manhattan development interests,
11248-416: The entire Broadway production is transplanted almost entirely intact and may run for many months (or years) at each stop. For example, the first U.S. tour of The Phantom of the Opera required 26 53-foot-long (16.1 m) semi-trailers to transport all its sets, equipment, and costumes, and it took almost 10 days to properly unload all those trucks and install everything into a theater. Brownstone In
11396-456: The everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high-quality professional singers ( Lillian Russell , Vivienne Segal , and Fay Templeton ), instead of the amateurs, often sex workers, who had starred in earlier musical forms. As transportation improved, poverty in New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night,
11544-599: The first decade of the 20th century. Most of the theaters built in the 1900s and 1910s were built on side streets near Broadway , but the Broadway-theater district expanded westward to Eighth Avenue and eastward to Sixth Avenue after World War II. Martin Beck was a vaudevillian who operated the Orpheum Circuit , which in the early 20th century was the dominant vaudeville circuit on the West Coast of
11692-467: The first musicals to resume performances on September 2, 2021. The 74th Tony Awards were also postponed; the Tony nominations were announced on October 15, 2020, and took place on September 26, 2021. On July 30, 2021, it was announced that all Broadway theaters required attendees to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination . The rule applied to guests ages 12+. Those under age 12 were required to provide
11840-617: The following June, celebrating what would be his 100th birthday. This would make Hirschfeld the first visual artist with a Broadway theater named for him. Jujamcyn President Rocco Landesman described the renaming as "an important event for the history and heritage of Broadway". Hirschfeld died in January 2003, months before he would have turned 100, though he knew the theater would be renamed for him. A celebration and tribute to Hirschfeld were held on June 23, 2003, featuring performers drawn by Hirschfeld during his career. The Al Hirschfeld Theatre
11988-798: The highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world . While the Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified with Times Square . Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: Broadway Theatre , Palace Theatre , and Winter Garden Theatre . The rest are located on the numbered cross streets, extending from the Nederlander Theatre one block south of Times Square on West 41st Street, north along either side of Broadway to 53rd Street , and Vivian Beaumont Theater , at Lincoln Center on West 65th Street. While exceptions exist,
12136-463: The houses, numbers 302 to 312, had been purchased by Nathan Wilson and then sold by Berkley Builders. The seventh house at number 314 was owned by Nellie Clauss. The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally the Martin Beck Theatre, was designed by Gustave Albert Lansburgh in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. The theater opened in 1924 and was built for Martin Beck (1868–1940), who originally named
12284-532: The intent of building a legitimate theater there. That September, Beck enlarged his site by buying a townhouse at 314 West 45th Street. The same month, Oddie and Falk were awarded the construction contract for the theater, which was to cost $ 1 million. The venue was to have a 1,160-seat capacity and a stage measuring 40 by 90 ft (12 by 27 m). The existing buildings on the site were being razed by November 1923. Beck's 45th Street theater, along with another one planned on 52nd Street, were part of an effort to shift
12432-483: The interior design. Herter's decorative scheme was largely in the Moorish and Byzantine styles. According to a contemporary source from the theater's opening, the decorative motifs were intended to depict various mythological scenes. The square ticket lobby is directly inside the main entrance. It has stone walls and a groin-vaulted ceiling with Guastavino tiles . The walls on both sides contain segmental arches , and
12580-404: The main entrance, with arched brick windows. Above the arcade are additional stories with round-arched openings, each containing a one-over-one sash window . The facade of the auditorium, to the east, has two stories above the arcade. The stage house to the west has three stories. There is a corbel table with Romanesque-style round arches near the top of the facade; additional stories rise above
12728-407: The main roof. The upper stories of the stage house are set back from the main roof. In front of this is a large metal sign board facing east toward Eighth Avenue, which is used to display the name of the present production. Beck had intended for the theater's interior to be more lavish than any other in the area. Albert Herter , a muralist who frequently collaborated with Lansburgh, oversaw much of
12876-525: The mid-1930s plays at the Martin Beck Theatre, including Romeo and Juliet and Winterset . Also among these were Shaw's play Saint Joan , which opened in 1936 and featured Cornell, Maurice Evans , and Tyrone Power Jr. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company returned in August 1936 to perform another set of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, running through to the end of the year. Another Anderson play, High Tor , opened in 1937 and starred Meredith, Peggy Ashcroft , and Hume Cronyn for 171 performances. Also in 1937,
