Beacon Theatre (New York City) facts for kids
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The Beacon Theatre marquee in 2019
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| Location | 2124 Broadway (at 74th Street), Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 40°46′50″N 73°58′52″W / 40.78056°N 73.98111°W |
| Public transit | Subway: 72nd Street |
| Owner | Beacon Broadway Company |
| Operator | Madison Square Garden Entertainment |
| Type | Indoor theater |
| Seating type | fixed |
| Capacity | 2,894 |
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Beacon Theater and Hotel
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| NRHP reference No. | 82001187 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 4, 1982 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1929 |
| Opened | December 24, 1929 |
| Renovated | 2009 |
| Architect | Walter W. Ahlschlager |
The Beacon Theatre is a famous entertainment spot in New York City. It's located on Broadway in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This theater first opened its doors in 1929. It was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager to be a grand movie palace.
The Beacon Theatre has 2,894 seats spread across three levels. Its design is very fancy, with styles inspired by the Renaissance, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek, and Rococo periods. Because of its special design, the theater is recognized as a New York City interior landmark. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The outside of the theater looks quite simple, made of brick and stone. A large sign, called a marquee, hangs above the entrance. Inside, there's a beautiful lobby with a round shape and a mural painted by Valdemar Kjoldgaard. The main seating area, called the auditorium, is in a separate building behind the hotel. It has decorated walls, a colorful ceiling, and a big chandelier. There are also large statues next to the stage. The theater even has a special Wurlitzer organ, which is very rare to find in a New York City theater.
The Beacon Theatre was first planned in 1927. It was originally going to be called the Roxy Midway Theatre. However, Warner Bros. took over the project and opened the theater on December 24, 1929. Over the years, different companies managed the Beacon. In 1966, it started hosting live shows. By 1974, it became a popular place for rock concerts. Madison Square Garden Entertainment took over in 2006 and gave the theater a big makeover.
Today, the Beacon Theatre is known for hosting many concerts and other live performances. Famous bands and artists have played there. It has also been used for TV shows, film screenings, and special events like the Tony Awards.
Contents
Exploring the Beacon Theatre's Design
The Beacon Theatre is located at 2124 Broadway in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It sits between West 74th and 75th Streets. The theater is part of the Hotel Beacon building. It was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager for Samuel L. "Roxy" Rothafel.
The main entrance of the theater is on Broadway. However, the large seating area, the auditorium, is mostly behind the hotel. It faces Amsterdam Avenue to the east and 75th Street to the north. The Beacon Theatre is close to other famous buildings like The Ansonia and The Astor apartments.
The Beacon Theatre was designed to be a smaller version of the Roxy Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Walter Ahlschlager also designed the Roxy Theatre. While the Roxy Theatre had Moorish and Renaissance styles, the Beacon mixes many styles. These include Renaissance, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek, and Rococo elements. Danish artist Valdemar Kjoldgaard created many murals for the Beacon. When the theater first opened, people said Kjoldgaard's murals were incredibly valuable. One reporter even called the theater's inside "like walking into an Arab sheik's tent."
Outside Look of the Beacon
The entrance and lobby of the Beacon Theatre are inside the hotel building. The main seating area, the auditorium, is in its own structure to the east. The hotel's outside walls are simple. The theater's entrance is on the south side of the hotel's Broadway wall. Above the theater's large sign, the hotel has arched windows on the second floor. The upper floors are made of brick.
The outside of the auditorium faces 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The first floor is made of stone, and the upper floors are brick. These walls have fake windows that don't actually open. There are horizontal stone lines above the first and fifth floors. These lines match those on the hotel's outside. There's also a row of arches near the auditorium's roof. On 75th Street, a big arch is in the middle of the wall. On Amsterdam Avenue, there's a large stone arch on the fifth floor. A stepped roof rises above the Amsterdam Avenue side of the auditorium.
Inside the Beacon Theatre
Welcoming Lobbies
Under the theater's marquee, there's a curved outdoor area for tickets. It has tile floors and is set back from the sidewalk. A ticket booth sits in the middle of this outdoor area. This booth was once shiny gold and made of marble, glass, and metal. After many years, it was painted over several times. But it was restored during a renovation in 2009.
Beyond the outdoor area, glass doors lead to an indoor entrance hall, called a vestibule. This hall has a low ceiling with lamps and decorative bands in the Renaissance style. The north wall has mirrors and signs. The south wall has another ticket booth and an office. The doors from the street and to the main lobby both curve into this vestibule.
