Walter Kerr Theatre
The Walter Kerr Theatre, previously the Ritz Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 219 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed for the Shubert brothers in 1921. The venue, renamed in 1990 after theatrical critic Walter Kerr, has 975 seats across three levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The facade is plainly designed and is made of patterned brick. The auditorium contains Adam-style detailing, two balconies, and murals.
The Shuberts developed the Ritz Theatre after World War I as part of a theatrical complex around 48th and 49th Streets. The Ritz Theatre opened on March 21, 1921, with the play Mary Stuart, and it was leased to William Harris Jr., who operated it for a decade. After many unsuccessful shows, the theater was leased to the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project from 1936 to 1939, then served as a CBS and NBC broadcasting studio. The Ritz briefly hosted legitimate shows in 1942 and 1943, and it again functioned as a studio for ABC until 1965. The Ritz was abandoned for several years until Eddie Bracken took over in 1970, renovating it and hosting several short-lived shows from 1971 to 1973. During the 1970s, the Ritz variously operated as a pornographic theater, vaudeville house, children's theater, and poster-storage warehouse. Jujamcyn took over in 1981 and reopened it two years later following an extensive restoration. The theater was renovated again in 1990 and renamed after Kerr.
Site
The Walter Kerr Theatre is on 219 West 48th Street, on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The rectangular land lot covers, with a frontage of on 49th Street and a depth of. The Walter Kerr shares the block with the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to the north and Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan to the east. Other nearby buildings include One Worldwide Plaza and St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church to the northwest, the Ambassador Theatre and the Brill Building to the northeast, the Morgan Stanley Building to the southeast, the Longacre Theatre and Ethel Barrymore Theatre to the south, and the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre to the southwest.Design
The Walter Kerr Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed in 1921 for the Shubert brothers. It is part of a group of six theaters planned by the Shuberts after World War I, of which four were built. Edward Margolies was the general contractor who built the theater.Facade
The facade is simple in design, especially when compared with Krapp's other works for the Shubert family. The Ambassador and Ritz theaters, in particular, were designed in patterned brick, with the only ornamentation being in the arrangement of the brick. This sparse ornamentation may be attributed to the lack of money in the years after World War I. Theatrical historian William Morrison described the design scheme as "utilitarian in the extreme", decorated only by fire escapes in front of the facade, as well as brickwork laid in a diamond pattern. A marquee hangs above the entrance at ground level, and a large sign is mounted on the right side of the facade, facing east.Auditorium
The auditorium is accessed by a lobby decorated with fake-granite walls and a burgundy ceiling. The Walter Kerr Theatre has an orchestra level and two balconies. The interior layout was similar to Krapp's earlier Broadhurst and Plymouth theaters, but the Ritz had fewer seats than either the Broadhurst or the Plymouth, with only about 975 total at the time of opening. The Broadway League cites the theater as having 945 seats, while Playbill gives a figure of 918 seats. Only the orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible; the other seating levels can only be reached by steps. The main restrooms are placed on the first balcony level, but there are wheelchair-accessible restrooms on the orchestra level.Like Krapp's other Broadway houses, the auditorium's interior is decorated in the Adam style. The interior color scheme was originally purple, vermillion, and gold. The Shubert family's design studio oversaw the decorative scheme. A contemporary newspaper article said the interior used a gold leaf design that was "suggestive of the Italian Renaissance". In 1983, the theater was redecorated in pink, mauve, and gray.
The proscenium arch at the front of the auditorium was tall and wide. Above the proscenium arch is a mural that was restored in a 1983 renovation. This mural depicts Diana with two hounds; it is unknown who originally designed the mural. Two other murals had been planned for the Ritz when it opened, but they were not installed until the 1980s. The theater also contains Art Deco chandeliers, lights, and sconces, which date from 1983.