13024-557: The middle-class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle-class." The plays of William Shakespeare were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth who was internationally known for his performance as Hamlet . Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865 (with
13172-533: The musical Bye Bye Birdie featuring Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera , opened at the Beck in April 1960 and stayed for 607 performances. Afterward, the theater hosted Jerry Herman 's musical Milk and Honey , which opened in 1961 and stayed for a year and a half. In 1963, the theater staged Mother Courage and Her Children with Anne Bancroft , Barbara Harris , and Gene Wilder ; a transfer of Strange Interlude ; and Edward Albee 's version of The Ballad of
13320-420: The next sixteen years. However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, and Off-Broadway was well established by the end of the nineteenth century. A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans in a Broadway theatre (inspired largely by the routines of the minstrel shows ), followed by the ragtime -tinged Clorindy: The Origin of
13468-557: The number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. As in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women. Gilbert and Sullivan 's family-friendly comic opera hits, beginning with H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, were imported to New York (by
13616-503: The octagonal ceiling panel via canvas strips. The dome and the canvas strips are both decorated in a red, yellow, and green color scheme with geometric designs. A painted glass chandelier is suspended from the dome's center. Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression . Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during
13764-429: The off-Broadway St. Luke's Theatre , and The Whitby are to the north. The Al Hirschfeld is the westernmost Broadway theater in the Theater District and the only one west of Eighth Avenue. When the venue was constructed in 1925, the block to the east already contained eight theaters. The site of the theater itself, at 302 to 314 West 45th Street, was filled by seven brownstone townhouses of three stories each. Six of
13912-570: The opening of Paul Green 's The House of Connelly . Lunt and Fontanne returned to the theater in the Guild's Reunion in Vienna later that year. The Abbey Irish Theatre Players performed at the Martin Beck Theatre for the 1932–1933 season, their first New York City appearance since 1911. Their productions included The Far-off Hills , The New Gossoon , Juno and the Paycock , and Playboy of
14060-571: The operetta at the new theater. According to Martin Beck's wife Louise , the Beck was the only theater in New York City that, at its completion, was owned outright without a mortgage . The theater opened on November 11, 1924, with Madame Pompadour , which ultimately ran for 80 performances. This was followed in 1925 by a more popular show, a musical adaptation of the play Captain Jinks by Clyde Fitch , starring J. Harold Murray and Joe E. Brown for 167 performances. A. H. Woods subsequently leased
14208-405: The orchestra walls. The mezzanine level can only be accessed by steps. The mezzanine and boxes share a front railing, which is decorated with geometric patterns in plasterwork. The side walls have wrought-iron lighting sconces. There are metal railings around the staircases to the orchestra and the passageways to the mezzanine lounge. Originally, the side walls also had tapestries. A technical booth
14356-430: The other octagonal. Above the three arches is a modern marquee cantilevered from the arches. On the second floor are recessed brick walls. There are windows flanked by brick jambs and topped by round-arched stone panels. The center window opening is a double window separated by a stone colonette , while the other window openings are single. The five center arches screen a stone fire-escape staircase. The underside of
14504-655: The outer boroughs. Such neighborhoods that consist of these homes are Borough Park , Dyker Heights , Bensonhurst , Bath Beach , Sunset Park , Kensington , Flatbush , Midwood , East New York , Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, Ridgewood , Glendale , Astoria , Woodhaven in Queens, and Longwood and Morrisania in the Bronx. The Rittenhouse Square and Fairmount neighborhoods of Philadelphia also include examples of brownstone architecture. Many of these homes have been converted into apartment buildings. Back Bay, Boston ,
14652-556: The performers, or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007's August: Osage County , 2009's God of Carnage , 2012's Newsies , and 2022's Take Me Out . Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e., non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of
