Lecture: BEHIND THE BRIGHT LIGHTS

The Fabulous Broadway Theaters

Visitors to New York invariably find their way to the Broadway theater, drawn by long-running musicals, showy imports, and occasional straight plays. What many never realize is that Broadway offers another artistic and historical resource that is unique to New York City: the theaters themselves. With three-quarters of a century of history behind them, the forty surviving theaters are largely intact, and stand as stunning works of art in themselves, as well as monuments to the lively history of American theater.

Many of the finest theaters were built as lavish headquarters for Broadway's great impresarios, who spared no expense in their decor. The Belasco Theater on 44th Street was designed to the specifications of the extravagant David Belasco, the self-styled “Bishop of Broadway” who, among other eccentricities, wore a clerical collar. Serving as Belasco’s showcase, the theater boasts Tiffany glass, paneled wooden ceilings, and murals by the New York Ash-Can School artist Everett Shinn. The Little Theater, built for aristocratic New England producer Winthrop Ames, originally sat a tiny audience of 300. Ames, pioneering the “little theater” movement of intimate drama, had his theater designed to match: its precious Georgian style facade looks less like a typical Broadway theater than a Colonial New England manor house, into the intimate drawing room of which Ames cordially invited his audience (at the then outrageously expensive price of $2.50 per seat). Other great Broadway houses include the recreation of the Petit Trianon in Versailles built for producer John Cort; the exotic Moorish fantasy built for vaudeville king Martin Beck; the pseudo-Florentine palace built for the Theater Guild, and the delicately sculpted Music Box built by Irving Berlin for his Music Box Revues.

“A brisk [and] highly entertaining historical slide tour of Broadway’s early days.” -- Entertainment Insider, 7/9/96.

Tony Robins has written on the Broadway theaters for Gourmet, and supervised research on their architecture and history for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.