The Majestic Theatre is a Broadway theater at 245 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a Spanish style and was built for real-estate developer Irwin S. Chanin. It has 1,681 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and interior are New York City landmarks.
The facade is designed in a Spanish style with golden brick, terracotta, and stone and is divided into two sections. The western portion of the facade contains the theater's entrance, with fire-escape galleries and a terracotta pediment above. The eastern portion is the stage house and is topped by archways. The auditorium contains Adam style detailing, steep stadium seating at the orchestra level, a large balcony, and an expansive plaster dome. Due to the slope of the seats, the rear of the orchestra is one story above ground. An interior leads to a large staircase, which connects to the rears of both the orchestra and the balcony. The balcony has extensive decoration, and there are also box seats near the front of the auditorium at balcony level.
The Majestic, Bernard B. Jacobs, and John Golden theaters, along with the Lincoln Hotel, were all developed by Chanin and designed by Krapp as part of a theater/hotel complex. The Shuberts have operated the Majestic since 1930. The Majestic was always intended as a venue for major musical theater productions because of its large size. Among the shows that premiered at the Majestic are Carousel, South Pacific, The Music Man, Camelot, A Little Night Music, and The Wiz. From 1988 to 2023, the theater housed The Phantom of the Opera, which was the longest-running production in Broadway history when it closed.
Site The Majestic Theatre is on 245 West 44th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, near Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The land lot is nearly rectangular, with a recess at the northwest corner. The lot covers , with a frontage of on 44th Street and a depth of . The Majestic Theatre shares the city block with the Row NYC Hotel to the west. It adjoins six other theaters clockwise from north: the John Golden, Bernard B. Jacobs, Gerald Schoenfeld, Booth, Shubert, and Broadhurst. Other nearby structures include the Music Box Theatre and Imperial Theatre one block north; One Astor Plaza to the east; 1501 Broadway to the southeast; and Sardi's restaurant, the Hayes Theater, and the St. James Theatre to the south.
The Majestic is part of the largest concentration of Broadway theaters on a single block. The Majestic, Masque (Golden), and Royale (Jacobs) theaters and the Lincoln Hotel (Row NYC Hotel) had all been developed concurrently.; The site of all four buildings had previously been occupied by twenty brownstone residences. The site was part of the Astor family estate from 1803 to 1922, when it was sold to Henry Claman. The plots collectively measured wide along Eighth Avenue, along 44th Street, and along 45th Street.
Design The Majestic Theatre was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in a Spanish style and constructed from 1926 to 1927 for the Chanin brothers. It was part of an entertainment complex along with the Lincoln Hotel and the Masque and Royale theaters, which Krapp also designed in a Spanish style. The Majestic was designed to be the largest theater in that complex, initially with about 1,800 seats. The Chanin Realty and Construction Company constructed all four structures. The Majestic is operated by the Shubert Organization.
Facade
The facade contains two asymmetrical sections. The western section is wider and contains the auditorium entrance. The eastern section, which contains the stage house, is narrower and taller than the western section. In both sections, the ground floor is clad in rusticated blocks of terracotta, and the upper stories contain gold-colored, bonded Roman brick. The brick facade was designed to relate to the adjacent theaters and hotel. According to theatrical historian William Morrison, the facade of the Majestic was a more massive version of the combined facades of the Masque and Royale.
Auditorium section At ground level, the auditorium entrance includes four pairs of glass and aluminum doors to the west and three pairs of metal emergency exit doors to the east. There are also two large, rectangular aluminum-framed sign boards and several smaller aluminum-framed signs with transoms. The entrance is topped by a cast-iron marquee. Above that is a sign advertising the production at the theater. Additional doors lead from the stage house portion of the facade. A wide ovolo band runs above the base. The stage door is not actually at the stage house but is instead next to the Golden Theatre.
On the upper stories, the auditorium section has two exterior galleries on the second and third floors, which serve as fire exits. The galleries contain wrought-iron frames and railings, which support metal canopies designed to resemble Spanish tile roofs. There is a terracotta band course above the lower gallery. The wall of the auditorium section above the upper gallery is laid in brick, with square pieces of terracotta; there are no windows. The upper left corner of the auditorium section, directly above the entrance, has a terracotta Palladian window with a blind opening, twisting columns, an arched tympanum, and a finial. Near the top of the auditorium facade are false balconettes, which consist of corbels supporting ornamental terracotta railings. The parapet of the auditorium facade contains a terracotta coping. The central part of the pediment has an ornamental finial, similar to that on the Jacobs Theatre.
