The August Wilson Theatre (formerly the Guild Theatre, ANTA Theatre, and Virginia Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 245 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1925, the theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and was built for the Theatre Guild. It is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945–2005). The August Wilson has approximately 1,225 seats across two levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The facade is a New York City designated landmark.
The facade is designed as a variation of a 15th-century Tuscan villa, with a stage house to the west and an auditorium to the east. The facade has a stucco surface and openings with quoins, as well as a loggia. The placement of window openings reflected the theater's original interior arrangement. The front of the theater had facilities for the Theatre Guild, including classrooms, studios, a club room, a library, and a book store. The rear of the theater contains the auditorium, which was placed one story above ground to make room for a lounge below. The auditorium originally had elaborate decorations, including loggias and a frieze with depictions of scenes from the Theatre Guild's plays.
The Theatre Guild announced plans for its own theater in 1923, and the Guild Theatre opened on April 13, 1925. The theater's initial productions generally lasted only for several weeks, and the Theatre Guild started leasing the venue to other producers in 1938. Radio station WOR (AM) took over the auditorium as a broadcast studio in 1943, with the Theatre Guild moving out the next year. The American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) purchased the theater in 1950 and renamed it the ANTA Playhouse. The theater reopened as the ANTA Theatre in 1954 after a renovation that eliminated most of the interior detail. Jujamcyn Theaters purchased the ANTA Theatre in 1981 and renamed it for Virginia McKnight Binger, a co-owner. The Virginia was renovated again in the 1990s, and it was renamed for Wilson in 2005. Under Jujamcyn's ownership, productions such as City of Angels, Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Jersey Boys have had hundreds of performances at the theater. Jujamcyn merged in 2023 with ATG, which continued to operate the theater.
Site The August Wilson Theatre is on 245 West 52nd Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The rectangular land lot covers , with a frontage of on 52nd Street and a depth of . The August Wilson shares the block with the ARO skyscraper to the northwest and Broadway Theatre to the northeast. Other nearby buildings include Studio 54 to the north, the New York Jazz Museum and the Ed Sullivan Theater to the northeast, 810 Seventh Avenue to the east, the Mark Hellinger Theatre and Gallagher's Steakhouse to the southeast, and the Neil Simon Theatre to the south. The theater replaced nine old residential buildings.
Design The August Wilson Theatre (previously the Guild Theatre, ANTA Theatre, and Virginia Theatre) was designed by C. Howard Crane, Kenneth Franzheim, and Charles H. Bettis. It was constructed in 1924 for the Theatre Guild, a theatrical society. Set designer Norman Bel Geddes was also involved in the August Wilson's interior design. The theater was erected by the O'Day Construction Company, and numerous other contractors participated in the theater's construction.
Facade
The facade of the August Wilson Theatre was designed to resemble a 15th-century Tuscan villa, with a stucco surface and a heavy use of quoins around openings. On 52nd Street, the theater's height is shorter than its width. The extreme west and east ends of the facade contain vertical bands of quoins, while the rest of the facade includes stone-trimmed windows and doors. The placement of window openings reflected the theater's original interior arrangement. Architectural Forum described the openings as "picturesquely grouped in an informal manner to give quaintness and charm to the exterior design".
The western part of the ground story contains three doorways for the stage house. The rightmost doorway is an arch with rusticated limestone voussoirs; the arch's keystone is a cartouche with motifs signifying the arts, music, and tragedy. Within the archway are two steps leading up to a wood-and-glass double door, topped by a lunette window. To the east are wide metal doors that serve as emergency exits followed by narrow wood-and-glass doors that connect with the lobby. The lobby doors are flanked by sign boards, surrounded by large molded frames with console brackets below and cornices above. A single, modern marquee spans the emergency exits and the lobby doors. Originally, there were two marquees, one each above the emergency exits and the lobby doors.
Most of the second-story windows are casement windows flanked by shutters, originally painted blue-green. The exceptions are the westernmost two openings, which are slightly above the rest of the second story and do not contain shutters. On the third story, the westernmost windows are also simple in design, and a sign hangs next to the westernmost window. The center of the third story contains five French windows, each with a wrought-iron balcony in front of it. Each French window is surrounded by stone blocks and topped by a stone pediment. To the east is an arcade with three arches and an iron railing, which screen a fire-escape balcony. On the fourth story are windows with shutters, extending the width of the theater. Above the fourth story, brackets support a pitched tile roof that slightly overhangs the facade. The stage house rises above the western part of the roof, with a facade of plain brick. This was in keeping with many theaters of the time, which contained plain stage houses above their ornate primary facades, but Architectural Record characterized the stage house as a missed opportunity for decoration.
