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New Amsterdam Theatre
New Amsterdam Theatre Address:
214 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
New York, NY 10036
Seating Chart:
Seating capacity (approximate) -1771 seats
New Amsterdam Theatre
Important Notice: Broadway is currently closed to vehicular traffic from 42nd St to 47th Street.
Public Transportation/Parking: SUBWAY:
SUBWAY: Take the N,Q,R,W or 1,2,3,9 to 42nd Street, walk West to the theatre; Take the A,C,E to 42nd Street, walk East to the theatre.
SUBWAY: Take the N,Q,R,W or 1,2,3,9 to 42nd Street, walk West to the theatre; Take the A,C,E to 42nd Street, walk East to the theatre.
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History of New Amsterdam Theatre
Along with the New Victory, Lyceum and Hudson theaters one of the oldest surviving legitimate theaters on Broadway. In 1902 impresarios Marc Klaw and Abraham Erlanger followed Oscar Hammerstein to 42nd Street. But just barely. The theater they commissioned Herts & Tallant to build across from Hammerstein's Republic has a narrow entry on 42nd Street with, the bulk of the house on 41st Street. The 42nd Street Beaux-Arts entrance opens into the finest Art Nouveau theater interiors in NYC. Carved and painted plaster, carved stone, carved wood, murals and tiles—all combine to evoke what it was like going to the theater at the turn of the century. A production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream opened the theater on Nov 2, 1903. Florenz Ziegfeld staged his Follies at the New Amsterdam from 1913 through 1927, along with various editions of his other revues, known under various names including The Midnight Frolic and The Nine O'Clock Revue, on the theater's rooftop stage As were many other legitimate theaters during the Depression years, the New Amsterdam was converted to a movie house in 1937. The Nederlander Organization purchased the theater in 1982 and, planning to piggyback on the proposed redevelopment of the Times Square area, started on a problem plagued reconstruction program to return the theater to legitimate use. Major structural problems, combined with the uncertainty of the City's economic health (which had the Times Square redevelopment project in fits and starts), repeatedly delayed the reconstruction. New York State purchased the New Amsterdam in 1992 and subsequently resold it to the Walt Disney Co for $29 million. The complete reconstruction of the theater between 1995 - 1997 signaled Disney's confidence in Times Square and anchored the further redevelopment of the area.