History
became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression. During the 1900s and 1910s, many theaters in Midtown Manhattan were developed by the Shubert brothers, one of the major theatrical syndicates of the time. The Shuberts originated from Syracuse, New York, and expanded downstate into New York City in the first decade of the 20th century. The brothers controlled a quarter of all plays and three-quarters of theatrical ticket sales in the U.S. by 1925. After World War I, the Shuberts contemplated the construction of six theaters along 48th and 49th Streets, just north of Times Square. Of these, only four were built, and only three survive.Original Broadway run
1920s
The Shuberts announced plans for their six new theaters in September 1920. The brothers believed that the sites on 48th and 49th Streets could be as profitable as theaters on 42nd Street, which historically was Times Square's legitimate theatrical hub. A site on 48th Street was selected in addition to three on 49th Street, and Krapp was hired to design the theaters. That February, the Shuberts announced that the theater on 48th Street would be called the Ritz and that it would open the next month. Only 66 days had elapsed from the start of construction to the theater's completion, which the New-York Tribune called a "world's record".The theater opened on March 21, 1921, with John Drinkwater's Mary Stuart. The next month, William Harris Jr. leased the Ritz Theatre for ten years, and he immediately brought the Porter Emerson Browne play The Bad Man to the Ritz. Later that year, the theater hosted its first hit: the play Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, featuring Ina Claire. The Ritz mostly hosted short runs of plays in its early years, such as Madame Pierre in 1922 with Roland Young. The next year, the theater hosted The Enchanted Cottage with Katharine Cornell, as well as In Love with Love with Lynn Fontanne. The play Outward Bound, with Margalo Gillmore, Leslie Howard, and Alfred Lunt, opened at the Ritz in January 1924. That July, Hassard Short leased the theater for his Ritz Revue, which opened in September and was the theater's first musical production. Also that year, Al Jolson's Coolidge-Dawes Theatrical League was established at the theater, and the venue staged the John Galsworthy play Old English with George Arliss.
The play The Kiss in the Taxi opened at the Ritz in 1925 with Claudette Colbert, and Young Blood with Helen Hayes opened later that year. This was followed in 1927 by Bye, Bye, Bonnie with Ruby Keeler, The Legend of Leonora with Grace George, and The Thief with Alice Brady and Lionel Atwill. A. H. Woods leased the Ritz later that year to show his play The First of These Gentlemen. The play Excess Baggage opened at the end of 1927, featuring Frank McHugh and Miriam Hopkins, and lasted through mid-1928. The next production was also a success: Courage with Janet Beecher, which opened in October 1928 and ran until the following June. Subsequently, the theater hosted Broken Dishes, which opened in November 1929 and featured Donald Meek and Bette Davis. The same month, the popular comedy Mendel, Inc. opened with Smith and Dale, running through the next year. By the end of the 1920s, the Shuberts had taken over the Ritz Theatre's bookings from Harris after several flop runs.
1930s
Many of the Ritz Theatre's productions in the 1930s were short-lived. Among these shows was a version of the English play Nine till Six with an all-female cast in late 1930. The next year saw a two-week run of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Alison's House, as well as Elliott Lester's Two Seconds. Additionally, Ruth Draper performed a series of character sketches at the Ritz in late 1932. The Elizabeth McFadden melodrama Double Door occupied the Ritz during late 1933, while Mildred Natwick and Frank Lawton starred the next year in The Wind and the Rain. Other shows of the period included Petticoat Fever in 1935 with Leo G. Carroll and Dennis King, as well as Co-Respondent Unknown in 1936 with Peggy Conklin and Ilka Chase.In December 1936, the Works Progress Administration 's Federal Theatre Project hosted a week-long run of its dance program, The Eternal Prodigal, at the Ritz after eleven months of preparation. The theater hosted Power, a show produced as part of the WPA's Living Newspaper series, the following February; it lasted for five months. In November 1937, the Surry Players presented their revival of Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Ritz. Next, Gilbert Miller's production of the T. S. Eliot play Murder in the Cathedral opened at the Ritz in February 1938, running for six weeks. The WPA then premiered the musical Pinocchio at the Ritz in January 1939, but the production closed that May after the Federal Theatre Project was dissolved.