East of the vestibule is a round lobby called a rotunda. It has fancy Rococo-style decorations. The rotunda's ceiling is as tall as the auditorium itself. It has patterns of rosettes and sunken panels, called coffers. A large chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling. The western wall of the rotunda has fluted columns on each side. Above the doorways, there's a landscape mural by Valdemar Kjoldgaard. This mural was covered with wallpaper for a while but was uncovered and restored in 2008.
On the eastern wall of the rotunda, there's a hallway with tall columns on either side. Above this hallway is a decorative panel and an archway. This archway has smaller columns on the mezzanine and balcony levels. On both sides of this hallway are Rococo-style stairways. The first set of stairs goes up to the mezzanine level. Two more sets of stairs lead to both the bottom and top rows of the steeply sloped balcony.
Grand Auditorium Seating
The auditorium has three levels of seats and a large arch around the stage, called a proscenium arch. The space is decorated with sculptures and murals by Kjoldgaard. As of 2022, the Beacon Theatre has 2,894 seats. The theater's operator, MSG Entertainment, calls the level right above the main floor the loge level. Two floors above the main level is the balcony. This balcony is split into two parts: a lower section in the front and an upper section in the back. When the theater first opened, there was also a smoking room balcony behind the auditorium. It had vents in the ceiling. There was also a fireproof projection booth at the back. The original seats were described as very comfortable and had lots of legroom.
The side walls of the main seating area have fancy arched doorways. Above each arch are theater masks, surrounded by decorative drapes. Above these arches are the balcony's side walls. These walls are divided into two sections by fluted columns. Each section has a part of a mural by Kjoldgaard. These murals show "oriental scenes with caravans of elephants, camels, and traders." The ceiling above the front of the auditorium is red, gold, green, and blue. It looks like the draped roof of a tent. A beautiful chandelier, in the Venetian style, hangs from the center of the ceiling.
The proscenium arch has columns on each side that support its top. The arch's design had openings for the sound from the theater's organ. On either side of the proscenium are tall bronze statues of female figures. They are about 30 feet tall and look like Greek goddesses. One newspaper described them as "heroic-size bronzes of Amazons with spear and shield." Above the proscenium are green and gold plaster drapes. The theater originally had a special curtain. It was said to be the only "contour curtain" in a movie theater in the United States.
The Beacon also still has its original Wurlitzer organ in the orchestra pit. This organ was made in 1928. It has four keyboards and 19 sets of pipes. The Beacon is one of only three theaters in Manhattan that still has its original organ. The others are Radio City Music Hall and the United Palace. The organ was not used by the early 1960s. But it was too expensive to remove. The organ was fixed up in 1967 and used until it was sealed off in 2009.
History of the Beacon Theatre
In the 1920s, after World War I and before the Great Depression, large movie palaces became very popular. In New York City, only a few companies built these grand theaters. Also, only a few architects designed them, including Walter Ahlschlager. Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel was a very successful theater owner. He was a big name in the city's movie theater business. He had built the huge 5,920-seat Roxy Theatre in midtown in 1927. The Chanin brothers also had experience building theaters. They had built six Broadway theaters in the mid-1920s.
From Movie Palace to Live Venue
Building and Opening the Beacon
In 1925, the Chanin brothers bought land on 75th Street to build a hotel and a theater. Two years later, in January 1927, they sold the land to the Havemeyer Construction Company. Film producer Herbert Lubin helped Roxy buy the site. Roxy planned to run the theater, which was called the Roxy Midway Theatre. Roxy hired Ahlschlager to design the new hotel and theater. The Chanins were hired as advisors for the project. This sale happened shortly after Lubin started the Roxy Circuit. This company planned to run many movie theaters in New York City. The midtown Roxy Theatre was meant to be its main theater.
In April 1928, a company called S. W. Straus & Company provided a $4.45 million loan for the Midway project. At that time, the building was almost finished. An airway beacon was placed on top of the hotel. The project was then renamed the Midway Beacon. By June 1929, newspapers were calling it just "Beacon." Warner Bros. was thinking about buying the theater. It had been finished for a year but was not being used. After another company, RKO Pictures, thought about leasing it, Warner Theatres finally bought the theater in November 1929. They made it a place to show new Warner Bros. films on the Upper West Side. Warner Theatres then made changes to the auditorium's sound system for sound films. The renamed Warner's Beacon Theatre opened on December 24, 1929. The first movie shown was Tiger Rose, a talking picture starring Lupe Vélez.
Showing Films at the Beacon
When it first opened, the Beacon showed one movie per week. The movie played continuously from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Some early films shown at the Beacon included Once a Gentleman (1930) and A Soldier's Plaything (1931). In April 1930, the Chanin brothers took over the Beacon Hotel and Theatre. There was talk that they might tear down the building. But Irwin Chanin announced that the Beacon Hotel and Theatre would stay open. The Beacon Enterprise Company, partly owned by Warner Bros., then leased the theater. The Beacon was one of several movie theaters Warner Bros. ran along Broadway.
