NYC - Theatre District: Booth Theatre and West 45th Street…

A series of theatres line West 45th Street. From near to far, The Booth Theatre, Schoenfeld Theatre, Jacobs Theatre, and Golden Theatre. Lee Shubert built the Italian Renaissance inspired Booth Theatre in partnership with the producer Winthrop Ames in 1913. Named for the actor Edwin Booth, brother to the infamous John Wilkes Booth, the venue was actually the second New York theatre to bear this name. The first was built by Booth himself in 1869 on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue. Ames’s father had been devoted to preserving the actor’s legacy, so Winthrop’s decision to name this theatre after Booth honored not only the actor, but connected his own family’s interest with the actor’s rich theatrical history. Ames intended to present the most challenging and prestigious productions possible here. The Booth was designed by Henry Herts to be one of a pair of playhouses: the Booth and the Shubert Theatres abut each other along Shubert Alley in one seamless unit. Styled with “restrained classicism,” the Booth is the smaller, less extravagant of the two houses. The sgraffito that adorns the exterior of both theaters is the last known surviving example in New York of this once popular decorating technique. Ames had an extensive knowledge of the architecture and technical advances of contemporary European theatres and modeled his theatre and productions after them. The American premiere of Arnold Bennet’s The Great Adventure inaugurated the Booth on October 16, 1913. In 1952, William Marchant

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