The Al Hirschfeld Theatre (New York City, New York)

 theatre, Moorish Revival (architecture)

5-story Moorish Revival-style theater completed in 1924. Designed by G. Albert Lansburgh for vaudeville promoter Martin Beck, the theater opened as the Martin Beck Theatre with a production of Madame Pompadour on November 11, 1924. The theater has a seating capacity of 1,424 for musicals. On June 21, 2003, it was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in honor of the caricaturist famous for his drawings of Broadway celebrities, and reopened on November 23, 2003, with a revival of the musical Wonderful Town. The theater constructed a new marquee to mark its renaming, featuring an illuminated version of Hirschfeld’s Self-Portrait As An Inkwell. The marquee was initially installed with red neon representing the “ink,” but blue neon was later substituted because the red was perceived by some as “macabre”.

The theater has a handsome and unusually articulated facade that is very wide in proportion to its height. The brown brick facing, above a granite water table, is laid in running bond but every sixth row of brick is just headers. The dominant element is a 2-story, partially-open arcade extending across the entire facade. 8-sides cast-stone columns with granite bases and Moorish-Byzantine-style capitals support 11 stone arches. The 2nd arch in from each side is higher and broader than the others. Entrances through paired double-doors to the ticket lobby, flanked by attached columns, a pair on the left and one of the right, are recessed behind the eastern of the two higher arches. The entrance doors are of bronze and glass with ornate bronze grilles patterned after the arches.

Flanking the entrance are two more elements: on the left, a service passage with a wrought-iron gate and original iron signboard, and on the right, a projecting box office with a marble-silled window behind iron shutters. "Martin Beck Theatre" is cast into a panel above it. The box office is flanked by attached columns, two round and two 8-sided. The three easternmost arches are attached with a recessed wall section. Window openings with brick reveals and incised stone arches in a foliated pattern are at the 2nd floor level; the center opening is paired and the two arches are carried on a stone colonnette. A modernized marquee projects from mid-column height and is anchored with four arch imposts. The middle four columns help support a stone staircase, descending west, which acts as a fire escape. Metal exit doors, set below iron and glass lanterns, are placed in the recessed wall section beside and below the staircase. At the foot of the staircase is a doorway marked by a sign reading "STAGE ENTRANCE." The three western arches are also attached; the large stage door with modern steel doors is in the center arch.

Arched window openings at the 2nd floor are like those in the eastern arches. The facade rises three more floors above the arcade, and the brick wall is punctuated by small round-arched windows. A corbel table surmounts the facade. The brick-faced stage house is set back from the roof parapet and rises from the western portion of the roof. A large, metal-framed sign board is also placed on the roof.

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