History Of New York's Shubert Theater On Broadway

New York’s Shubert Theatre, October 8, 2026. Photo by Brian Kachejian

The history of New York’s Shubert Theatre traces back to Lee Shubert and Winthrop Ames and its October 2, 1913, opening. The first play was a revival of Hamlet, beginning a long succession of productions that would pave the way for this Broadway playhouse’s success story.

Joint Ventures

The Shubert Theatre sits in Midtown Manhattan’s Theater District at 225 West 44th Street. Architect Henry B. Herts designed the building in the Venetian Renaissance style and built it for Lee and J.J. Shubert. They named it the Sam S. Shubert Memorial Theatre in memory of their brother, who died in a railroad accident in 1905.

The building’s design features three arches facing south onto 44th Street, while a curved corner faces east toward Broadway. The facade features brick, terracotta, and decorative sgraffito plasterwork. The Shubert Organization lists a capacity of 1,502, including seating and standing room, across the theater’s levels. Inside, audiences experience live theater while taking in elaborate plasterwork and painted panels with theatrical and classical themes.

To the north of Shubert’s stage house sits the Booth Theatre. Designed by the same architect responsible for the Shubert Theatre, Henry B. Herts, this playhouse also belongs to the Shubert Organization. It opened to the public on October 16, 1913, at 222 West 45th Street. This smaller venue has a listed capacity of 800 and was originally managed by Ames, who named the theater after Edwin Booth. Booth was a popular 19th-century actor who toured across America and opened his own Booth’s Theatre in 1869. His younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

The Shubert and Booth theaters were the first adjoining venues developed through this partnership on the block. For the brothers, and for Ames, the undertaking followed the disappointing New Theatre Group project on Central Park West. That group had leased land between 44th and 45th Streets for a proposed new theater before abandoning the plan. Shubert and Ames saw enough potential to take over the lease from the Astor family. From there, they built the two adjoining playhouses. Lee and his brother, J.J., ran the Shubert, while Ames ran the Booth.

On Broadway

Since the dawn of the 20th century, Times Square in New York City has been a hub of theatrical activity. As a Manhattan district, it began to form an identity of its own as Madison Square and Union Square went down their respective paths. By 1920, dozens of theaters had been built in Midtown Manhattan, helping establish Broadway as the center of American commercial theater. Originally from Syracuse, New York, the Shubert brothers got in on the action by building one of the country’s most influential theatrical enterprises.

When the Shuberts built the Shubert Theatre, they agreed to name it after their brother, Sam, who died in a railroad accident in 1905. They established other memorial theaters bearing his name, but in New York, people eventually shortened the full Sam S. Shubert Memorial Theatre name to the Shubert Theatre in everyday use.

While the Shubert brothers were setting up theaters, Winthrop Ames was looking to build a playhouse to replace the New Theatre, as he and his fellow founders felt the original 1909 location was too far from Times Square. Ames and his associates acquired property along 44th and 45th Streets to develop a new complex. He canceled the project, but a determined Ames still wanted a theatrical venue of his own. Across 44th Street, he also built the Little Theatre, later known as the Helen Hayes Theatre.

Staging Success

For the founders of the New Theatre, Ames’s departure meant they lost their director and gained a direct competitor. When Ames and Lee Shubert joined forces in 1912, they began designing and developing the Booth and Shubert theaters. Despite construction-related delays, the partnership moved forward. By the summer of 1913, the British acting couple Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Gertrude Elliott had announced plans for a repertory engagement. They would appear in the theater’s opening production of Hamlet.

When the October 2, 1913, performance took place, the new theater complex and the passageway that became Shubert Alley were already an important addition to the surrounding block. The passage connected 44th and 45th Streets and gave the adjoining playhouses prominent corner positions. Beyond Hamlet, the Forbes-Robertson company presented a series of Shakespearean plays and George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.

In January 1914, the Shubert Theatre presented the original theatrical production A Thousand Years Ago, written by Percy MacKaye. The Shubert Theatre followed this with the musical The Belle of Bond Street, featuring Sam Bernard and Gaby Deslys. The theater also revived George du Maurier’s Trilby. Before 1915 was over, the theater found another success with the operetta Alone at Last.

In 1917, Clifton Webb and Peggy Wood starred in Love O’Mike, a musical featuring music by Jerome Kern. Later in the year came Sigmund Romberg’s operetta Maytime. The success of shows such as these helped sustain the Shubert brothers’ larger Broadway operations. This momentum helped the Shubert Theatre, as well as neighboring theaters the brothers controlled, cater to eager audiences who saw stars and major stage works before their very eyes.

From the actors onstage to the talent behind the curtain, some of entertainment’s greatest legends made memorable Broadway appearances. Performers such as Fred Astaire, Ann Pennington, and Frances Williams helped make Shubert productions part of Manhattan’s theatrical life. Astaire appeared at the Shubert in 1933 when Cole Porter’s Gay Divorce transferred there from the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. It was his final Broadway musical before he headed for Hollywood.

