The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theater at 225 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913, the theater was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts in the Italian Renaissance style and was built for the Shubert brothers. Lee and J. J. Shubert had named the theater in memory of their brother Sam S. Shubert, who died in an accident several years before the theater's opening. It has 1,502 seats across three levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade and interior are New York City landmarks.
The Shubert's facade is made of brick and terracotta, with sgraffito decorations designed in stucco. Three arches face south onto 44th Street, and a curved corner faces east toward Broadway. To the east, the Shubert Alley facade includes doors to the lobby and the stage house. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, two balconies, and a flat ceiling. The space is decorated with mythological murals throughout. Near the front of the auditorium, flanking the elliptical proscenium arch, are box seats at balcony level. The upper levels contain offices formerly occupied by the Shubert brothers, and the stage house to the north is shared with the Booth Theatre.
The Shubert brothers developed the Booth and Shubert theaters as their first venues on the block. The Shubert Theatre opened on October 2, 1913, with a revival of Hamlet. The theater has hosted numerous long-running musicals throughout its history, such as Bells Are Ringing and Promises, Promises. Since the 1970s, the Shubert has hosted long runs of the musicals A Chorus Line, Crazy for You, Chicago, Spamalot, Memphis, and Matilda the Musical.
Site
The Shubert Theatre is on 225 West 44th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. It shares a land lot with the Booth Theatre directly to the north, though the theaters are two separate buildings. The lot covers , with a frontage of on 44th and 45th Streets and on Shubert Alley to the east. The Shubert Theatre building takes up of the Shubert Alley frontage and measures about 110 feet wide on 44th Street.
The Shubert is part of the largest concentration of Broadway theaters on a single block. It adjoins six other theaters: the Majestic and Broadhurst to the west; the John Golden, Bernard B. Jacobs, and Gerald Schoenfeld to the northwest; and the Booth to the north. Other nearby structures include the Row NYC Hotel to the west; the Music Box Theatre and Imperial Theatre one block north; One Astor Plaza to the east; 1501 Broadway to the southeast; Sardi's restaurant to the south; and the Hayes Theater and St. James Theatre to the southwest. The Broadhurst, Schoenfeld (originally Plymouth), Booth, and Shubert theaters were all developed by the Shubert brothers between 44th and 45th Streets, occupying land previously owned by the Astor family. The Shuberts bought the land under all four theaters from the Astors in 1948.
The Shubert and Booth theaters were developed as a pair and are the oldest theaters on the block.; The site was previously occupied by several houses on 44th and 45th Street. The adjacent Shubert Alley, built along with the Shubert and Booth theaters, was originally a fire escape passage. Shubert Alley's presence not only allowed the theaters to meet fire regulations but also enabled the structures to be designed as corner lots. Originally, the theaters faced the Hotel Astor, now the location of One Astor Plaza, across the alley. Another private alley runs to the west, between the Booth/Shubert and Broadhurst/Schoenfeld theaters. The Broadhurst and Schoenfeld were also built as a pair, occupying land left over from the development of the Shubert and Booth; these too are designed with curved corners facing Broadway.;
Design
The Shubert Theatre was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts and constructed in 1913 for the Shubert brothers. Herts was an experienced theatrical architect and had previously led the firm of Herts & Tallant, which designed such theaters as the Lyceum, the New Amsterdam, and the Liberty. The Shubert and Booth theaters are within separate buildings and differ in their interior designs and functions, although they have adjacent stage areas near the center of the block. The Shubert was the larger house, intended to be suitable for musicals, and the Shubert family's offices were placed above the auditorium there.; By contrast, the Booth was intended to be smaller and more intimate.; The Shubert Theatre is operated by The Shubert Organization.
Facade The facades of the two theaters are similar in arrangement, being designed in the Italian Renaissance style or the Venetian Renaissance style. The structures both have curved corners facing Broadway, since most audience members reached the theaters from that direction. The Shubert's facade is made of white brick, laid in English-cross bondwork, as well as terracotta. The bricks are laid in alternating courses of headers (with their short sides exposed) and stretchers (with their long sides exposed). An early source described the theaters' facades as being made of white marble, with stucco and faience panels. The main section of the theater rises six stories and is topped by a cornice with dentils. Above the cornice is a sheet-metal mansard roof. A critic for Architecture magazine wrote that Herts had "discovered an excellent motive for a single facade", although it "would perhaps have been more amusing" if the two theaters had contained different facades.
According to the New-York Tribune, the theaters' use of hand-carved sgraffito for decoration made Herts "the first man to have used sgraffito for this purpose". The sgraffito was used because of New York City building codes that prevented decorations from projecting beyond their lot lines. These decorations were colored light-gray, placed on a purple-gray background. The sgraffito on the two theaters is one of the few such examples that remain in New York City. A contemporary source said the theaters' facades were "free from much of the gaudy trappings that has made some of the recent playhouses commonplace in appearance".