14800-468: The plays of George Bernard Shaw , and Katharine Cornell in such plays as Romeo and Juliet , Antony and Cleopatra , and Candida . In 1930, Theatre Guild 's production of Roar, China! was Broadway's first play with a majority Asian cast. As World War II approached, a dozen Broadway dramas addressed the rise of Nazism in Europe and the issue of American non-intervention. The most successful
14948-423: The production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows need not make a profit immediately; should they make their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or lose money at
15096-645: The productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein , became enormously influential forms of American popular culture " and contributed to making New York City the cultural capital of the world . New York City's first significant theatre was established in the mid-18th century, around 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan , which held about 280 people. They presented William Shakespeare 's plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera . In 1752, William Hallam sent
15244-531: The run ending just a few months before Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln ), and would later revive the role at his own Booth's Theatre (which was managed for a time by his brother Junius Brutus Booth Jr. ). Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving , Tommaso Salvini , Fanny Davenport , and Charles Fechter . Theatre in New York moved from Downtown gradually to Midtown Manhattan , beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. At
15392-724: The same name, ran at the Beck for 87 performances in 1940. Martin Beck died later the same year, and Louise Beck and Louis A. Lotito took over the theater. Lillian Hellman 's A Watch on the Rhine opened in 1941 and ran for 378 performances. Lunt and Fontanne returned to the theater the next year with the opening of S. N. Behrman 's play The Pirate , which had 176 performances. Members of the United States Army then presented five plays in August 1943, and Richard Rodgers and Herbert Fields 's musical A Connecticut Yankee opened that November. The next year, Berhman's Jacobowsky and
15540-586: The same time period. Brownstone began losing popularity among carvers during the first few decades of the 1800s owing to the rising popularity of marble though it continued to be used for obelisks and other grave monuments until much later. Brownstone used for headstones was usually quarried from the Connecticut River Valley and New Jersey, and many grave carvers especially in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey carved from it. Brownstone
15688-473: The season. This is done in order to maximize access to their target audience. Most Broadway producers and theatre owners are members of The Broadway League (formerly "The League of American Theatres and Producers"), a trade organization that promotes Broadway theatre as a whole, negotiates contracts with the various theatrical unions and agreements with the guilds, and co-administers the Tony Awards with
15836-402: The south, while the long arm runs above the western wall of the inner lobby. The piers on the lounge's eastern wall correspond to the piers on the inner lobby's western wall. The capitals of the piers contain stylized-leaf motifs, supporting the ceiling, which in turn is divided into half and full groin vaults. Wrought-iron sconces are installed on the piers. The southern end of the lounge contains
15984-470: The stage for 657 performances. Chinatown itself was surpassed by the musical Irene (1919) in 1921 as the longest-running Broadway musical, and even earlier, in March 1920, by Lightnin' (1918) as the longest-running Broadway show. In 1896, theatre owners Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger formed the Theatrical Syndicate , which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for
16132-404: The stage house. Red brick is used for the upper stories of the facade. Albert Herter , a muralist who frequently collaborated with Lansburgh, oversaw much of the interior design. A square ticket lobby is directly inside the main entrance, leading to a vaulted inner lobby and an L-shaped mezzanine lounge. The auditorium is decorated with ornamental plasterwork and contains a sloped orchestra level,
16280-400: The staircase includes arches of varying sizes. The top of the staircase, to the east, contains two double metal doors from the balcony. Directly beneath the top of the staircase are two double metal doors from the orchestra level, which are topped by stone lintels and metal-and-glass lanterns. The bottom of the staircase, to the west, contains another doorway that is marked as a stage entrance;
16428-611: The stone was transported out of Hummelstown through the Brownstone and Middletown Railroad. Portland brownstone , also known as Connecticut River Brownstone, is also very popular. The stone from quarries located in Portland, Connecticut and nearby localities was used in a number of landmark buildings in Chicago , Boston , New York City , Philadelphia , New Haven , Hartford , Washington, D.C. , and Baltimore . Quarries from
16576-434: The term "Broadway theatre" is used predominantly to describe venues with seating capacities of at least 500 people. Smaller theaters in New York City are referred to as off-Broadway , regardless of location, while very small venues with fewer than 100 seats are called off-off-Broadway , a term that can also apply to non-commercial, avant-garde , or productions held outside of traditional theater venues. The Theater District