Dramatics

The Shubert Theatre’s early successes included many musicals, but by the 1930s it was also staging major dramatic productions. Among the nonmusicals was the 1934 production of Dodsworth, starring Fay Bainter and Walter Huston. The play was a notable stage success, although it did not win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

While many of the straight plays succeeded, a few did not do as well. Maxwell Anderson’s 1937 The Masque of Kings was one example of a shorter-lived production. That same year illustrated how musicals remained a major part of the Shubert’s success, with Rodgers and Hart’s Babes in Arms among the memorable offerings. The Theatre Guild’s Amphitryon 38 also appeared in 1937, followed by I Married an Angel in 1938 and The Philadelphia Story in 1939. The latter starred Katharine Hepburn and helped strengthen the Theatre Guild’s financial position.

In the 1940s, the Shubert Theatre faced a few disappointments, such as the 1940 musical Higher and Higher, but otherwise continued to host an impressive range of stage productions. Meanwhile, new stars brightened Broadway, including Bobby Clark, Al Jolson, Martha Raye, and Mae West, among others who appeared in the Shubert brothers’ theatrical world. The trend continued into the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1962, Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut at the Shubert Theatre in Harold Rome’s musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. The role helped introduce her extraordinary voice to Broadway audiences. When 1963 marked the Shubert’s 50th anniversary, the theater installed a commemorative plaque.

In 1967, the Shubert Theatre hosted the first nationally televised Tony Awards ceremony, with the surrounding stretch of 44th Street carpeted. The awards returned to the theater in 1968. Neil Simon and Burt Bacharach’s musical Promises, Promises opened at the Shubert in December 1968 and ran for 1,281 performances, setting a new house record. The theater hosted additional Tony Awards ceremonies in later years, including four consecutive ceremonies from 1976 through 1979 and another in 1985.

Shubert’s Broadway

When A Chorus Line moved from the Public Theater to the Shubert Theatre in October 1975, it became one of Broadway’s defining events. The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical remained at this theater for nearly 15 years. In 1983, it became the longest-running show in Broadway history, and in 1987 it reached 5,000 performances. The musical’s choreographer and co-creator, Michael Bennett, was honored the same year after his death. By the time it closed in April 1990, A Chorus Line had given 6,137 Broadway performances at the Shubert.

By April 1990, A Chorus Line had reached the end of its record-breaking run. The West End musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story followed for a shorter engagement before Crazy for You opened in February 1992. The Gershwin musical became Shubert’s next major hit and ran for more than four years.

After renovations and upgrades, the Shubert hosted Big in 1996 before Chicago’s revival transferred to the theater in February 1997. It was a major success there until January 2003, when it moved to the Ambassador Theatre. Before the move, the theater honored lyricist Adolph Green. Chicago was followed by the 2003 revival of Gypsy, featuring music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, with Bernadette Peters in the title role.

Although the Shubert Theatre and Booth Theatre share a unified Venetian Renaissance exterior, their interiors differ considerably. Booth’s European elegance is somewhat more restrained than the larger Shubert’s. Shubert Alley was a design solution that allowed the two playhouses to occupy adjoining corner positions while remaining separate theatrical venues.

Theatrical Legacies

Together, the Shubert Theatre and Booth Theatre have left such an impression on Broadway that New York City declared both landmarks. Their architecture and rich theatrical histories continue to define the artistic spirit that draws audiences to Broadway. The Shubert Organization remains one of the most influential theater owners and operators in the United States, with a long history of producing and presenting shows in New York and beyond.

In 1973, the Shubert enterprise was reorganized as the Shubert Organization to carry forward the legacy of the brothers who had helped build Broadway’s theater industry. Today, the organization operates major Broadway houses, including the Ambassador, Barrymore, Belasco, Bernard B. Jacobs, Booth, Broadhurst, Broadway, Golden, Imperial, James Earl Jones, Longacre, Lyceum, Majestic, Music Box, Gerald Schoenfeld, Shubert, and Winter Garden theaters. It also operates Off-Broadway performance spaces. Since the 1990s, the organization has placed considerable emphasis on preserving and revitalizing New York’s theater properties and the surrounding Times Square Theater District.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission officially recognized the Shubert Theatre on December 15, 1987, designating both its exterior and interior. This came five years after the commission began considering preservation of the Shubert and other Broadway theaters. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in 1988, but the Shubert Organization, Jujamcyn, and the Nederlander Organization challenged restrictions involving 22 theaters. The dispute proceeded through the courts, and the landmark protections ultimately remained in place in 1992.

Continuing Legacies

The Shubert Theatre’s legacy continues as it embraces new challenges, including accessibility and changing audience expectations. When COVID-19 caused Broadway theaters to close in March 2020, the Shubert was among them. Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird had been playing at the theater since 2018. Performances resumed on October 5, 2021, before that production ended its Shubert run in January 2022. It was followed by the limited-run political comedy POTUS and the musical Some Like It Hot, which played from 2022 through 2023.

More recent productions have continued to bring new audiences to the Shubert. The musical Hell’s Kitchen, featuring the music of Alicia Keys, opened there in April 2024 and closed in February 2026. A new musical, Galileo, is scheduled to begin previews in November 2026, with its official opening planned for December. The theater remains a place where Broadway history is made rather than simply remembered.

Adding to Shubert’s legacy is a genuine love of theater’s power to shape society. Through entertainment, there is a knack for bringing people together regardless of their political and social affiliations. What started as a family enterprise has grown into a lasting expression of what art can do onstage, with just as much tenacity as what is put on canvas or shaped as sculpture.

For more Broadway history, read our articles on the Booth Theatre, the Shubert brothers and their organization, and Broadway theaters in New York City.