Al Hirschfeld Theatre
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, New York, U.S. 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 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 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, 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 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 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.
Site
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, New York, U.S. The land lot is rectangular. The lot covers, with a frontage of on 45th Street and a depth of. 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, 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 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.
Design
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, who originally named 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 the theater, and numerous material suppliers and contractors were involved in the project. The Al Hirschfeld is operated by Jujamcyn Theaters.Facade
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 the theater contains a granite water table and a double-height arcade with cast-stone columns. The rest of the facade uses red brick.Base
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 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. 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 the doors, as well as engaged columns flanking the doors. To the left of the lobby entrance is a metal service door, a sign board, and a gate to a service alley. To the right 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 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 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; 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 arch has a window at the ground story. The second story of the three western arches is similar to the second story above the main entrance, with arched brick windows.
Upper stories
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 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.Interior
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 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.Lobbies
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 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 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 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 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 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 the top of the mezzanine seating before descending to their seat.