16724-462: The theater contains a granite water table and a double-height arcade with cast-stone columns. The rest of the facade uses red brick. The arcade on the lowest two stories contains eleven arches. The second-outermost arch on either end is both taller and wider than the remaining arches. The octagonal columns rest on granite bases and contain capitals with both Moorish and Byzantine motifs. The tops of each arch contain stone borders. The presence of
16872-530: The theater for his production of the John Colton play The Shanghai Gesture , starring Florence Reed , which opened at the Beck in 1926 and ran for 210 performances. The next year, the Beck hosted James Gleason 's comedy The Shannons of Broadway , featuring Gleason and his wife Lucile , which had 288 performances. In 1928, the Theatre Guild took over the Beck. The Guild's first production at
17020-414: The theater was Grand Hotel , which premiered in late 1989 and stayed two years before transferring to another theater. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting the Beck as an official city landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated both the facade and the interior as landmarks on November 4, 1987. This
17168-658: The theater was Wings Over Europe , which opened at the end of the same year. Next, the Guild staged Dynamo by Eugene O'Neill , starring Glenn Anders and Claudette Colbert , which ran for 66 performances in early 1929. Later that year, the theater hosted the Czech comedy The Camel Through the Needle's Eye , as well as the Russian play Red Rust . The latter was the Theatre Guild Acting Company (later
17316-406: The theater, and numerous material suppliers and contractors were involved in the project. The Al Hirschfeld is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters . The Al Hirschfeld's auditorium and stage house share a design for their facades , unlike with most other Broadway theaters, where the auditorium and stage house have distinct designs. The facade of the Al Hirschfeld is much wider than its length. The base of
17464-552: The theater. The Al Hirschfeld reopened on November 23, 2003, with a revival of the musical Wonderful Town ; it ran for 497 performances. After Binger died in 2004, Landesman bought the Al Hirschfeld and Jujamcyn's four other theaters in 2005, along with the air rights above them. Jordan Roth joined Jujamcyn as a resident producer the same year. The musical Sweet Charity opened at the Al Hirschfeld in May 2005 after nearly being canceled, staying for 297 performances. In 2006, some of
17612-687: The theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States , but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. After the closure of Grand Hotel in early 1992, the musical Guys and Dolls was revived that year, running until 1995. Following this, Laurie Metcalf starred in My Thing of Love , which ran at the Beck for 13 performances in May 1995. That October, Ken Ludwig 's Moon Over Buffalo opened at
17760-534: The theatres. Since colored bulbs burned out too quickly, white lights were used, and Broadway was nicknamed "The Great White Way". In August 1919, the Actors' Equity Association demanded a standard contract for all professional productions. After a strike shut down all the theatres, the producers were forced to agree. By the 1920s, the Shubert Brothers had risen to take over the majority of the theatres from
17908-537: The theatrical producer and director who established The Public Theater , led the "Save the Theatres" campaign. It was a not-for-profit group supported by the Actors Equity union to save the theater buildings in the neighborhood from demolition by monied Manhattan development interests. Papp provided resources, recruited a publicist and celebrated actors, and provided audio, lighting, and technical crews for
18056-551: The ticket lobby) is decorated with a molded panel. Above that is a large arch, which encompasses three smaller arched openings with geometric glass panes. The inner lobby contains piers on the west and east walls, with attached wrought-iron lighting sconces . These piers support three round arches on each side; a mezzanine-level lounge is behind the western arches. At ground level, the western wall contains modillions and pilasters, topped by capitals containing stylized-leaf and volute motifs. There are also leaded-glass double doors in
18204-461: The time, the average age of theatergoers was 40.4; nearly two-thirds of the audience were women; and 29% identified as a racial minority. The classification of theatres is governed by language in Actors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible for a Tony, a production must be in a house with 500 seats or more and in the Theater District, which are the criteria that define Broadway theatre. Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows often provide
18352-445: The top of the mezzanine seating before descending to their seat. The auditorium has an orchestra level, a mezzanine-level balcony, boxes , and a stage behind the proscenium arch. The space is designed with plaster decorations in low relief . Playbill cites the theater as having 1,302 seats, while The Broadway League cites 1,404 seats. Originally, the theater seated 1,200 patrons, or 600 on either level. The original color scheme
