The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a Broadway theater at 149 West 45th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1903, the Lyceum Theatre is one of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, as well as the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in New York City. The theater was designed by Herts & Tallant in the Beaux-Arts style and was built for impresario Daniel Frohman. It has 922 seats across three levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade became a New York City designated landmark in 1974, and the lobby and auditorium interiors were similarly designated in 1987.
The theater maintains most of its original Beaux-Arts design. Its 45th Street facade has an undulating glass-and-metal marquee shielding the entrances, as well as a colonnade with three arched windows. The lobby has a groin-vaulted ceiling, murals above the entrances, and staircases to the auditorium's balcony levels. The auditorium has an ornately decorated proscenium and boxes, but the ceiling and walls are relatively plain. An apartment above the lobby, originally used by Frohman, was converted to the headquarters of the Shubert Archives in 1986. The stage door entrance is through 152 West 46th Street, a 10-story wing designed by Herts & Tallant, which also houses the dressing rooms and some backstage facilities.
The current Lyceum replaced Frohman's earlier Lyceum on Fourth Avenue, which closed in 1902. The current theater opened on November 2, 1903, with the play The Proud Prince. Frohman's brother Charles served as the theater's manager until dying in 1915, and Daniel Frohman subsequently partnered with David Belasco to show productions at the theater until 1930. Afterward, Frohman lost the theater to foreclosure in the Great Depression, and a syndicate composed of George S. Kaufman, Max Gordon, and Moss Hart bought the theater in 1940. The Shubert Organization has operated the theater since 1950. The Lyceum was leased to the Association of Producing Artists (APA) and Phoenix Theatre in the late 1960s and to the National Actors Theatre during much of the 1990s.
Site The Lyceum Theatre is on 149 West 45th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The land lot covers , with a frontage of on 45th Street and a depth of . A wing runs northward to 46th Street. The modern theater's site covers five land lots at 149 to 157 West 45th Street, collectively measuring , as well as a rear lot on 152 West 46th Street, measuring . These lots formerly contained houses.
On the same block, the Museum of Broadway adjoins the theater; additionally, 1540 Broadway is to the west, and Americas Tower and High School of Performing Arts are to the east. Other nearby buildings include the Church of St. Mary the Virgin to the northeast; the Palace Theatre, Embassy Theatre, and I. Miller Building to the north; the Millennium Times Square New York and Hudson Theatre to the south; and the Hotel Gerard and Belasco Theatre to the southeast.
Design The Lyceum Theatre was designed by Herts & Tallant in the Beaux-Arts style and constructed from 1902 to 1903 for impresario Daniel Frohman. Operated by the Shubert Organization, it is the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in New York City.
Facade
45th Street The primary elevation of the facade is on 45th Street and is made of limestone. A promotional brochure from the theater's opening in 1903 said that the facade "recalls in its style and amplitude the best period of Roman art". The street-level facade is made of rusticated blocks of limestone. Three large archways lead into the lobby; their doors are made of painted wood and contain arched panels of glass. The street level entrances are shielded by a sinuous marquee canopy made of iron and glass. When the theater opened, the entrance had a self-supporting canopy that could shield either five or eight carriages unloading their passengers. In 1986, the canopy was replaced with a replica that was cantilevered from the facade with metal rods. The modern canopy has moldings of pressed metal, medallions above each archway, and glass panels hanging underneath the canopy. The design of the Lyceum's canopy was subsequently replicated by that of the Paramount Theatre. Above the entrance, the 45th Street elevation contains a colonnade of three bays. The bays are delineated by a pair of neoclassical fluted columns at each end, as well as two single columns in the center. Each column contains fluting, bands with foliate ornament, and ornate capitals. Within each bay is a French window with a three-centered arched surround. There were also statues within each bay, which have since been removed. A frieze runs above the windows, containing six stone faces that signify both comedy and tragedy. An entablature runs above the columns. The three bays are flanked by a pair of outer pavilions that have no ornament at all. The colonnade and marquee were particularly intended to attract a "more cultured audience" than similar theaters.
The theater contains a mansard roof above the entablature. The mansard roof contains three windows within triangular pediments, which illuminate a penthouse in the roof. A balustrade, directly on top of the entablature, encloses a balcony at the penthouse level. There are also six oval windows above the penthouse, which illuminate a former rehearsal hall. The roof also had four large urns that emitted gas at night. The urns were used to draw attention to the theater, since it was on a side street north of the other theaters of the time. At the theater's construction in 1903, the roof was described as being of "purple slate" with a bronze statue. The Lyceum's roof had two water towers, collectively capable of storing .
46th Street The stage door entrance is through the wing on 152 West 46th Street. Herts & Tallant designed the 46th Street wing with ten or eleven stories. The wing has a utilitarian design and contains vestiges of a slit that carried backdrops between the stage and the upper-story studios.
