The Broadway Theatre (New York City, New York)

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4-story theater originally completed in 1924. Designed by Eugene De Rosa for Benjamin S. Moss, it opened as B.S. Moss's Colony Theatre on Christmas Day 1924 as a venue for vaudeville shows and motion pictures. The theater has operated in many capacities and under many names. It was renamed Universal's Colony Theatre, B.S. Moss' Broadway Theatre, and Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre before becoming a legitimate theater house simply called Broadway Theatre on December 8, 1930. In 1937, known as Ciné Roma, it showed Italian films. For a short time during the 1950s it showed Cinerama films. It has a large seating capacity of 1,761, and unlike most Broadway theaters, it is literally located on Broadway, at number 1681.

The Shubert Organization bought the theater in 1939 and renovated it extensively in 1956 and 1986. It has long been a popular theater for producers of musicals because of large seating capacity, and the large stage, which is nearly sixty feet deep. Often plays that have become successful in smaller theaters have transferred to the Broadway Theatre.

The theater's facade was originally in the Italian Renaissance style (as is the interior), but it was rebuilt in 1990, matching the materials of the skyscraper at 1675 Broadway next door. It it clad in three shades of grey granite on the front (east) facade and a short return on the east end of the north facade; the rest of the north elevation is clad in off-white brick. The entrance on Broadway has five sets of bronze-framed glass doors topped by a large metal marquee with rounded corners; a signband runs around the middle of the marquee's three sides, and a vertical metal band with neon tubes bisects the marquee at the bottom and top. At the top, the neon-and-metal element extends up vertically, setting back twice and ending near the top of the facade. Vertical, angled ad boards are attached to the lower parts of the sides of this fin, and the narrower sides of the upper part have Art-Deco styled letters spelling "BROADWAY". The top of the facade steps up toward the center, mimicking the design of 1675 Broadway to the south. At the north end there is another bay with stripes of varying shades of grey granite at the upper floors.

These stripes continue on the return at the east end of the north facade. Continuing west along the brick-clad north elevation the ground floor has two sets of recessed, black metal exit doors, a triple-poster box, two more sets of exit doors, a single poster box, another set of doors, another single poster box, and another set of doors. These are followed by a long band of poster boxes, and then a gate to a recessed area where a black metal staircase descends from the left, where running along the 2nd floor is an outdoor, metal loge with metal railings and a metal roof. There is a wide opening onto this loge near the east end, where another staircase ascends diagonally to the left, up to a smaller opening at the 3rd floor. A dentiled band course runs along the top of the ground floor.

At the far west end, on the other side of the recessed area, is a 5-story section containing the theater offices. At the ground floor it has a double-poster box, a metal door, a single-window, and a freight entrance at the west end. There is one window at the 2nd floor, and the top three levels each have a bay of single-windows at the left, and paired windows at the right, above the freight entrance.

Rising above the east half of the office portion, the recessed area, and the west end of the main section is a tall stage house.

www.shubertorganization.com/theatres/broadway.asp