Opened in 1903, the Lyceum Theatre is one of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, as well as the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in New York City. The theater was designed by Herts & Tallant in the Beaux-Arts style and was built for impresario Daniel Frohman. It has 922 seats across three levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade became a New York City designated landmark in 1974, and the lobby and auditorium interiors were similarly designated in 1987.
The theater maintains most of its original Beaux-Arts design. Its 45th Street facade has an undulating glass-and-metal marquee shielding the entrances, as well as a colonnade with three arched windows. The lobby has a groin-vaulted ceiling, murals above the entrances, and staircases to the auditorium's balcony levels. The auditorium has an ornately decorated proscenium and boxes, but the ceiling and walls are relatively plain. An apartment above the lobby, originally used by Frohman, was converted to the headquarters of the Shubert Archives in 1986. The stage door entrance is through 152 West 46th Street, a 10-story wing designed by Herts & Tallant, which also houses the dressing rooms and some backstage facilities.
The current Lyceum replaced Frohman's earlier Lyceum on Fourth Avenue, which closed in 1902. The current theater opened on November 2, 1903, with the play The Proud Prince. Frohman's brother Charles served as the theater's manager until dying in 1915, and Daniel Frohman subsequently partnered with David Belasco to show productions at the theater until 1930. Afterward, Frohman lost the theater to foreclosure in the Great Depression, and a syndicate composed of George S. Kaufman, Max Gordon, and Moss Hart bought the theater in 1940. The Shubert Organization has operated the theater since 1950. The Lyceum was leased to the Association of Producing Artists (APA) and Phoenix Theatre in the late 1960s and to the National Actors Theatre during much of the 1990s.
Site
The Lyceum Theatre is on 149 West 45th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The land lot covers 10,125 square feet (940.6 m2), with a frontage of 85.73 feet (26.13 m) on 45th Street and a depth of 200.84 feet (61 m), with a wing running northward to 46th Street. The modern theater's site covers five land lots at 149 to 157 West 45th Street, collectively measuring 88 by 100 feet (27 by 30 m), as well as a rear lot on 152 West 46th Street, measuring 16 by 100 feet (4.9 by 30.5 m). These lots formerly contained houses. On the same block, 1540 Broadway is to the west and Americas Tower and High School of Performing Arts are to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Church of St. Mary the Virgin to the northeast; the Palace Theatre, Embassy Theatre, and I. Miller Building to the north; the Millennium Times Square New York and Hudson Theatre to the south; and the Hotel Gerard and Belasco Theatre to the southeast.
Design
The Lyceum Theatre was designed by Herts & Tallant in the Beaux-Arts style and constructed from 1902 to 1903 for impresario Daniel Frohman. Operated by the Shubert Organization, it is the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in New York City
Facade
45th Street
The primary elevation of the facade is on 45th Street and is made of limestone. A promotional brochure from the theater's opening in 1903 said that the facade "recalls in its style and amplitude the best period of Roman art". The street-level facade is made of rusticated blocks of limestone. Three large archways lead into the lobby; their doors are made of painted wood and contain arched panels of glass. The street level entrances are shielded by a sinuous marquee canopy made of iron and glass. When the theater opened, the entrance had a self-supporting canopy that could shield either five or eight carriages unloading their passengers. In 1986, the canopy was replaced with a replica that was cantilevered from the facade with metal rods. The modern canopy has moldings of pressed metal, medallions above each archway, and glass panels hanging underneath the canopy. The design of the Lyceum's canopy was subsequently replicated by that of the Paramount Theatre.
Above the entrance, the 45th Street elevation contains a colonnade of three bays. The bays are delineated by a pair of neoclassical fluted columns at each end, as well as two single columns in the center. Each bay contains fluting, bands with foliate ornament, and ornate capitals. Within each bay is a French window with a three-centered arched surround. A frieze runs above the windows, containing six stone faces that signify both comedy and tragedy. An entablature runs above the columns. The three bays are flanked by a pair of outer pavilions that have no ornament at all. The colonnade and marquee were particularly intended to attract a "more cultured audience" than similar theaters.
The theater contains a mansard roof above the entablature. The mansard roof contains three windows within triangular pediments, which illuminate a penthouse in the roof. A balustrade, directly on top of the entablature, encloses a balcony at the penthouse level. There are also six oval windows above the penthouse, which illuminate a former rehearsal hall. The roof also had four large urns that emitted gas at night. The urns were used to draw attention to the theater, since it was on a side street north of the other theaters of the time. At the theater's construction in 1903, the roof was described as being of "purple slate" with a bronze statue. The Lyceum's roof had two water towers, collectively capable of storing 15,000 U.S. gallons (57,000 l; 12,000 imp gal).
46th Street
The stage door entrance is through the wing on 152 West 46th Street. Herts & Tallant designed the 46th Street wing with ten or eleven stories. The wing has a utilitarian design and contains vestiges of a slit that carried backdrops between the stage and the upper-story studios
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History
Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression. Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during the first decade of the 20th century. These venues were developed following the construction of the Empire Theatre on 41st Street in 1893 and Hammerstein's Olympia in 1895. The Lyceum, Hudson, and New Amsterdam, which all opened in 1903, were among the first theaters to make this shift; the Lyceum is one of the oldest surviving Broadway theaters. From 1901 to 1920, forty-three theaters were built around Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, including the current Lyceum.
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