Interior Frohman had offices on the upper portion of the main 45th Street structure, while the rear annex on 46th Street contained auxiliary facilities such as storage and dressing rooms. The color scheme of the interior was compared in contemporary media to autumn foliage, with a range of hues from "deep yellow to warm red and brown". From the outset, the auditorium was designed to use electric lighting exclusively. A switchboard controlled the stage lighting, which could be controlled to be as bright as natural illumination. The theater was also mechanically advanced for its time, with heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, as well as a fireproof structural frame. The air-intake system consisted of blowers that drew air from the chimneys and passed the air through a porcelain duct, a set of silk filters, and water sprayers. The auditorium floor had "mushrooms" for air intake and outflow. The heating and ventilation system could change the auditorium's air every six minutes.
Lobby
The entrance lobby is a rectangular space, with elliptical arches on the north and south walls. The space measures long. The lobby floor is made of marble from Maryland, which was designed to resemble Athenian marble. The floor is made of marble mosaic tiles. The center of the floor has a panel with the theater's motif, a decorative letter "L" with foliate ornament around it. The walls contain a marble dado wrapping around the lobby, as well as piers topped by capitals with acanthus leaves. There are foliate moldings around each of the elliptical arches. The walls also have lighting sconces. The lobby's ceiling consists of a groin vault with a molded egg-and-dart border and decorative rosettes in the vault's ribs. There is a dome at the middle of the ceiling, with an egg-and-dart border, a hanging chandelier, and cove lights.
The south doors lead to the street, while the north doors lead to the auditorium. Above the north and south walls are three small canvas murals by James Wall Finn. The murals depict female figures on either side of portraits of Sarah Siddons and David Garrick. Above the center door on the north wall is a segmentally-arched pediment, supported on console brackets flanking the doorway; these pediments contain the "L" motif.
To the west and east are curving stairs leading up to the first balcony level. The staircases are covered in marble but are actually made of steel. The outer walls of the staircases contain marble dados, as well as bronze railings attached to them. The inside edges of the staircases have bronze balustrades with cast-iron and wrought-iron decorations, as well as newel posts containing nude figures. The east wall also has ticket windows. Another stair to the west leads down to the smoking room. At the balcony level was a foyer and smoking rooms.
Auditorium
The auditorium has an orchestra level, boxes, two balconies, and a stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium's width is greater than its depth, and the space is designed with plaster decorations in high relief. The Lyceum's auditorium generally has plain plaster walls, and much of the decoration is concentrated on the proscenium and boxes. The juxtaposition of plain walls and ornamented openings was intended to draw the audience's attention toward the stage. The auditorium took up about one-third of the entire theater building.
The auditorium has 922 seats, making the Lyceum one of the smaller Broadway theaters. These are divided into 409 seats in the orchestra, 287 on the first balcony, and 210 on the second balcony, as well as 16 box seats. As designed, the seats were upholstered in dark yellow leather, which has since been replaced. Each seat measured wide, larger than in comparable theaters. The backs of different rows of seats were spaced apart. The large width of the auditorium compensated for the relatively small number of rows.
Seating areas The rear (south) end of the orchestra contains a shallow promenade, which has wood-paneled walls, arched "L" motifs, and cartouches. The orchestra has a raked floor and painted wood paneling on the side walls. Above the paneling are ornamented pediments with foliate and egg-and-dart decorations. The orchestra level is wheelchair-accessible via the main doors, but the balcony levels can only be accessed by steps. Unusually for theaters of the time, the balconies are cantilevered from the structural framework, which obviated the need for columns that blocked audience views.; The balcony levels have paneled wooden dados on both the side and rear walls; the first balcony has blind openings and cartouches. The balconies have foliate bands on their undersides, with light fixtures underneath. In front of the balconies are leaf moldings topped by brackets and foliate decoration. All three levels have sconces on the side walls.
On either side of the stage is a wall section with one box at the first balcony level. Each wall section consists of Ionic-style fluted and banded columns, which support an elliptical arch. The boxes themselves are supported on large brackets, which in turn rest above piers with foliate capitals. In front of each box is a curved railing with leaf moldings. There is a cartouche with an "L" motif atop the boxes' arches, and a swag shaped like a leaf is suspended from the cartouche.
Other design features
The proscenium arch measures high and wide. The proscenium arch consists of a wide, molded band with foliate and egg-and-dart decorations. Above the center of the arch is a console bracket with swags, above which is a broken pediment, as well as a pair of swag-filled console brackets on either side of the pediment. The broken pediment has a figure of Pallas Athene, which is flanked by female representations of drama and music. These figures were also carved by J. W. Finn.