The Lyric Theatre (previously known as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the Hilton Theatre, and the Foxwoods Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 214 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1998, the theater was designed by Richard Lewis Blinder of Beyer Blinder Belle, in collaboration with Peter Kofman, for Garth Drabinsky and his company Livent. The Lyric Theatre was built using parts of two former theaters on the site: the Apollo Theatre, built in 1920 to a design by Eugene De Rosa, and the old Lyric Theatre, built in 1903 to a design by Victor Hugo Koehler. The theater contains 1,622 seats across three levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The theater building is owned by the city and state governments of New York and was developed by New 42nd Street.
Despite having the same name as one of its predecessor theaters, the current Lyric Theatre was built almost entirely from scratch, though many parts of the old theaters were preserved to comply with government regulations. The current theater retains the original Lyric facade on 43rd Street, as well as a smaller arched facade on 42nd Street. The auditorium and stage house are placed within an entirely new structure covered with concrete and brick panels. The lobby contains a domed rotunda, with a basement lounge underneath it. The auditorium contains elements from the old Lyric's and the Apollo's interiors, including a ceiling dome, boxes, and a proscenium arch, which were modified to fit the new theater's dimensions. The large stage and the accompanying stage house were designed to accommodate major musicals.
The old Lyric and Apollo theaters had been proposed for redevelopment since the 1970s, and New 42nd Street took over the theaters in 1990. Livent leased the theaters in 1995, razing them to make way for an 1,821-seat facility named after sponsor Ford Motor Company. The Ford Center was dedicated in December 1997 and officially opened the next month. Livent filed for bankruptcy in late 1998, and the theater subsequently passed to SFX Entertainment and then Clear Channel Entertainment, which renamed it for sponsor Hilton Hotels & Resorts in 2005. The venue was renamed after Foxwoods Resort Casino in 2010 as part of a partnership with Live Nation. ATG acquired the theater in 2013 and renamed it the Lyric the following year. The Lyric's capacity was reduced in a 2017 renovation because of complaints about the theater's excessive size, which had caused several of the theater's productions to lose money.
Site The Lyric Theatre is at 214 West 43rd Street, on the southern sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The land lot has an area of and a frontage of on 43rd Street. Most of the theater is on a site on 43rd Street, but the theater has wings extending to 42nd Street, making the total depth of the site . The two wings on 42nd Street flank the Times Square Theater; the western wing is wide, while the eastern wing is wide.
The Lyric Theatre is adjacent to the Todd Haimes Theatre to the west, the Times Square and New Victory theaters to the south, and 3 Times Square to the east. Other nearby buildings include the St. James Theatre and Hayes Theater to the northwest; 229 West 43rd Street and 1501 Broadway to the north; 1500 Broadway to the northeast; One Times Square to the east; the Times Square Tower and 5 Times Square to the southeast, and the New Amsterdam Theatre to the south.
Previous theaters The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. In the first two decades of the 20th century, eleven venues for Legitimate theatre were built within one block of West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. These venues were mostly converted to movie theaters by the 1930s, and many of them had been relegated to showing pornography by the 1970s. The current Lyric Theatre occupies the sites of the Lyric Theatre, built on the eastern half of the site in 1903, and the Apollo Theatre, built to the west in 1920. The Lyric was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, while the Apollo had decorations in the Adam style. Both theaters had entrances from 42nd Street, flanking the Times Square Theater, although their auditoriums were on 43rd Street. When the theaters were built, 42nd Street was generally considered an upscale address.
The old Lyric was designed by Victor Hugo Koehler and constructed by the Shubert brothers for composer Reginald De Koven. It featured performers such as Fred Astaire, the Marx Brothers, and Douglas Fairbanks until it was converted to a movie theater in 1934. The exterior of the old Lyric still largely survives within the current theater. The interior decorative scheme was relatively plain. The old Lyric contained three levels of seating, topped by a ceiling dome that was surrounded by moldings of lyres and Greek masks. This theater also had 18 boxes.
The Apollo, constructed by the Selwyn brothers to a design by Eugene De Rosa, was originally a film and vaudeville theater. The Apollo was briefly a burlesque venue in the mid-1930s before turning into a movie theater in the late 1930s. The Apollo's facade on 42nd Street was built as part of the Times Square Theater's facade. The old Apollo, decorated in a rose, tan, and blue color scheme with flat decorations, contained 1,194 seats on two levels. There were also four boxes, placed within ornate Palladian arches, as well as an Adam-style proscenium arch that measured wide and high. Both the Lyric and the Apollo were owned by the Brandt Theatres chain by the 1970s; the Brandts renovated both venues as part of a plan to reopen both as legitimate houses. Only the Apollo ultimately reopened, in 1979; it reverted to movies in 1983. The Apollo was then renamed the Academy Theatre and became a nightclub.
