The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater at 214 West 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. One of the first Broadway venues to open in the Times Square neighborhood, the New Amsterdam was built from 1902 to 1903 to designs by Herts & Tallant. The theater is operated by Disney Theatrical Productions and has 1,702 seats across three levels. Both the Beaux-Arts exterior and the Art Nouveau interior of the building are New York City landmarks, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The theater's main entrance is through a 10-story wing facing north on 42nd Street, while the auditorium is in the rear, facing south on 41st Street. The facade on 42nd Street is made of gray limestone and was originally ornamented with sculptural detail; the rest of the facade is made of brick. The lobby within the office wing leads to a set of ornamental foyers, a reception room, and men's and women's lounges. The elliptical auditorium contains two balconies cantilevered above a ground-level orchestra. Above the main auditorium is a now-disused roof theater, which opened in 1904 and also served as a studio. The theater has a steel frame and was designed with advanced mechanical systems for its time.
The New Amsterdam Theatre was named for the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, the precursor to New York City. Klaw and Erlanger operated the venue for more than two decades after its opening on October 26, 1903. From 1913 to 1927, the New Amsterdam was the home of the Ziegfeld Follies, whose producer, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., maintained an office in the building and operated the theater on the roof. Erlanger bought Klaw's ownership interest in 1927, and the New Amsterdam was converted into a movie theater in 1937, in which capacity it served until 1983. The Nederlander Organization tried to redevelop the theater for ten years as part of the 42nd Street Development Project. It was then leased by The Walt Disney Company and renovated by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer from 1995 to 1997. After Disney took over the New Amsterdam's operation, the theater hosted the musical The Lion King, followed by Mary Poppins and Aladdin.
Site
The New Amsterdam Theatre is at 214 West 42nd Street, between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue near the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The land lot is irregularly shaped and covers , extending between its two frontages on 41st and 42nd Streets. Originally, the 42nd Street frontage was only wide; the developers, Abraham L. Erlanger and Marcus Klaw, wanted the more prominent 42nd Street frontage as the main entrance. The lots comprising the site had previously been owned by Samuel McMillan and the Johnson estate.
The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. In the first two decades of the 20th century, eleven venues for legitimate theater were built within one block of West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. These venues were mostly converted to movie theaters by the 1930s, and many of them had been relegated to showing pornography by the 1970s.
Design
The New Amsterdam Theatre was designed by architects Herts & Tallant and developed for Klaw and Erlanger from 1902 to 1903. It was built by the George A. Fuller Company. The facade is designed in the Beaux-Arts style and the theater's interior is an early example of architectural Art Nouveau in New York City. Decoration was carried out by more than a dozen artists. The decorative scheme predominantly depicted three topics: the history of New York City prior to 1903, including its original history as the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam; the history of theater; and the floral and foliage motifs often seen in theaters. The design also included elements of classicism.
The theater consists of a 10-story tower with offices, on the narrow 42nd Street frontage, The tower was developed to house Klaw and Erlanger's booking activities. The two sections are connected by a one-story passageway at ground level. The New Amsterdam Theatre's building housed two theaters when it opened: the main 41st Street auditorium as well as a rooftop theater.
Facade
The primary elevation of the facade, on 42nd Street, is made of gray limestone with a steeply pitched roof made of red tile. The theater's entrance is a triple-height segmental arch; the stories above contain offices. The office wing measures tall. The 41st Street elevation contains the stage doors and is clad with plain brick, since the architects thought the public would seldom see that elevation. The side walls of the office wing on 42nd Street are also constructed of brick because the architects had anticipated that high-rise buildings would be constructed on either side. Fire escapes are placed across the theater wing's exterior on 41st Street.
Theater entrance
thumb|alt=A sketch of the original entrance arch. The first floor had double doors, above which was a sign with the theater's name. The second story had columns on either side, supporting the decoration of the third-story arch.|The original entrance arch
On 42nd Street, the triple-height arch had rusticated stone piers on either side. The sign was ornately decorated and, at night, was illuminated by lights on the upper stories.
The arch at the second and third stories was initially highly decorated, but the decorations were all removed in 1937 to make way for a marquee. At the second floor were yellow-and-gray Montreal marble columns. Cupid (symbolizing love comedy) and a woman stood on one side of the central figure, a female personification of drama; Pierrot (symbolizing musical farce) and a knight stood on the other side. since they felt such a feature was unsuitable for office buildings.
Interior
The New Amsterdam Theatre was among the first non-high-rise buildings in New York City with a steel superstructure. According to a 1903 source, the frame is made of approximately 270,000 steel pieces, which required about 7,500 engineering drawings. There were originally also 57 cantilevers and 38 electric lifts (including elevators).
The theater was also mechanically advanced for its time, with heating, cooling, and vacuum-cleaning systems, as well as a fireproof structural frame. The auditorium alone had a volume of and was indirectly heated by fans in the subbasement. The ventilation system included air plenums on 41st Street, a fan, a silk filter, and a heater that moistened the air to natural levels of humidity. The air could be completely changed in ten minutes. and it was exhausted through disc fans above the auditorium. Three telephone systems were installed to allow communications between different parts of the theater. These mechanical systems were completely replaced between 1995 and 1997.
Lobby
thumb|alt=Black-and-white floor plan of the first story. At right, the entrance vestibule leads to the narrow lobby and the auditorium's entrance foyer. At left, from top to bottom, are the auditorium, promenade foyer, and general reception room.|The first floor plan, with west at top. At right (north), the entrance vestibule leads to the narrow lobby and the auditorium's entrance foyer. At left (south), from top to bottom, are the auditorium, promenade foyer, and general reception room.
Leading from the 42nd Street entrance vestibule is the lobby, which runs under the office wing; the space contains curving Art Nouveau-style floral motifs. The eastern (or left) wall contains bronze office and elevator doors. There are mirrored panels above the marble on the western (right) wall.
Foyers
The lobby leads south to the auditorium's entrance foyer. Within the north wall of the foyer, above the doors from the lobby, is a semicircular plaster relief by Hugh Tallant, depicting progress. This design includes a blue-and-gold representation of a woman with flower and leaf decorations on either side. The promenade foyer contains a groin vault with floral moldings. A sylvan-themed relief by Issing is at the southern end of the promenade foyer, leading to 41st Street.
On the east wall of the promenade foyer, there are two sets of staircases, which lead up to the balconies and down to the lounges. The stairs are made of green-veined Maryland Cremo marble. On the north and south walls, George Peixotto designed two symbolic paintings entitled "Inspiration" and "Creation". The rear (east) wall of the reception room has a fireplace with a Caen stone and Irish marble mantel, also decorated with curving foliate patterns. Originally, 38 medallions with painted portraits, designed by William Frazee Strunz and depicting "Lovers of Historical Drama" were embedded into the paneling. There is a fireplace at one corner of the room, with a mantel of Caen stone and gray-washed brick. An inscription surrounds the dome's base, with the words "I had rather a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad", a line from the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It. The old smoking room was converted into a bar during the 1990s. The space measures wide, and it is long between the stage apron and the reception room's wall. The dome rises above the floor of the orchestra. The original color scheme was described in The New York Times as consisting of "tender pinks, mauves, lilacs, red and gold". These decorations were bright to compensate for the original direct current lighting system, which was dim. The modern decorative scheme contains reproductions of many of the original decorations with a subdued color palette. A double wall surrounds the whole auditorium and contains a fire gallery measuring wide. The auditorium held around 1,550 seats in its original configuration. After its reopening in 1997, the auditorium had 1,814 seats; , the New Amsterdam has a seating capacity of 1,702.