Majestic Theatre

Home > Literature and the Arts > Performing Arts > Theater

Majestic Theatre, New York.

1. On Columbus Circle. As the Cosmopolitan, it opened in 1903 with a musical version of The Wizard of Oz, followed by another successful musical Babes in Toyland. In 1911 it was renamed the Park, reopening with The Quaker Girl. Three years later Mrs Patrick Campbell was seen there in Shaw's Pygmalion, and in 1917 Constance Collier and Herbert Tree appeared in a notable revival of The Merry Wives of Windsor. A season of light opera followed, which included a long run of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, but from 1923 to 1944 the building was used as a cinema. Renamed the International in 1944, it opened again as a theatre and in 1945, as the Columbus Circle Theatre, housed Maurice Evans in his GI Hamlet. It was again known as the International, 1946–9, after which it became a television studio. It was pulled down in 1954, an exhibition hall, the New York Coliseum, being built on the site.

2. On West 44th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue. With a seating capacity of 1,655, it opened in 1927 with an ephemeral production which soon gave way to musical comedy, and in 1928 John Gielgud made his first appearance in New York as the youthful Grand Duke Alexander in Neumann's The Patriot, which had only eight performances. After several more failures the theatre reverted to musical comedy, though in 1935 it housed Michael Chekhov and his Moscow Art Players in a series of Russian plays, and it was also used for several thrillers. In 1945 the Theatre Guild presented Carousel, a musical version of Molnár's Liliom, which had a long run; other successful musicals included South Pacific (1949), The Music Man (1957), and Camelot (1960). In 1963 Gielgud returned successfully as Joseph Surface in his own production of Sheridan's The School for Scandal, and in 1967 Weiss's Marat/Sade had its New York première, the musical Fiddler on the Roof moving in from the Imperial later the same year. Further musicals included the all-Black The Wiz (1975), based on The Wizard of Oz, and the highly successful 42nd Street, which transferred from the Winter Garden in 1981.

Majestic Theatre (New York). The musical house on West 44th Street has long been a particular favorite of producers because of its large capacity (1,800 seats when it opened, 1,655 today) and, for patrons, for its steeply raked orchestra section that allows for excellent sightlines. The playhouse was built by the Chanin brothers in 1927 and designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Louis IV style. Most of its attractions over the years have been large musicals, including four Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, Porgy and Bess (1942), The Music Man (1957), Camelot (1960), and Phantom of the Opera (1988). The Shubert‐owned theatre has been renovated and remodeled over the decades, but its most pleasing elements have remained intact.