18500-568: The twenties, there were 70–80 theaters, but by 1969, there were 36 left. During this time, many Broadway productions struggled due to low attendance rates, which resulted in perceived mediocrity among such plays. For this reason, the Theatre Development Fund was created with the purpose of assisting productions with high cultural value that likely would struggle without subsidization, by offering tickets to those plays to consumers at reduced prices. In early 1982, Joe Papp ,
18648-411: The two outermost arches, which lead to the auditorium. At mezzanine level, both walls contain paneled railings with molded bands of dentils and bosses . Three circular ceiling domes rise from the wall arches. One contemporary source described the domes as depicting "figures in mediaeval costumes against a gold ground". The mezzanine lounge is L-shaped. The short arm of the "L" is the staircase landing on
18796-568: The vein of Victor Herbert. Live theatre has survived the invention of cinema. Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind and taking the drama a step forward, Show Boat premiered on December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld Theatre . It represented a complete integration of book and score, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting, and movement, woven together more seamlessly than in previous musicals. It ran for 572 performances. The 1920s also spawned
18944-401: The venue for himself. The Beck was the only Broadway theater designed in a Byzantine style; most other Broadway theater buildings of the time were designed in a neoclassical style. Furthermore, Lansburgh specialized in designing movie palaces on the West Coast of the United States , including Los Angeles's Hill Street Theatre and San Francisco's Golden Gate Theater . H. H. Oddie Inc. built
19092-692: The war's end, theatre resumed in 1798, when the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street on present-day Park Row . A second major theatre, Bowery Theatre , opened in 1826, followed by others. By the 1840s, P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premier nightspots. The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmo's Opera House opened and presented opera for only four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as
19240-448: The western arches contain ticket windows. There are wrought-iron lamps on the west and east walls. The two double doors on the north wall lead from the street, while two glass-and-bronze double doors on the south wall connect to the inner lobby. The inner lobby is double-height and rectangular in plan, with a staircase to the mezzanine at the southeast end. It was originally decorated in cream-colored plaster. The northern wall (leading from
19388-402: The words "Erected by Martin Beck 1924" are carved on an adjacent column. The three westernmost arches contain recessed brick walls similar to those at the lobby entrance. The second-westernmost arch contains a double metal door at the ground story, while the westernmost (right) arch has a window at the ground story. The second story of the three western arches is similar to the second story above
19536-466: The year of their first performance. Broadway theatre Broadway theatre , or Broadway , is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters , each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway , in Midtown Manhattan , New York City . Broadway and London 's West End together represent
19684-465: The years, the theater has staged long-running productions including The Teahouse of the August Moon , Dracula , Into the Woods , Guys and Dolls , and Kinky Boots . The Al Hirschfeld Theatre is on 302 West 45th Street, on the south sidewalk between Ninth and Eighth Avenues, in the Theater District and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . The land lot
19832-467: Was Lillian Hellman 's Watch on the Rhine , which opened in April 1941. After the lean years of the Great Depression , Broadway theatre had entered a golden age with the blockbuster hit Oklahoma! , in 1943, which ran for 2,212 performances. According to John Kenrick 's writings on Broadway musicals, "Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand,
19980-539: Was 14.77 million in 2018–2019, compared to 13.79 million in 2017–2018. The average age of the Broadway audience in the 2017–18 theater season was 40, the lowest it had been in nearly two decades. By 2018, about 20% of Broadway tickets were sold to international visitors, although many visitors reported not being able to use their tickets. In 2022–2023, the first full season since the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters sold 12.3 million tickets, of which 35% were to local residents and 17% to international visitors. At
20128-591: Was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square , and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square . Theatres arrived in the Times Square area in the early 1900s, and the Broadway theatres consolidated there after a large number were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene 's "musical burletta" The Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with