In January 1932, Warner Bros.' lease on the Beacon Theatre ended. The Central Amusement Corporation took over. The Chanins said the new management would allow the Beacon to show movies from more than one producer. The Beacon mostly continued to show movies. But it also started broadcasting radio shows, like Tru Blu Beer's Broadway Bandwagon in 1935. During World War II, the United States Army displayed a mortar and a machine gun in the Beacon's lobby. They also showed a short film in the auditorium to encourage people to join the army. The theater also hosted events to sell war bonds. Brandt Theatres bought the Beacon in 1944. Two years later, the Beacon started showing films and live stage performances for children on Saturday afternoons.
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At the end of 1948, the Beacon started showing only new movies. The British film Don't Take It to Heart was the first under this new rule. In 1949, films shown included double features like Easy Money and My Brother's Keeper. The Beacon continued to show double features throughout the 1950s. This included The Frightened Bride and The Caretaker's Daughter in 1953. The Beacon also showed Warner Bros. films. This led to a problem in 1959. The owners of the nearby Embassy Theatre sued. They said Warner Bros. unfairly sold film rights to the Beacon instead of to them. Starting in 1962, the Beacon also showed United Artists films. The first film under this program was Hong Kong.
In January 1966, Brandt announced that the Beacon would show plays along with films. The first live show, a Yiddish vaudeville show, was canceled after two days. The next year, people who loved theater organs fixed the Beacon's old organ. The Beacon then started showing silent movies with organ music. The first was The General. By then, the Beacon was one of the few movie palaces on the Upper West Side still being used as a theater. The Beacon also continued to show talking pictures like Ulysses. It also hosted live shows, including a ballet in 1968. In 1971, the Beacon started showing reruns of films that had just premiered. This meant lower ticket prices, which increased the theater's income. Even so, the owners wanted to sell the theater.
Becoming a Live Performance Spot
Early Live Shows
After the rock venue Fillmore East closed, Bow Wow Productions suggested hosting rock concerts at the Beacon in 1971. The concert series started later that year. Tickets for these shows cost up to $7.50. The Beacon's concerts in 1971 often didn't last long. This was due to disagreements between the people putting on the shows and the theater's managers. By the early 1970s, the theater was still showing movies but was dark and falling apart. In March 1974, Steven Singer and Barry Kerr's company, Vidicoth Systems, leased the Beacon. The new owners spent $250,000 on fixing it up. This included $75,000 for a new sound system. They also put new fabric on the seats, installed new carpets, and repainted the ceiling and statues. The theater continued to show movies until the renovations were done.
When the Beacon reopened in October 1974, Stephen Metz took over booking shows. He mainly used the Beacon for rock concerts. A writer for Newsday said the Beacon was becoming a "rock ballroom." By the next year, the Beacon was known as a rock venue. A reporter for New York Amsterdam News said in 1976 that the Beacon had become a top live-entertainment theater. It was even competing with the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Some neighbors complained about the noise and crowds from the rock concerts. But Singer and Metz usually fixed these problems. In August 1976, Singer and Metz formed a company called Singmet. They produced some of their own shows for the Beacon. The theater closed in 1976 after Singer and Metz went bankrupt. There were plans to replace it with a supermarket.
In February 1977, Kazuko Hillyer announced plans to turn the Beacon into a performing arts center. Hillyer wanted to make the theater "a center for the two heritages we all have." She immediately booked dance shows for the Beacon. She also planned to spend $75,000 on renovations. That same year, Concert Arts Society leased the theater for 15 years. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) named the Beacon Theatre an interior landmark on December 11, 1979. They praised its "dramatic effects of rich ornamental details." In October 1981, 50/50 Productions, run by Steve Martin, took over booking shows for the Beacon. They booked jazz and modern musicians. Martin wanted to stage Broadway shows there. But he faced competition from the two biggest Broadway theater operators. The Beacon was renovated in 1982. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places that same year. The theater was renovated again in 1985.
Keeping the Beacon as a Live Venue
By 1989, the theater's owners no longer wanted to turn it into a nightclub. They had hired MSG Entertainment to book all the shows for the theater. The Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre was happy but kept watching how the theater was used. After the efforts of the Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre, Nanci Callahan started the West Side Cultural Center. This group planned to put on children's shows, dances, and operas at the Beacon. In late 1991, the Beacon was temporarily changed into an IMAX theater. The IMAX screen was so big that most of the seats had to be closed because people couldn't see well. The theater was then fixed up again in the early 1990s for rock concerts.
