New Amsterdam Theatre

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 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[edit]

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.^[4][5] The land lot is irregularly shaped and covers 19,250 sq ft (1,788 m²), extending 200 ft (61 m) between its two frontages on 41st and 42nd Streets.^[4] The main frontage on 42nd Street (including the box office) measures 75 ft (23 m) wide, and the 41st Street frontage measures 150 ft (46 m) wide.^[6] Originally, the 42nd Street frontage was only 25 ft (7.6 m) wide;^[7][8] the developers, Abraham L. Erlanger and Marcus Klaw, wanted the more prominent 42nd Street frontage as the main entrance.^[9] The lots comprising the site had previously been owned by Samuel McMillan and the Johnson estate.^[7][8]


The city block includes 5 Times Square to the east and the Candler Building, Madame Tussauds New York, Empire Theatre, and Eleven Times Square to the west. The Todd Haimes Theatre, Times Square Theater, Lyric Theatre, New Victory Theater, and 3 Times Square are across 42nd Street to the north, and the Nederlander Theatre is to the south.^[4][5] An entrance to the New York City Subway's Times Square–42nd Street station, served by the 1, ​2, ​3​, 7, <7>​​, N, ​Q, ​R, ​W, and S trains, is next to the theater.^[10]


The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters.^[5][11] 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.^[12][13] The New Amsterdam, Harris, Liberty, Eltinge, and Lew Fields theaters occupied the south side of the street. The original Lyric and Apollo theaters (combined into the current Lyric Theatre), as well as the Times Square, Victory, Selwyn (now Todd Haimes), and Victoria theaters, occupied the north side.^[13] These venues were mostly converted to movie theaters by the 1930s, and many of them had been relegated to showing pornography by the 1970s.^[13][14]