Foxwoods Theatre
Proscenium arch
The Foxwoods Theatre, which opened in 1997 as the Ford Center for
the Performing Arts, was designed to adhere to the guidelines for development established
by The New 42nd Street to
"promote the preservation, restoration and reconstruction of the historically
significant elements of each theater".
The challenge was to find a way to
take two theaters that had many magnificent design elements but were sadly deficient in
most all areas required for a Broadway musical house such as, seating capacity, size of
stage, proscenium opening, handicapped access, dressing rooms, lobby areas, public toilets
to name a few and create a theater that adhered to the guidelines.
The
product of collaboration between architects, engineers, craftsmen and designers, including
Beyer Blinder Belle and the
Roger Morgan Studio (now Sachs
Morgan Studio), the design combines preservation with state of the art new
construction to create the spirit and character of a great old theater with the needs of
a modern one.
The Foxwoods Theatre incorporates many elements from the Apollo
and Lyric theaters. First, these include the Lyric's magnificent turn of the century 42nd
and 43rd street facades which will be restored to their original grandeur.
Second, key historic interior elements of the Apollo were used in the theater, these
included the lobby which was restored and is used as a lounge during intermission and
plaster elements were cut into sections, removed from the Apollo, restored, and
reinstalled in the new theater. These included ceiling domes, the proscenium arch, sail
vault, and side boxes. These latter elements were expanded to fit the scale of the
larger theater.
The theater's interior design theme is based on the
reinstalled historic elements from the Apollo. The historic dome is set within a new
second dome and washed with light to feature it as the theater's centerpiece. The dome,
proscenium, and side boxes are painted and gilded to be the featured design elements. The
side walls design of pilasters and scalloped panels were first established by the
structural grid and acoustical considerations and then designed as supporting elements in
a sympathetic manner and in a similar vocabulary to the historic elements. New murals were
commissioned to form a frieze over the new side boxes in a Greek mythological theme
recalling the original concept of the Apollo.