Victoria Theater (New York City)

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For other uses, see Victoria Theatre (disambiguation).
The façade of the Victoria Theater, showing its most recent name of "Moviecenter 5"

Victoria Theater is a theater located on 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed in 1917 by Thomas W. Lamb, a notable and prolific theater architect of the era, for the Loew's Corporation.[1]

The Loew's Victoria Theater, as it was known until 1977, opened as a 2,394-seat, luxury Vaudeville and motion picture theater.[2] Typical of movie palaces of its era, it contained a stage and backstage dressing rooms and provisions for live music, including an organ. It cost $250,000 to build and was hailed “as one of the largest and most beautiful theaters in greater N.Y.” by a contemporary publication.[2] When the Victoria was built, it joined many other Harlem theaters including the Proctor, Hammerstein Opera House, the Alhambra as well as the nearby Apollo, then the Hurtig & Seamon's New (Burlesque) Theater.[2]

In 1977, the Harlem Community Development Corporation acquired the building.[2]

The Victoria has experienced numerous changes since its opening, the most radical being its conversion to a multi-screen movie theater; in 1987, five movie theaters were created from the large auditorium, mezzanine and stage areas.[2] The theater closed as a cinema in 1989, though a 400-seat venue was left intact in the orchestra, at which the original Harlem company of Godspell, which drew major newspaper and television network broadcast coverage, ran for approximately a year in the 1996/97 season.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] In 2005 several proposals for redevelopment were made.[10] Only two proposals call for reusing the theater's interior, which has angered some community leaders, according to the New York Times.[11]

The new Victoria Theater project, developed by the and , designed by architect Ariel Aufgang and interiors by , began construction in April 2017 and is scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. The completed 400,000-square-foot structure will have 191 mixed-income rental apartments; a 210-room Marriott Renaissance hotel; about 25,000 square feet of retail; and another 25,000 square feet of cultural and arts space.[12]

External links[]

References[]

  1. ^ New York Times May 17, 2006
  2. ^ a b c d e RFP: Victoria Theater
  3. ^ First All-Black Version of Godspell Begins Previews
  4. ^ Godspell Brings Uplift Uptown
  5. ^ New Godspell Updates Show to 21st Century Harlem
  6. ^ Godspell rocking the house at Harlem's Victoria Theatre[dead link]
  7. ^ Off-Bway Godspell Eyes Move With Jackson And/Or Vereen
  8. ^ Harlem Godspell Fighting Media Indifference Day by Day
  9. ^ With Empty Seats at Godspell, An Organizer Cries Bias
  10. ^ Groups Vie to Reimagine Loew's Victoria Theater - Wired New York Forum
  11. ^ The Real Deal - Take the A Train - to your Harlem hotel
  12. ^ Cuozzo, Steve (2017-04-25). "Oft-delayed Harlem development breathes new life". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-07-27.

Coordinates: 40°48′35.08″N 73°56′58.28″W / 40.8097444°N 73.9495222°W / 40.8097444; -73.9495222

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