Stage house section The stage house has five sash windows per floor on the third through sixth stories. These windows contain sills made of terracotta, except at the third story, where a terracotta band course is below the windows. There is a large sign in front of the second story and another sign projecting from the third-story windows. At the sixth story, the windows are flanked by terracotta pilasters with Ionic-style capitals. Each of the sixth-story windows is topped by an arched tympanum, as well as an arched band with a keystone. A cornice and a parapet with finials run above the sixth story of the stage house.
Interior Krapp designed the Majestic's interior in the style of the era of Louis XV, with an ivory and gold color scheme. The auditorium's orchestra level and balcony are both accessed from the same lobby. This layout was part of an effort by Irwin Chanin, one of the developers, to "democratize" the seating arrangement of the theater. For a similar reason, the Majestic was designed with a single balcony rather than the typical two since Chanin had perceived the second balcony to be distant. There was also a lounge in the basement, decorated in an English style.
The Chanin brothers wanted the three theaters' interior designs to be distinct while still adhering to a Spanish motif, in the belief that beautiful and comfortable theaters would be able to compete against other performing arts venues. However, the interior of the Majestic was designed in a different style than that of the exterior. By comparison, the interiors of the neighboring Royale and Masque were continuations of the "modern Spanish" facades of these theaters.
Lobby
The ticket lobby, accessed from the western section of the theater building, contains three double doors that lead north to the entrance foyer. The entrance foyer is rectangular in plan and extends through the depth of the theater. The lower sections of the walls contain baseboards, above which is paneling delineated by moldings. These are separated by vertical piers with brass lighting sconces and decorated capitals. The eastern section of the entrance foyer contains a bar area behind a set of freestanding piers. The north wall has two service doors, and the south has three double doors from the ticket lobby. Two passageways lead to the front rows of seating in the auditorium. The vaulted ceiling contains molded wave and foliate motifs, which divide the ceiling into panels with Greek key moldings. Three of the panels have central medallions with cameo panels, and there are also chandeliers on the ceiling.
Stairs and halls The west wall of the entrance foyer has a stone staircase with metal railings. It ascends to an intermediate landing and divides in two, connecting to the mezzanine at the rear of the orchestra. The side walls of the staircase include molded panels set between vertical panels with Adam-style reliefs of flowers within urns. The mezzanine, one story above the entrance foyer, contains a hallway surrounding the auditorium. The hallway's walls contain paneling, while the ceiling consists of a shallow vault with molded acanthus leaf ornaments and lighting fixtures. The hallway was originally decorated in a French style with corresponding furnishings.
The foyer staircase crosses the mezzanine hallway and continues to the balcony two stories above the entrance foyer. The balcony staircase contains wrought-iron railings and lighting sconces on the walls. The balcony staircase contains walls with alternating molded and flower/urn panels, and there are Corinthian-style capitals above the flower/urn panels. The ceiling of the staircase consists of a half-dome with vine and cameo panels.
Auditorium
The auditorium has an orchestra level, one balcony, boxes, and a stage behind the proscenium arch. It is designed with plaster decorations in high relief. The Majestic is one of the larger Broadway theaters: according to the Shubert Organization, the auditorium has 1,681 seats, while according to The Broadway League, there are 1,645 seats. The discrepancy arises from the fact that there are 1,645 physical seats and 36 standing-only spots. The physical seats are divided into 885 seats in the orchestra, 292 at the front of the balcony, 436 at the rear, and 32 in the boxes. An article from 1927 noted that the theater had 1,800 seats, slightly wider than in typical Broadway theaters of the time. The auditorium was designed in a fan shape to give the impression of width, although it is actually narrower than other theaters with similar seating capacities.
Seating areas The orchestra's rear (west) end contains a shallow promenade with doors on either end. The orchestra is raked, but the rear rows contain stadium seating that is more steeply sloped than the front rows. The rearmost row is actually at the mezzanine level above the entrance foyer. Halfway through the auditorium's length are exit doors on either side, connected by a wide aisle that separates the front and rear rows. The orchestra and its promenade contain walls with alternating molded and flower/urn panels. Above the paneling, and around the exit signs above the side doors, are moldings with vine decorations. There are brass wall sconces on the orchestra walls. The rearmost row in the orchestra's rear section has a decorative iron rail behind it, and another iron railing wraps around the front and sides. The front of the orchestra contains rusticated wall surfaces with rectangular openings, which contain staircases to the boxes.