Interior The front of the theater had facilities for the Theatre Guild, including classrooms, studios, a club room, a library, and a book store. The rear of the theater contains the auditorium. The auditorium was built one story above ground, as contrasted with comparable theaters, where the auditorium was at ground level. This enabled the installation of a large entrance lounge directly beneath the auditorium.
Lobby and lounge The main lobby is accessed from 52nd Street and originally was a groin-vaulted space with Italian-style doors, ticket booths, and grilles. During 1993, the lobby was redecorated in the Art Deco style. From the lobby, there were either three or five steps leading down to the upper tier of a two-tiered lounge. The steps were made of travertine and were covered by a carpet.
The lounge, nearly as large as the auditorium directly above it, eliminated the need for patrons to go outside during intermissions. Its tiers differed only slightly in height due to the sloped floor of the auditorium. The lounge's lower tier was to the west of its upper tier. The two sections of the lounge were connected by a flight of three steps, spanned by three arches. There were two arched openings between the lounge's tiers, blocked off by iron railings. Both tiers originally had an ornate multicolored carpet, as well as wall fixtures that are made from the frames of antique Italian altar cards. The upper lounge had a barrel-vaulted ceiling covered in rough plaster. The lower lounge had Italian-style furniture arranged around a fireplace. The south wall of the lower tier had three arches leading to a small refreshment booth.
The lower lounge's north wall had an Italian-style doorway to a women's retiring room. This room had blue walls, frescos, and furniture in an Italian style, with paneled walnut doors leading to the adjacent women's bathroom. The upper lounge's north wall similarly had a large doorway leading to a men's smoking room. This space had red, green, and blue wall decorations with ornate carpets and furnishings. Next to the upper lounge was a coat room with blue walls and a Spanish doorway. A bookstore was also placed in one corner of the upper lounge.
To the east of the upper lounge was an archway, where a double stair ascended to the rear of the auditorium's orchestra and balcony. Similar to the stairs between the lobby and lounge, these steps were made of travertine and covered with a carpet. The stair hall was described as Italian in style, with a recessed window and seats on the orchestra-level landing. Doors from the landing led to both ends of the orchestra's rear wall. There was another landing at the balcony level. Both of these had intersecting vaulted ceilings with lanterns hanging from them. The stairs were infilled in the 1950s to create extra space for seats, and new stairs were added in the corners.
Auditorium The auditorium has an orchestra level, a balcony, and a stage. Playbill cites the August Wilson Theatre as having 1,225 seats, while The Broadway League cites 1,228 seats. When the Guild Theatre opened, it was variously cited as containing 914 or 934 seats. The orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible via a stair lift; the balcony can only be reached by steps. The main restrooms are placed on the orchestra level. The original decorative scheme continued the exterior's Tuscan design. The decorations were completely removed when the seating capacity was expanded in the 1950s, although the auditorium's layout was not changed during these renovations. Barbara Campagna and Francesca Russo restored much of the interior detail in a 1995 renovation.
Seating areas
The auditorium floor is raked, sloping downward toward the stage to the west. Unlike typical theaters of the time, the Guild Theatre lacked box seats, a design feature intended to give the appearance of coziness. It also did not have a traditional proscenium arch; the auditorium's side walls ended at the stage rather than curving in front of it, thereby creating an unusually wide opening. In addition to the former main staircase at the rear of the auditorium, emergency exits are placed to the north and south. Three arches on the south side lead down to an enclosed staircase to 52nd Street, while a door on the north side leads to a rear court behind the theater. At the rear of the auditorium, wrought-iron railings enclosed the stairways to the balcony. In the 1995 renovation, round columns near the rear of the orchestra were relocated, and the side walls were shortened.
The floors of the auditorium were covered with red and brown carpets, while the seats were upholstered in a brown and gold tapestry with red highlights. The decorative elements included rough-plaster walls with tapestries, loggias, and cartouches. The theater's tapestries and furniture included a combination of genuine antiques and reproductions. The wainscoting on the walls, as well as the entrance and exit doors, were decorated to resemble wood. At the orchestra level, the walls were wainscoted with octagonal panels that extended to the height of the balcony. A frieze, depicting scenes from the Theatre Guild's plays and important figures in the theater's construction, ran atop the auditorium walls. The frieze was designed by Victor White, Margaret White, and Stanley Rowland. The frieze ran above a band of modillions and was separated at regular intervals by massive plaster corbels, painted to imitate walnut. Since 1995, the modern auditorium's design has contained false balconies, exit doors, and a restored frieze. There is also green-and-gold carpeting and seats with orange upholstery.
Other design features