Vivian Beaumont Theater
| Vivian Beaumont Theater | |
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| location | |
| Address: | 150 West 65th Street |
| City: | Manhattan |
| Coordinates: | 40 ° 46 '24 " N , 73 ° 59' 3" W |
| Architecture and history | |
| Opened: | October 21, 1965 |
| Spectator: | 1,200 seats |
| Named after: | Vivian Beaumont Allen |
| Internet presence: | |
| Website: | www.lct.org/ |
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a theater in Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (150 West 65th Street). It's New York City's only theater that is considered Broadway (with productions nominated for Tony Awards ), but it's not in the theater district near Times Square .
history
The theater was named after the patron Vivian Beaumont Allen (1885–1962), a former actress and heiress of the May department store chain . She had donated $ 3,000,000 in 1958 to build a permanent theater in Lincoln Center. After several delays and with an estimated construction cost of $ 9,600,000, the Vivian Beaumont Theater opened on October 21, 1965, then seating 1,143. The opening was given to Georg Büchner's Dantons Tod , directed by Herbert Blau ; the leading roles were played by James Earl Jones and Stacy Keach .
1965-1966 the theater was used by the "Repertory Theater" of the Lincoln Center under the direction of Jules Irving and Herbert Blau. Blau resigned in 1965, while Irving remained the sole managing director until 1972. From 1973 to 1977 the theater was administered by the New York Shakespeare Festival under the direction of Joseph Papp . After three years of vacancy, the theater reopened in 1980 under the auspices of the Lincoln Center Theater Company , directed by Richmond Crinkley. He had the support of a five-person board of directors consisting of Woody Allen , Sarah Caldwell , Liviu Ciulei , Robin Phillips and Ellis Rabb . The playwright Edward Albee was hired as a house poet. From the end of 1981 to 1983 the theater was closed for renovation.
Todays use
The Vivian Beaumont Theater has been operated by the Lincoln Center Theater (now under the direction of André Bischof and Bernard Gersten) since 1985 . Sometimes the theater is also rented out to commercial theater operators, such as Alexander H. Cohen and Hildy Parks, who produced Peter Brook's production of La Tragédie de Carmen there in 1983 .
In the basement of the theater building is the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (originally Forum , renamed in 1972 after a patroness), an intimate 299-seat theater in which the Lincoln Center Theater presents smaller-sized plays and musicals that go off-Broadway -Productions are counted.
In 2012, the Lincoln Center Theater opened the Claire Tow Theater on the roof of the Beaumont Theater. This new stage offers a forum for young playwrights, directors and stage designers. With an annual budget of about $ 2 million, about three to four productions are put on stage. The theater is named after Claire Tow, whose husband Leonard Tow donated $ 7.5 million for the theater.
The building is also home to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts , which is located on the third floor.
architecture
The Vivian Beaumont Theater was built by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in collaboration with the American set designer Jo Mielziner in the classic modern style. For cost reasons, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts had to be integrated, which is located in the third floor, which can only be seen from the outside as an extra-wide concrete roof over the glazed theater. The interior design of the library was done by Gordon Bunshaft . The theater differed from traditional Broadway theaters in that it had a steep auditorium (with so-called “stadium seating”) and its “thrust stage”, which was open on three sides and extended into the auditorium. In the course of an extensive renovation from 1981 to 1983 with costs of 6.5 million US dollars, a dispute arose between the architect IM Pei and the acoustician Cyril M. Harris . It led to Pei's resignation as the responsible architect. In addition to improved acoustics and better visual axes, the theater received a new stage portal, less steep corridors and a little more seats. The horseshoe-shaped floor plan of the grandstands was abandoned in favor of a more conventional shape. The theater has been renovated several times over the years to improve its acoustics and technical facilities.
The Claire Tow Theater on the planted roof of the theater was designed by Hugh Hardy , who had been Mielziner's assistant during the original construction. The two-story glass box is the same width as the glazed part of the original theater and, in addition to the theater with 112 seats, also houses rehearsal rooms, artists' cloakrooms, offices and a lobby with bar. The building is provided with aluminum blinds on all sides, which serve as sun protection . Hardy uses simple materials inside. The foyer floors are made of stained oak, the sloping walls of the theater are made of walnut. In the bar is the sculpture Overture by Kiki Smith from 2012.
Selected productions
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Individual evidence
- ^ A b Carol Lawson (January 29, 1982), Design Dispute Holds Up Reopening Of Beaumont New York Times .
- ^ Albin Krebs (June 30, 1989), Mitzi E. Newhouse, Who Donated $ 1 Million for Theaters, Dies at 87 New York Times .
- ↑ a b Robin Pogrebin (May 14, 2012), Lincoln Center Theater to Open a New Stage New York Times .
- ↑ PEI RESIGNS AT BEAUMONT ARCHITECT , February 25, 1982, (English)
- ^ A b Paul Goldberger (June 14 2012), Hugh Hardy's New Lincoln Center Space, the Claire Tow Theater, Is Pleasing, Deferential — and Barely Visible Vanity Fair .
- ↑ Robin Pogrebin (February 3, 2010), New Theater: Lincoln Center Raises the Roof New York Times .
- ↑ Michael Kimmelman (July 15, 2012), A Glass Box That Nests Snugly on the Roof - Hugh Hardy's Tow Theater at Lincoln Center New York Times .
Web links
- Lincoln Center Theater , official website
- Vivian Beaumont Theater in the Internet Broadway Database
- History of the Lincoln Center (English)