Majestic Theatre
245 West 44th Street | Times Square | built 1927
Open on the map16 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1926
The Chanin brothers plan a hotel and three theaters on 44th and 45th Streets, with the Majestic as the big house
The Chanin brothers bought the Klaman site in May 1925, and in March 1926 architect Herbert Krapp filed plans for one hotel facing Eighth Avenue, with three playhouses along the cross streets, budgeted at $4.5 million. The Chanins ran a public naming contest that summer, and in December 1926 the large 44th Street house was named the Majestic, beside the Royale and the Masque. Krapp had already designed three other theaters for the brothers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1927
Krapp dresses the Majestic in a modern Spanish facade of terra-cotta and Roman brick
Herbert J. Krapp gives the Majestic what the Chanin organization called a modern Spanish look, related to its two sister theaters on West 45th Street. A rusticated terra-cotta base carries a wall of Roman brick, and the main ornaments are a blind Palladian window on twisted columns and a pair of long wrought-iron galleries with imitation Spanish-tile roofs. The Landmarks Commission notes that the three Chanin theaters share this base-and-brick scheme while differing in their details.
- 1927
The Majestic opens with Rufus LeMaire's Affairs, a flop that closes after 56 performances
The third and last of the Chanin theaters to open, the Majestic held about 1,800 seats and was meant for revues and light operas. Its first show, Rufus LeMaire's Affairs, lasted only 56 performances. The three new houses pushed the traditional Broadway district westward, and the Majestic soon proved popular for musical comedies as well.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Michel Chekhov's Moscow Art Players open a four-week Russian-language run at the Majestic
Impresario S. Hurok brings Michel Chekhov and his Moscow Art Players to the Majestic for four weeks of repertory played in Russian. The engagement opens with Gogol's The Inspector General, which the company repeats on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights and at a Wednesday matinee the following week. The Times calls the visitors guests under Hurok's frequently international banner.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1936
A court-ordered auction sells the Majestic, Masque and Royale theaters for $700,000
The Majestic and its two sister theaters, the Masque and the Royale, are sold at auction for the $700,000 upset price fixed by the court. The buyer is the Magoro Corporation, represented at the sale by William Klein, an attorney for the Shubert interests, who does not say whom the corporate name stands for. The forced sale comes nine years after the Majestic opened.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1942
Lee Shubert withdraws his order closing Native Son after theater leaders protest
Lee Shubert, who controls and runs the Majestic, cancels his order to shut down Native Son, a drama of Black life. He backs down after a meeting of theatrical leaders, and the Times reports the reversal the next day as a setback for the censorship of the stage, whether official or otherwise.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1945
Carousel opens at the Majestic and starts the theater's long run as a home for Rodgers and Hammerstein
The Shuberts bought out the remaining owners of the Majestic, Masque and Royale in 1945, the same year Carousel opened here and ran 890 performances. Rodgers and Hammerstein returned with Allegro in 1947 and South Pacific, which played 1,925 performances over the next four years. Along with the neighboring St. James, the Majestic became the duo's preferred Broadway address.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1949
South Pacific opens at the Majestic and runs 1,925 performances
Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific opens on April 7, 1949, and plays 1,925 performances. It wins the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for drama and is named best musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, and it sweeps the major musical categories at the Tony and Donaldson awards. Ezio Pinza makes his Broadway debut in it, then returns to the Majestic in 1954 to star in Fanny.
- 1957
The Music Man opens at the Majestic and runs 1,375 performances
Meredith Willson's The Music Man opens in 1957 and plays 1,375 performances, collecting Tony Awards for Willson as author-composer, for its star Robert Preston and for supporting players Barbara Cook and David Burns. It follows Fanny, which ran 888 performances, and Happy Hunting (412 performances, starring Ethel Merman and Fernando Lamas) in a string of long-running musicals at the theater.
- 1965
Broadway Answers Selma, a civil rights benefit concert, is held at the Majestic
On April 4, 1965, the Majestic hosts Broadway Answers Selma, a benefit concert to raise money for the civil rights movement after the Selma to Montgomery marches. The evening falls during the run of the musical Golden Boy, one of the hits the theater housed in the mid-1960s.
“…the benefit concert Broadway Answers Selma was held at the Majestic on April 4, 1965, to raise funds for the civil rights movement…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1975
More than 1,000 people fill the Majestic for a tribute to dancer Charles Weidman
Dancers, choreographers and Broadway performers gather at the Majestic to honor Charles Weidman, the modern-dance pioneer who died on July 15 at 73. The Shubert Organization donates the theater, and the event moves there from a Lincoln Center library auditorium because so many people want to attend. Walter Terry introduces speakers and companies, among them the Jose Limon Dance Company and the Alvin Ailey Repertory Workshop, and Alfred Drake credits Weidman with turning dancers into actors.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1975
The Wiz opens at the Majestic with an all-Black cast and a new take on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The musical adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, played by an all-Black cast, opened at the Majestic in 1975 and stayed for two years before moving to another theater. It followed hits such as The Music Man, Camelot and Fiddler on the Roof, all of which had earlier played the house. After it left, Liza Minnelli starred here in The Act in 1977.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
The Landmarks Commission designates the Majestic's facade and interior, then defends the ruling in court
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission protected both the outside and the auditorium of the Majestic on December 8, 1987, as part of a sweeping push to landmark Broadway theaters. The Shuberts, Nederlanders and Jujamcyn sued in June 1988 to overturn the status of 22 theaters, arguing that it restricted alterations. The case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the designations were finally upheld in 1992.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1988
The Phantom of the Opera opens at the Majestic after a $17 million advance and a $1 million rebuild of the stage
Producer Cameron Mackintosh agreed to bring the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical here after consultant Peter Feller proposed adapting the house. The Shuberts spent over $1 million widening the proscenium opening, reinforcing the roof to hold the falling chandelier, and digging a pit under the stage for scenery. Phantom opened on January 26, 1988, on a record advance sale of $17 million, and 42nd Street moved to the St. James to make room.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
The Phantom of the Opera passes Cats to become Broadway's longest-running show
On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of the Opera gives its 7,486th Broadway performance, one more than Cats managed at the Winter Garden, and takes the record. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh, who made both shows, speak from the Majestic stage after a woman dressed as a cat symbolically hands the baton to the Phantom. The Times reports that close to 11 million people have watched it at the Majestic, whose box office has taken in nearly $600 million, another Broadway record.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2023
The Phantom of the Opera closes after 13,981 performances, ending the longest run in Broadway history
Phantom passed Cats as Broadway's longest-running show in 2006 and became the first musical to reach 10,000 performances, on February 11, 2012. The pandemic closed the Majestic in March 2020 and weak attendance after reopening led producers to announce the end, but sales surged and the closing date was pushed back to April 16, 2023. In March 2023 the show set the theater's box-office record, taking in $3,029,826 over eight performances.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Majestic Theatre (Broadway)Wikipedia
Nearby
- Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre242 West 45th Street | 14 entries
- John Golden Theatre252 West 45th Street | 14 entries
- Row NYC Hotel (Hotel Lincoln, Milford Plaza)700 8th Avenue | 9 entries
- Broadhurst Theatre235 West 44th Street | 12 entries
- St. James Theatre246 West 44th Street | 14 entries
- Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (Plymouth Theatre)236 West 45th Street | 14 entries