Andy Feltz continued to manage the Beacon until 2006. In November of that year, Cablevision, the parent company of MSG Entertainment, leased the theater for 20 years. Cablevision also leased Radio City Music Hall and owned Madison Square Garden. Cablevision promised to spend at least $10 million to restore the Beacon. The theater closed for a big renovation in August 2007. Beyer Blinder Belle was hired for the project. They fixed old problems like a leaky roof and damaged decorations. The restoration also involved replacing the electrical system, putting new fabric on the seats, restoring decorations in the lobby and auditorium, and improving the backstage areas. Workers restored features like the Broadway ticket booth, which had been painted over many times. They also fixed the chandelier above the auditorium. The project involved 1,000 workers and cost $16 million. It was finished in February 2009.
MSG Entertainment separated from Cablevision in mid-2009. But it continued to run the Beacon Theatre and its other venues. The Beacon's lighting system was updated in 2014. This was to help with the many events held there, including concerts, comedy shows, TV broadcasts, and film screenings. For over a year, from early 2020 to July 2021, the Beacon Theatre was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new sound system was installed at the Beacon in August 2022.
Entertainment at the Beacon Theatre
After the Beacon Theatre started hosting live performances, it became one of the most popular concert halls in New York City. It has also hosted other types of live events, like comedy shows. By 2006, the theater hosted about 70 performances a year. For 52 of these events, ticket sales were available. They brought in $8 million and had 136,000 total visitors. During the Beacon's 2008 renovation, The New York Times called the venue the "Carnegie Hall of rock rooms."
Concerts and Music
The theater has long been a place for R&B, pop, jam bands, and rock concerts. Early in its history as a live venue, the Beacon hosted performances by the Steve Miller Band, blues singer Dr. John, soul singer Wilson Pickett, and pop singer Tina Turner. When the theater was briefly used for rock in the mid-1970s, several rock bands played there. These included Supertramp, Queen, Grateful Dead, and Return to Forever. Other concerts in the 1970s included three nights with singer Carole King in 1976. After Kazuko Hillyer took over in 1977, she moved her Coffee Concerts to the Beacon. Under Hillyer, the theater also hosted groups like Canadian Brass in 1978.
In the early 1980s, the Beacon hosted jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, R&B singer Millie Jackson, and jazz musicians Sarah Vaughan and Zoot Sims. Other acts during that time included gospel singers Al Green and Shirley Caesar, pop musician Laurie Anderson, and jazz singer Cab Calloway. In the early 1990s, the Beacon hosted folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, a rock-and-soul show, and singer Tracy Chapman. The latter half of the decade saw performances by rock musician Ian Anderson and jazz tenor Sonny Rollins.
Concerts continued in the early 2000s. These included singer Liza Minnelli, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, singers Norah Jones and Gillian Welch, rock band Radiohead, and blues musician Bonnie Raitt. Paul Simon gave the first performances at the Beacon after it reopened in 2009. Leonard Cohen also performed that same year. Artists who played at the Beacon in the 2010s included Goldfrapp, Fiona Apple, Cat Stevens, and Coldplay.
Special Residencies
The rock band the Allman Brothers Band played at the Beacon more often than any other group. They performed there almost every year from 1989 to 2014. After their first show in 1989, the band returned in 1992, 1994, and every year after 1996. A New York Times article in 2002 said the band's shows were "as sure a sign of spring as the reappearance of robins." The band recorded a live album at the theater in March 2000, called Peakin' at the Beacon. In 2009, the Allman Brothers Band celebrated their 40th anniversary at the Beacon. They had shows dedicated to the band's founder, Duane Allman. The band couldn't play at the Beacon in 2010 because the theater was hosting a long run of a Cirque du Soleil show. But the band was invited back in 2011. The band played their very last show at the Beacon Theatre on October 28, 2014. They had performed 238 concerts there in total.
Other bands and musicians have also had many shows at the Beacon. The band Hot Tuna performed annually through the 1990s and 2000s. The rock band Steely Dan has also had many special runs of shows at the theater. From 2014 to 2017, singer Mariah Carey hosted her yearly Christmas show, All I Want for Christmas Is You: A Night of Joy and Festivity, at the Beacon. She sang songs from her Christmas albums and her biggest hits. Bob Dylan has also had many yearly shows at the Beacon Theatre. Guitarist Trey Anastasio performed an eight-week online concert series called "The Beacon Jams" in late 2020.
