Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre

About

The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (known as the Plymouth Theatre prior to 2004) is a Broadway theater at 236 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for the Shubert brothers. The Schoenfeld Theatre is named for Gerald Schoenfeld, longtime president of the Shubert Organization, which operates the theater. It has 1,079 seats across two levels. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.

The neoclassical facade is simple in design and is similar to that of the Broadhurst Theatre, which was developed concurrently. The Schoenfeld's facade is made of buff-colored brick and terracotta and is divided into two sections: a stage house to the west and the theater's entrance to the east. The entrance facade is topped by fire-escape galleries and contains a curved corner facing east toward Broadway. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, a large balcony, a small technical gallery, a mostly flat ceiling, and a sounding board. The space is decorated in the Adam style with plasterwork designs. Near the front of the auditorium, flanking the elliptical proscenium arch, are box seats at balcony level.

The Shubert brothers developed the Broadhurst and Plymouth theaters following the success of the Booth and Shubert theaters directly to the east. The Plymouth Theatre was leased to Arthur Hopkins and opened on October 10, 1917, with the comedy A Successful Calamity. The Shuberts retained ownership of the theater and took over after Hopkins's death in 1950. The theater has hosted not only musicals but also revues, comedies, and dramas throughout its history. It was renamed for Gerald Schoenfeld in 2005.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.