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Belasco Theatre
Proscenium arch
Completed 1907
Architect George Keister
Theaters became
smaller after the turn of the century; many people who were dependent on less expensive,
upper-balcony seats for their weekly entertainment turned to the new, even cheaper, movie
houses. Impresarios such as David Belasco saw this as an opportunity to present drama in
intimate spaces. The auditorium's drawing-room theme is carried out in a Tiffany-bedecked
neo-Georgian style, complemented by 18 Everett Shin murals surmounting the proscenium.
Reinforcing the 'at home' style is the domesticity of the colonial revival exterior. In
contrast to the apparent intimate simplicity of the theater, Belasco was a 'man of the
century,' incorporating a new sophisticated lighting system, an elevator stage and a
special effects studio behind the scenes
The theater's premier production as
the Stuyvesant, on October 16, 1907, featured William Warfield and Antoinette Perry in A
Grand Army Man. Belasco renamed the theater for himself in 1910. Except for a brief span
in the early '50s when it was used as a radio studio by NBC, the Belasco has remained a
legitimate Broadway house