Other Live Performances
The first live show in the Beacon's modern history was the Yiddish vaudeville Bagels & Yox. It closed after two days in 1967. The Beacon hosted a performance of Erik Satie's Socrate in 1967. This was a tribute to the artist Alexander Calder. During the early 1970s, the Beacon featured weekly professional wrestling matches. When the Beacon was a performing arts center in the late 1970s, it hosted dance companies. These included the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre and the Murray Louis Dance Company. It also hosted the Grand Kabuki troupe from Japan.
In the early 1980s, the Beacon continued to host dance and music shows. These included the National Dance Company of Senegal and an annual Hasidic Song Festival. Michaele Vollbracht held a fashion show at the Beacon in 1982. Near the end of the decade, the theater also hosted the show 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. Live performances in the 1990s included a production of the musical The Wiz with an all-Black cast in 1993. Comedian Sandra Bernhard also performed in 1994. The 14th Dalai Lama gave two series of talks at the Beacon in 1999 and 2003.
The Beacon continued to host plays, musicals, and other live acts in the 21st century. These included the children's musical Questionable Quest in 2000. Tyler Perry's play Madea Goes to Jail was performed in 2005. His off-Broadway drama The Marriage Counselor was there in 2009. Cirque du Soleil staged the show Banana Shpeel at the Beacon in 2010. The musical The Lightning Thief had performances at the Beacon before opening on Broadway in 2019. In addition, comedian Jerry Seinfeld started a series of shows at the Beacon in 2015. Comedian Ali Wong also appeared at the theater in 2021.
Recordings and Broadcasts
The theater's stage has been used for many TV shows and films. For example, VH1 broadcast its popular show Divas Live from there in 1998 and 1999. Many of George Carlin's HBO comedy specials were broadcast or filmed at the Beacon. These included You Are All Diseased (1999). Conan O'Brien filmed his Late Night 10th anniversary special at the theater in 2003. O'Brien briefly returned in late 2011 to film shows for his series Conan.
Some of the concerts at the Beacon have also been recorded. Duran Duran recorded a live concert at the Beacon on August 31, 1987. It was called Live at the Beacon Theatre. The theater was also used in late 2006 to film Shine a Light. This was a film of a live concert by the Rolling Stones. Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday with a concert at the theater on January 27, 2016. This concert was broadcast on PBS's Great Performances. It was also released on CD and DVD. She also included the theater in her worldwide Fare Thee Well tour with three concerts in September 2018 and in May 2019.
Even after becoming a live-performance venue in the 1970s, the Beacon still sometimes showed films. These included a series of Cuban films in 1978. There was also a marathon of Russian films in 1979. A "worst-film festival" was held in 1980. The theater also hosted a silent-film festival in 1985. Music from the organ played along with the films. The film Koyaanisqatsi was shown with live music in 1988. The Beacon was temporarily changed to an IMAX theater to show the film Stones at the Max in 1991. Some film screenings continued at the Beacon into the 21st century. These included the film Walk the Line in 2005. A premiere of the film Suicide Squad was held there in 2016. The Beacon has also hosted some films for the yearly Tribeca Film Festival. These included Love, Gilda in 2018 and Apocalypse Now in 2019.
Other Special Events
The Beacon has hosted several tribute events. These included a memorial for actor John Barrymore in 1982. A show honored jazz musician Duke Ellington in 1989. The Zappa Plays Zappa concert in 2006 was a tribute to musician Frank Zappa. The Beacon has also been used for parties. For example, a party in 1988 celebrated the opening of the Broadway musical The Phantom of the Opera. A birthday party for then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton was held there in 2006.
The Beacon has also been used for charity events. For example, in 1975, the theater hosted a jazz concert. This concert raised money to oppose Riverside Church's plan to sell its radio station WRVR-FM. A concert was held in December 1986 to raise money against the Beacon Theatre's proposed change into a nightclub. Another concert for the same reason was held in June 1987. The yearly autism-awareness benefit "Night of Too Many Stars", hosted by Jon Stewart, has also been held at the Beacon several times. These included events in 2008, 2010, and 2015.
The Beacon Theatre started hosting the New York Music Awards in 1987. The awards were held annually at the Beacon until 1992. The Broadway League temporarily moved the Tony Awards to the Beacon in the early 2010s. This was because the awards' usual home, Radio City Music Hall, was already booked. So, the Beacon hosted the 65th Tony Awards in 2011. The theater also hosted the 66th Tony Awards in 2012 because the Beacon had a "multi-year contract" with the Tonys. Another long booking at Radio City forced the Tonys to move to the Beacon again in 2016. The Beacon hosted the 70th Tony Awards that year.
See also
In Spanish: Beacon Theatre para niños
