Shubert Theatre

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5-story Venetian-Renaissance theater completed in 1913. Designed by Henry B. Herts (of the firm of Herts & Tallant), it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family. It is connected to the Booth Theatre to the north by a private road/sidewalk named Shubert Alley. The theater opened on October 21, 1913 with a series of Shakespearean plays, including Othello, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, staged by the Forbes-Robertson Repertory Company. The theater's most famous and longest tenant was A Chorus Line, with a run of 6137 performances lasting nearly fifteen years.

The top floor of the building houses the offices of the Shubert Organization. The 1,460-seat theater's auditorium and murals were restored in 1996. The screen adaptation of the Broadway musical The Producers features the Shubert as the venue where Funny Boy, Springtime for Hitler, and Prisoners of Love are performed.

The Shubert by virtue of its location on 44th Street and Shubert Alley has two major designed facades joined in a projecting curved pavilion at the southeast corner of the building. The 44th Street facade rises from a blue-painted stone base surmounted by rusticated terra-cotta blocks, interrupted by three tall arches at the center and display boxes topped by stylized broken pediments at the sides. Exit doors, originally of paneled wood, but now covered with posters under plexiglass, are set below oblong display boxes in the location of the original transoms in the three arches. Across the arches with their rusticated voussoirs is suspended a modern marquee. The three arches contain sgraffito panels with figures set on aedicules. The wall section surrounding the arches is faced in beige brick laid up in English cross bond and is flanked by pilasters of simulated terra-cotta quoins terminating in stylized Corinthian capitals with lions heads and rams rising from acanthus leaves. A stucco sgraffito band with stylized classical foliate ornament in bas-relief surrounds the brick wall. This in turn is enframed by a wide stucco sgraffito band with panels containing such classical motifs as griffins and semi-nude draped female figures. These panels form stylized broken pediments with masks below the upper floor. This floor contains three triple-window groups, framed in terra-cotta, with sgraffito panels between the windows, set on projecting sills carried on corbels with winged heads and flanked by octagonal sgraffito panels with figures. A dentiled cornice sets off the mansard roof, which is covered with standing seam sheet-metal and contains three dormer window groups. The sgraffito work on the 44th Street facade has lost its color and much of its relief.

The projecting, curved corner pavilion contains a large central doorway flanked by painted stone pilasters with cartouches carrying a segmental-arched broken pediment with a central scrolled panel containing a sgraffito figure holding a scroll inscribed "Henry B. Herts Architect 1913". This is surmounted by a scallop shell. Modern aluminum and glass doors are protected by a rounded, blue canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. Aluminum display boxes flank the doorway. Above the display boxes are sgraffito panels with foliation. The wall extending out and up from the doorway is of brick, like that on the 44th Street facade, and is flanked by pilasters of simulated quoins terminating in stylized Corinthian capitals. The brick is framed by a stucco sgraffito band with stylized classical foliate ornament in bas-relief; this is surmounted by a stylized broken pediment containing a theatrical mask above a shield. The upper floor above the pediment contains a double-window framed in terra-cotta, flanked by sgraffito panels, and set on a projecting sill with corbels with winged heads. The cornice and mansard roof are continuations of those on the 44th Street facade. Much of the brick section of this pavilion is obscured by a sign armature and a running sign band.

The Shubert Alley facade is divided into two section. The portion adjacent to the corner pavilion has two pairs of aluminum and glass doors leading from the auditorium and a pair of wood-and-glass doors leading to the Shubert offices at the ground floor. A modern marquee is suspended above the doors. The wall above is of the same beige brick flanked by pilasters of simulated quoins and surrounded by a foliated bas-relief stucco sgraffito band. This in turn is framed by a wide stucco sgraffito band with panels containing classical motifs like those seen on the 44th Street facade. These panels form stylized broken pediments with masks below the upper floor. The Corinthian capital caps the quoins adjacent to the corner. The upper floor contains window groups flanked by sgraffito panels like those on the 44th Street facade, and the cornice and mansard roof continue from the corner pavilion.

www.shubertorganization.com/theatres/shubert.asp
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015036009465?urlappend=%3Bseq...