44th Street
At ground level, the 44th Street elevation contains a tall water table of painted stone, above which is a band with rusticated blocks of terracotta. There are three arches at the center of the facade, which provide an emergency exit from the lobby. Each archway originally contained a pair of paneled wooden double doors, but these have since been replaced with glass doors. On either side of the arches are rectangular sign boards topped by triangular pediments. Within the archways above the doors are sgraffito paintings, which depict figures within aedicules. These paintings are partially obscured by a modern marquee that is cantilevered from the wall above. The archways are surrounded by rusticated voussoirs.
Above the archways, the theater's facade is made of brick. The brick section of the facade is surrounded by a stucco band of sgraffito decorations, which is painted white and contains bas reliefs of classical-style foliate ornamentation. Outside this stucco band is another sgraffito band, divided into panels that depict female figures and griffins. The extreme left (west) and right (east) ends of the facade contain vertical sequences of terracotta quoins; they have Corinthian-style capitals that are decorated with motifs of rams, lions' heads, and acanthus leaves. At the top of the brick wall, the paneled sgraffito band is split up into three sections, each with a curved broken pediment and carvings of masks. Above each pediment is a set of triple windows at the sixth story, surrounded by a terracotta frame. Each triple window contains a window sill, which projects outward slightly and is supported by corbels that depict winged heads. Octagonal terracotta panels separate each set of triple windows. The mansard roof has three sets of dormer windows on this elevation.
Southeast corner Due to the theater's location at the corner of 44th Street and Shubert Alley, the southeast corner of the facade is curved. This corner section has a doorway at the center, containing glass-and-metal doors; these are shielded by a canopy that extends to the curb on 44th Street. There are stone pilasters on either side of the doorway, which contain cartouches and sign boards. Above the doors is a broken pediment shaped like a segmental arch. The center of the broken pediment has an oval sgraffito panel with scrolls on the sides and a scalloped shell above it. The panel depicts a figure that carries a sign with the words "Henry B. Herts, Architect 1913".
A brick wall rises from the doorway, and a sign board is mounted on the wall. The brick is surrounded by a stucco band with sgraffito foliate decorations, which retains its original colors. Like on 44th Street, there are vertical quoins with Corinthian capitals on the left and right. At the top of the brick wall, there is a broken pediment, within which is a theatrical mask and a shield. This broken pediment is topped by a pair of windows at the sixth story, surrounded by a terracotta frame. The windows share a slightly projecting sill, which is supported by corbels that depict winged heads.
Shubert Alley
On Shubert Alley, the facade is divided into the auditorium to the left (south) and the stage house to the right (north). The auditorium section contains three sets of glass-and-metal doors: two from the auditorium, on the left, and one leading to the Shuberts' upper-story offices, on the right. A metal marquee hangs over these doors. Like the elevations on 44th Street and at the southeast corner, the left side of the auditorium facade contains vertical quoins topped by a Corinthian capital. Also similar to the 44th Street elevation, there is a brick wall section above the first floor, surrounded by a stucco sgraffito band with bas-reliefs and a paneled sgraffito band. At the top of the brick wall are three broken pediments and three sets of windows surrounded by terracotta frames. The main difference from the 44th Street elevation is that the center set of windows contains two openings rather than three, and there is no roof dormer above the center windows.
The stage house section, shared with the Booth Theatre to the north, is simpler in design, being made mainly of brick in English cross bond. The ground floor has doorways, metal panels, and sign boards. A band of quoins separates the stage house from the Shubert auditorium to the left and the Booth Theatre to the right. The second to fourth floors have one-over-one sash windows, while the fifth floor has a terracotta shield at the center. The top of the stage house contains a parapet, above which is a sgraffito panel surrounded by bricks.
Interior Lobby The lobby is composed of an elliptical space, accessed from the southeast corner of the theater, and a rectangular space, accessed from two of the doors on Shubert Alley. The north wall of the lobby contains ticket windows, while the west wall contains doors to the auditorium. Originally, the space was described as an elaborate green-marble room accessed by heavy oak doors. The marble mosaic-tile floor is decorated with foliate patterns. At the top of the walls is a frieze depicting waves and talons, as well as a cornice with modillions. The rectangular section of the lobby contains a vaulted ceiling, which is split into multiple sections by moldings. There is an octagonal panel. surrounded by laurel leaves, at the center of the vault. The elliptical section of the lobby has a domed ceiling decorated with moldings and laurel leaves.
Auditorium