Design The current Lyric Theatre was designed by Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) and Peter H. Kofman for Garth Drabinsky; it opened as the Ford Center in 1998. According to Richard Blinder of BBB, the current theater's design had to conform with preservation guidelines because it was part of a city-owned district controlled by New 42nd Street. As such, the theater incorporates major architectural elements and structures from both the old Lyric's facade and the Apollo's interior. The interior of the old Lyric was too badly deteriorated for most of the individual elements to be restored. Both of the old theaters' interiors were dismantled to make way for the current theater, but an office wing on 42nd Street was preserved.
Facade The new Lyric Theatre retains the ornate facades of Koehler's original Lyric Theatre on 42nd and 43rd Street. The 43rd Street facade is divided vertically into five bays. At the center of the facade are three arched doorways topped by corbels. These are flanked by two additional doorways, which are topped by panels with the words "Music" and "Drama". On the second floor, the center of the facade contains a balustrade and three arched windows, which are flanked by banded columns. Above these windows are busts of W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, and Reginald De Koven. There are three oculi above the arched windows, which are surrounded by floral wreaths and topped by keystones that depict lions' heads. The oculi contain heads of the ancient gods Apollo, Athena, and Hermes. Lampposts, topped by spheres, flank the oculi. On the second story, the outer bays contain rectangular windows flanked by pilasters, above which are entablatures with carved masks of comedy and tragedy. The top of the facade has a copper cornice with medallions. There is also a wrought-iron balustrade with decorations of lyres. The original theater had a sloped tile roof on 43rd Street, as well as a marquee in front of the entrance.
The old Lyric's narrow three-story facade, an arch on 42nd Street, was preserved in the new theater's construction. The first story of this arch contained a portico with a column on either side, above which was a frieze with the words "The Lyric". The second story contained the actual archway, which was decorated with terracotta. The narrowness of the 42nd Street entrance arises from the fact that, when the original theater was built, there were brownstone houses next to the theater, and land values on 42nd Street were high.
The auditorium and stage house facades, built in 1997, are to the west of the old Lyric Theatre's facade. The auditorium structure, measuring long and tall, is just west of the entrance. There is also a stage house at the far west end of the site, measuring tall. Originally, a sign measuring tall was placed atop the stage house. Both the auditorium and the stage house contain prefabricated concrete panels on their exteriors, each measuring . The panels used on the auditorium are covered in brick, while those in front of the stage house are left exposed. These panels do not contain any windows and are mounted directly onto the theater's steel superstructure. Behind the panels are noise-reducing rubber pads.
Interior Roger Morgan Studio was responsible for the interior design of the new Lyric Theatre. The modern theater's new design elements blend with its historical elements; the design of the lobby was inspired by the old Lyric, while the auditorium was inspired by the old Apollo. BBB initially planned to use a modern decorative scheme that contrasted with the historical design elements, but Richard Blinder said this proposal was "too diagrammatic". Lyres are used as decorative motifs throughout the interior of the new Lyric Theatre. The auditorium also includes furnishings that were constructed specifically for the new theater but were inspired by early-20th-century theaters' decorations. Drabinsky involved himself in many aspects of the new Lyric's design when it was built.
Lobby and adjoining areas
The lobby of the new Lyric Theatre is on the east side of the theater, extending from 42nd to 43rd Street, with an elliptical rotunda on 43rd Street. The floor, dome, columns, and staircases of the rotunda were brand-new elements constructed for the Ford Center. The Italian-marble staircase rises from one side of the rotunda and splits into two flights, wrapping around to the mezzanine. At the top of the stair is a medallion of the Greek god Zeus. The rotunda's walls are covered with canvas panels, designed to imitate the look of cut stone. Mariuca Brancoveanu designed the rotunda's mosaic floor, which contains depictions of the masks on the original Lyric's facade, surrounded by a mosaic border. The mosaic decoration is composed of 172,800 marble pieces covering . The capitals of the rotunda's columns are decorated with gilded guilloche reliefs that depict light bulbs. The dome of the rotunda was taken from the Apollo Theatre and measures . The mezzanine level, overlooking the lobby, contains wrought-iron railings with depictions of lyres.
The lobby and auditorium are separated by vestibules with doors at each end, with fabric panels. This was intended to minimize disruption from guests who left early or arrived late. In venues where the lobbies and auditoriums are directly connected, light and noise from the lobby could disrupt ongoing performances. The old Lyric's lobby connected both of the entrances, on 42nd and 43rd Streets. The old Apollo's lobby from 42nd Street was divided into two sections: an outer portion with rose-and-red marble walls and an Adam style plaster ceiling, and an inner portion with black-and-white marble walls. Both of the former theaters' lobbies to 42nd Street were retained when the Ford Center was built. While the Apollo's lobby to the west kept its bas-relief sculptures and black-and-white marble decorations, the old Lyric's lobby to the east had lost all of its decoration.