Marquis Theatre
The Marquis Theatre is a Broadway theater on the third floor of the New York Marriott Marquis hotel in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1986, it is operated by the Nederlander Organization. There are about 1,612 seats in the auditorium,[a] spread across an orchestra level and a balcony.
Address
210 West 46th Street
Manhattan, New York City
United States
Vornado Realty Trust (majority)
Broadway
1,612[a]
July 9, 1986
1986–present
The Marquis was designed by John C. Portman Jr., who designed the Marriott Marquis and included the theater to increase the size of the hotel. The theater's main entrance and box office are at 210 West 46th Street. The box office is at ground level, and there are escalators leading from the ground floor to the auditorium. Due to a lack of space, the wings on each side of the proscenium arch are smaller than mandated by city building codes. The theater also has no freight elevator, no dedicated restroom facilities, and small hallways.
A theater was proposed on the site in 1973 as part of a hotel (later the Marriott Marquis), the completion of which was delayed until 1985. The hotel had controversially replaced several existing theaters, and the design features of the new Marquis Theatre were highly criticized, even by the hotel's supporters. The theater opened in July 1986 with concerts by Shirley Bassey, followed by the long-running Me and My Girl. The Marquis then hosted a series of short-lived productions from the 1990s through the 2010s.
Design[edit]
The Marquis Theatre was designed by John C. Portman Jr. and is on the third story of the New York Marriott Marquis hotel. The site occupies the west side of Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City.[1] It is the only Broadway theater that is entirely within a hotel.[2] The theater was included as part of a deal between Portman and the New York City Board of Estimate to increase the size of the hotel, which was completed in 1985.[3] The main entrance is at 210 West 46th Street while the stage door is hidden behind a column on 45th Street.[4] The hotel's third through seventh stories also contain theater offices.[5]
The ground-level box office is decorated with black marble and brass railings.[6] The box office is so small that, as designed, theater visitors had to exit the building to take an escalator up to the theater.[7] The up escalator ends at a narrow hallway that leads to the auditorium.[7][8] The down escalator from the auditorium leads to a narrow area at ground level.[7] Due to the lack of space in the theater, there is no dedicated theater lobby, and restrooms are placed in the hotel's common area.[7][2]
There are 1,612 seats in the auditorium proper,[9] spread across an orchestra level and a balcony level.[4][10] The auditorium was originally designed with a rose-and-burgundy color scheme, as well as light-colored wood and white plaster. There are wood-paneled areas above the balcony, which conceal a large portion of the lighting fixtures. As designed, Portman intended for all seats to be no farther than 80 ft (24 m) from the stage.[6] To make the auditorium seem cozier than similarly new theaters, such as the Minskoff Theatre and Uris Theatre, the Marquis's designers placed boxes on either side of the stage.[11]
The proscenium arch is 40 feet (12 m) wide.[12] Speakers are hidden behind cloth coverings on either side of the proscenium. The stage, which is underneath the proscenium, consists of oak panels measuring 3 by 6 feet (0.91 by 1.83 m); trap doors can be placed under any of the panels.[6] Under New York City building guidelines, the wings are typically supposed to be as wide as the proscenium arch; however, there was not enough space in the hotel to accommodate 40-foot-wide wings. Instead, the wings are 20 feet (6.1 m) in width, a modification approved by the New York City Planning Commission.[12] In addition, the fly space is about 58 feet (18 m) above the stage, shorter than in comparable theaters.[12] There is no freight elevator.[7]
Box office record[edit]
Evita achieved the box office record for the Marquis Theatre seven times;[152] it grossed $1,586,902 over eight performances for the week ending May 10, 2012.[153] This was surpassed by Beetlejuice, which grossed $2,462,831 over nine performances for the week ending January 1, 2023.[154]