Winter Garden Theatre
American Horse Exchange Cadillac Winter Garden Theatre | |
Address | 1634 Broadway New York City, New York United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°45′42″N 73°59′01″W / 40.7617°N 73.9836°WCoordinates: 40°45′42″N 73°59′01″W / 40.7617°N 73.9836°W |
Owner | Shubert Organization |
Type | Broadway |
Capacity | 1,526 |
Construction | |
Opened | March 10, 1911 |
Rebuilt | 1922 |
Architect | William Albert Swasey Herbert J. Krapp (rebuild) |
Website | |
www.shubertorganization.com |
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway between 50th and 51st streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
History[]
The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange.[1]
In 1911 the Shuberts leased the building and architect William Albert Swasey redesigned the building as a theatre. The fourth New York City venue to be christened the Winter Garden, it opened on March 10, 1911, with the early Jerome Kern musical La Belle Paree. The show starred Al Jolson and launched him on his highly successful singing and acting career. He played the Winter Garden many times after that.
The Winter Garden was completely remodeled in 1922 by Herbert J. Krapp. The large stage is wider than those in most Broadway houses, and the proscenium arch is relatively low. The building is situated unusually on its lot, with the main entrance and marquee, located on Broadway, connected to the 1526-seat Seventh Avenue auditorium via a long hallway, and the rear wall of the stage abutting 50th Street. When Al Jolson performed there, the Winter Garden had a runway built, going out into the audience, and Jolson would run out and slide on his knees while singing, and the audience, not used to such dynamic and close-up showmanship from a performer, would go wild.
The theatre's longest tenant was Cats, which opened on October 7, 1982 and ran 7,485 performances spanning nearly eighteen years. The auditorium was gutted to accommodate the show's junkyard setting, and, after the show's closing, architect Francesca Russo supervised its restoration, returning it to its 1920s appearance.
In its early days, the theatre frequently hosted series of revues presented under the umbrella titles The Passing Show, Artists and Models, and The Greenwich Village Follies. Following the 1932 death of Florenz Ziegfeld, the Shuberts acquired the rights to the name and format of his famed Ziegfeld Follies, and they presented the 1934 and 1936 editions of the Follies featuring performers such as Fanny Brice, Bob Hope, Josephine Baker, Gypsy Rose Lee, Eve Arden, The Nicholas Brothers, and Buddy Ebsen. It served as a Warner Bros. movie house from 1928 to 1933 and a United Artists cinema in 1945, but aside from these interruptions has operated as a legitimate theatre since it opened. Due to the size of its auditorium, stage, and backstage facilities, it is a house favored for large musical productions.
In 1974 Liza Minnelli appeared at the Winter Garden in a concert run that would win her a Tony Award for that year, honoring her successful sold-out run. A live album of the concert was released that year, and remastered and reissued in 2012.
In 2002, under an agreement between the Shubert Organization, which owns the theatre, and General Motors, it was renamed the Cadillac Winter Garden Theatre. At the beginning of 2007, the corporation's sponsorship ended and the venue returned to its original name.[2]
On November 12, 2020, a 54-year-old man employed as a stagehand died after falling from a ladder.[3] In August 2021, it was announced that the theater would serve as the venue for the 74th Tony Awards.[4]
Notable productions[]
- 1911: Vera Violetta
- 1916: Robinson Crusoe, Jr.
- 1918: Sinbad
- 1934: Life Begins at 8:40
- 1935: At Home Abroad
- 1936: Ziegfeld Follies of 1936
- 1937: Hooray for What!
- 1938: Hellzapoppin
- 1943: Ziegfeld Follies of 1943
- 1944: Mexican Hayride
- 1945: Marinka
- 1948: As the Girls Go
- 1950: Alive and Kicking
- 1951: Top Banana, Make a Wish
- 1952: My Darlin' Aida
- 1953: Wonderful Town
- 1954: Peter Pan
- 1955: Plain and Fancy, The Vamp
- 1956: Bus Stop, Shangri-La
- 1957: West Side Story, Ziegfeld Follies of 1957
- 1959: Saratoga, Juno
- 1960: Once Upon a Mattress, The Unsinkable Molly Brown
- 1962: Carnival!, All American
- 1963: Tovarich, The Lady of the Camellias
- 1964: Funny Girl
- 1966: Mame
- 1969: Jimmy!
- 1970: Georgy, Purlie
- 1971: Follies
- 1972: Much Ado About Nothing
- 1974: Gypsy, Ulysses in Nighttown
- 1975: Doctor Jazz
- 1976: Pacific Overtures, Fiddler on the Roof
- 1977: Beatlemania
- 1979: Zoot Suit, Gilda Live
- 1980: 42nd Street
- 1981: The Catherine Wheel, Camelot
- 1982: Othello, Cats
- 2001: Mamma Mia!
- 2014: Rocky the Musical
- 2015: Wolf Hall Parts One & Two, School of Rock
- 2019: Beetlejuice
- 2022: The Music Man
Theatre Names & Managers[]
- 1850 Tripler Hall
- 1851 Metropolitan Hall
- 1854 New York Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House
- 1854 Great Metropolitan Theatre
- 1855 The Metropolitan
- 1855 Laura Keene's Varieties (Manager - Laura Keene)
- 1856 Burton's New Theatre (Manager - William Burton)
- 1859 The New Metropolitan
- 1859 The Winter Garden Theatre (Manager - Dion Boucicault)
See also[]
- Winter Garden Theatre (1850) - article about the first theatre in New York under this name
- http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46433 - article about the Winter Garden Theatre burning down in 1867
- https://www.ibdb.com/theatre/winter-garden-theatre-1391 - article about how the Winter Garden Theatre started and some of its shows
- https://sohorep.org/glossary-the-winter-garden-theatre - article about the history of the Winter Garden Theatre and its managers
References[]
- ^ Mordden, Ethan (2008). Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business. New York: St. Martin’s Press. pp. 154–5. ISBN 978-0-312-37543-0.
- ^ Robertson, Campbell (January 3, 2007). "Winter Garden's Drive Time Ends". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
- ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/theater/nyc-winter-garden-theater-death.html
- ^ Criscitiello, Alexa (August 11, 2021). "74th Annual Tony Awards to Be Held Live at the Winter Garden Theatre". Broadway World. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2011) |
External links[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Winter Garden Theatre. |
- Winter Garden Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
- "Designation List 199" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1988)
- Broadway theatres
- New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
- New York City interior landmarks
- Shubert Organization
- Buildings and structures completed in 1896
- Theatres completed in 1911
- Broadway (Manhattan)
- 1911 establishments in New York (state)