20276-562: Was a revival of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in late 1934, featuring Basil Rathbone and Katharine Cornell . Cornell and Burgess Meredith starred in two plays in 1935: The Barretts of Wimpole Street , also featuring Brian Aherne and Brenda Forbes , and Flowers of the Forest , also featuring Margalo Gillmore . Later in 1935, Anderson's Winterset opened at the Beck, featuring Meredith, Margo , and Eduardo Ciannelli . Cornell's husband Guthrie McClintic had directed several of
20424-573: Was part of the LPC's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. Jujamcyn, the Nederlanders , and the Shuberts collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Beck, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which
20572-509: Was presented at the Beck in late 1975, running for 95 performances. In 1976, McKnight transferred the Beck and Jujamcyn's other venues to his daughter Virginia and her husband James H. Binger . Finally, the theater had a hit in 1977 with the opening of the play Dracula , featuring Frank Langella , which ran for 925 performances. In 1981, the Beck hosted the Lillian Hellman play The Little Foxes , featuring Elizabeth Taylor , and
20720-403: Was red, blue, and orange, with some golden highlights. Byzantine motifs were used extensively in the design, and three murals decorated the side and rear walls. The seats were upholstered in a rose-red color, with blue highlights, while the auditorium was surrounded by blue draperies. The orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible via the main doors. The rear or western end of the orchestra contains
20868-494: Was renovated after Man of La Mancha closed. The theater constructed a new marquee with an illuminated version of Hirschfeld's Self-Portrait as an Inkwell . Red neon initially represented the "ink" on the marquee, but blue neon was later substituted; Playbill said the red neon gave the "macabre" impression that the figure on the marquee was using ink from its own head. The mezzanine lounge received 22 reproductions of Hirschfeld drawings, which depict plays and actors that appeared at
21016-461: Was revived again that November. The musical Kinky Boots opened at the theater in April 2013, ultimately running for 2,507 performances over six years. The next show to occupy the Al Hirschfeld was the musical Moulin Rouge! , which opened in 2019. Moulin Rouge! achieved the box office record for the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, grossing $ 2,716,892 over nine performances for the week ending December 29, 2019. The theater closed on March 12, 2020 , due to
21164-520: Was revived at the Beck in 1998 for 533 performances. The musical Kiss Me, Kate was revived at the Beck in late 1999, running through the end of 2001 after nearly closing due to the September 11 attacks . This was followed in 2002 by the musical Sweet Smell of Success , which had 108 performances, as well as a revival of Man of La Mancha . In late 2002, Jujamcyn announced that the Martin Beck Theatre would be renamed after illustrator Al Hirschfeld
21312-454: Was set to close. Under Jujamcyn's operation, the Beck hosted the Albee play A Delicate Balance , featuring Tandy, Cronyn, Rosemary Murphy , and Marian Seldes , in 1966. The next year, the theater staged a production of Comden, Green, and Jule Styne 's musical Hallelujah, Baby! . In 1968, the off-Broadway musical Man of La Mancha relocated to the Beck, staying for three years. Many of
21460-430: Was staged at the Beck in 1984, running for 204 performances. On the other hand, Requiem for a Heavyweight managed just three performances in March 1985, and the following month's revival of the musical Take Me Along closed on its opening night. The next hit at the Beck was Into the Woods , with music by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine , which opened in 1987 and had 765 performances. Another popular production at
21608-426: Was staged that year. This was followed the next year by the musical Barefoot Boy with Cheek , featuring Nancy Walker , and a revival of Antony and Cleopatra , featuring Katharine Cornell. Revivals of Shaw's play You Never Can Tell and Jerome Kern 's Sally were presented at the Beck in 1948, followed by That Lady in 1949 with Cornell. Next, the Beck hosted The Wisteria Trees with Helen Hayes, as well as
21756-720: Was under renovation at the time, would be renamed after actor James Earl Jones . In June 2022, the Nederlanders announced that the Brooks Atkinson Theatre would be renamed after Lena Horne , The James Earl Jones Theatre was rededicated in September 2022, while the Lena Horne Theatre was rededicated that November. Although there are some exceptions, shows with open-ended runs generally have evening performances Tuesday through Saturday, with
21904-409: Was used by several theatrical groups in its early years, including the Theatre Guild . After Martin Beck's death in 1940, the theater was managed by his wife Louise Heims Beck . The theater was purchased in 1966 by William L. McKnight of Jujamcyn Theaters , and it hosted several short runs during the 1970s and 1980s. The theater was renamed for Broadway illustrator Al Hirschfeld in 2003. Throughout
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