New Amsterdam Theatre (New York). Built in 1903 as the flagship of the Erlanger empire from designs by Herts and Tallant, this ornate house helped establish 42nd Street as New York's principal theatrical thoroughfare. Within the eleven‐story structure were two theatres (a 1,750‐seat auditorium and a rooftop theatre), elevators, lounges, decorative murals, and an elegant green, mother of pearl, and mauve color scheme. Although the theatre opened with A Midsummer Night's Dream and left the legitimate fold after Walter Huston's 1937 Othello, it was known primarily as a musical house. Most of the Ziegfeld Follies played there, as did The Merry Widow, Sally, The Band Wagon, and other great musical hits. For many years its enclosed roof garden housed a popular cabaret, ideal for summertime fare before the advent of air conditioning. In 1937 the house started showing films, and it slowly deteriorated over the decades. In 1979 both its exterior and interior were declared landmarks, but the old house was not restored until 1992 when the Disney corporation bought it and started to renovate the theatre as part of the redevelopment of 42nd Street. More than $50 million was spent to re‐create the original colors, fixtures, and ornamentation of the New Amsterdam, and the result was proclaimed by all to be perhaps the finest theatre restoration project in the city. The theatre reopened in 1997 with a limited run of King David, then six months later The Lion King (1997) became its first new (and longest) tenant.
New Amsterdam Theatre
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Coordinates: 40°45′22″N 73°59′16″W / 40.756196°N 73.987687°W
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 214 West 42nd Street in the heart of Times Square in New York City. It is operated by Disney Theatrical Productions, and is currently showing the musical Mary Poppins.
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History
Construction and original run
The New Amsterdam, the first concrete example of architectural Art Nouveau in New York,[1] was built in 1903 by the partnership of impresarios A.L. Erlanger and Marcus Klaw and designed in the Art Nouveau style by architects Herts & Tallant. Painting was carried out by an extensive team of painters and sculptors that included George Gray Barnard, Robert Blum, the brothers Neumark, G.D.M. Peixotto, R. Hinton Perry and Albert G. Wenzel. At the time of construction, it was the largest theatre in New York, with a seating capacity of 1,702. Along with the Lyceum Theatre, also built in 1903, it is the oldest surviving Broadway venue.
The New Amsterdam opened in November 1903 with a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. For many years, it hosted the Ziegfeld Follies, showcasing such talents as Olive Thomas, Fanny Brice and the Eaton siblings. A racier sister show of the Follies, the Midnight Frolics, played in the New Amsterdam's roof garden theatre. The New Amsterdam was the scene of Marilyn Miller's greatest triumphs in the musicals Sally (1920) and Sunny, which opened in September 1925 co-starring Clifton Webb as Harold Wendell-Wendell and ran for three seasons [2]. But the theatre also hosted serious productions, and in June 1927 Basil Rathbone appeared there as Cassius in Julius Caesar [3].
Restoration
The Great Depression took its toll on the theatre business, and in 1936 the New Amsterdam closed. It reopened on a limited basis in 1937 but was soon converted to a movie theatre. The Nederlander Organization purchased the landmark property in 1982, but it would not be on the road to rehabilitation for another eight years. In 1990, after a court battle, the State and City of New York assumed ownership of the New Amsterdam and many other theatres on 42nd Street. Disney Theatrical Productions signed a 99-year lease for the property in 1993. The theatre, which had recently been used as a filming location for the movie Vanya on 42nd Street, was in shambles; it would take several years and millions of dollars, to restore it to its original usage and grandeur. The roof garden remained closed when it was discovered that it could not be brought up to modern building codes.
The New Amsterdam was officially reopened on April 2, 1997. In November 1997, after the premiere of the film Hercules and a limited engagement of a concert version of King David, Disney's stage version of The Lion King opened. On June 4, 2006, The Lion King closed in The New Amsterdam Theatre, moving two blocks uptown to the Minskoff Theatre on June 13, 2006. Mary Poppins began previews at the New Amsterdam Theatre on October 16, 2006 and opened on November 16, 2006. [1]
Benefit events
The New Amsterdam has also hosted events benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, including the annual Easter Bonnet Competition. In recent years, the benefit's honored guest has been centenarian Doris Eaton Travis, who originally performed on the New Amsterdam stage in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919.
References
- ^ So described (p. 488) in the article in which it was extensively described and illustrated, Theodore Waters, "The New Amsterdam Theatre: A triumph of the new art", Everybody's Magazine 9 July-December 1903, pp 485-92.
- ^ Parker, John (ed), Who's Who in the Theatre, 10th revised edition, London, 1947: 1429
- ^ Parker, John (ed), Who's Who in the Theatre, 10th revised edition, London, 1947: 1184
External links
- Official Website
- New Amsterdam Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
- Disney On Broadway Podcast: Olive Thomas: Disney's Resident Ghost
- Broadway Theatre Guide with full show details for the New Amsterdam Theatre
- Chronology at the New 42nd Street site
- Henderson, Mary C. (1997). The New Amsterdam: The Biography of a Broadway Theatre. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6270-X.
- Morrison, William (1999). Broadway Theatres: History and Architecture. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-40244-4.
- Travis, Doris Eaton; with Joseph and Charles Eaton (2003). The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family from Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond. Seattle: Marquand Books. ISBN 0-8061-9950-4.
- A collection of New Amsterdam memorabilia
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Mentioned in
- Brewster's Millions (American Theater)
- Caesar and Cleopatra (American Theater)
- The Pink Lady (American Theater)
- Sunny (American Theater)
- Sweethearts (American Theater)
- Watch Your Step (American Theater)
- The Band Wagon (American Theater)
- Disney Theatrical Productions (American Theater)
- Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway (American theater)
- Madame Sherry (American Theater)
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