Ethel Barrymore Theatre

 Ethel Barrymore Theatre

The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 241 West 47th Street in New York City's Theater District. It was built by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles for the Shubert family and opened in 1928. The Shubert Organization operates the 1,058-seat theatre named for actress Ethel Barrymore. Both the front and the interior of the theatre are New York City landmarks.

The ground-floor facade is built of rusticated terracotta blocks. The main entrance of the theatre is comprised of two archways and a doorway protected by a marquee. The top storeys include an arched terracotta screen inspired by Roman baths and enclosed by white masonry. The theatre has decorative plasterwork, a sloped orchestra level, a huge balcony, and a coved roof with a 36-foot-wide (11-meter) dome. Box seats with ornate arches adorn the balcony level. A underground lounge and a now-demolished stage house were also planned for the theatre.

After Ethel Barrymore decided to have the Shubert brothers handle her theatrical career, the brothers created the Barrymore Theatre. It was the Shuberts' final pre-Depression residence, opening on December 20, 1928, with The Kingdom of God. Ethel Barrymore only worked with the Shuberts until 1932, and she last appeared on stage in 1940. Since its inception, the Barrymore has been used as a genuine theatre, staging plays and musicals; it is one of the oldest theatres in the country.

Since its establishment, the Barrymore has continually been used as a real theatre, staging plays and musicals; it is one of the few Broadway theatres that has never been sold or renamed. The theatre was renovated in the 1980s and again in the 2000s.

The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is located at 243 West 47th Street, on the north sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway, in Times Square in New York City's Theater District. The square land lot is 10,050 square feet (934 square metres), with a frontage of 100 feet (30 metres) on 47th Street and a depth of 100 feet. 

The Barrymore is located on the same block as the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, the Longacre Theatre, and the Morgan Stanley Building. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre and the Walter Kerr Theatre are to the north; the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan is to the northeast; 20 Times Square is to the east; the Hotel Edison and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre are to the south; and the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and the Paramount Hotel are to the southwest.

Herbert J. Krapp designed the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in numerous styles and built it in 1928 for the Shubert brothers. The Shubert Organization operates the theatre, which is named for actress Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), a notable member of the Barrymore family of actors. The Barrymore has been utilised continually as a real house since its establishment and, unlike other Broadway theatres, has never been sold or renamed. Until 2003, the Shubert Organization's last theatre was the Barrymore.

The auditorium contains one balcony, boxes, and a stage beneath the proscenium arch. The area is decorated with low relief plaster ornamentation. The auditorium is approximately square in form. The auditorium contains 1,058 seats, according to the Shubert Organization; however, Playbill has 1,039 seats and The Broadway League lists 1,096 seats. There are 582 seats in the orchestra, 196 in the front of the balcony, 256 in the back of the balcony, and 24 in the boxes.

Originally, there were 1,100 seats in all, with 570 in the orchestra, 494 in the balcony, and 36 in the boxes.

Steel backs and bottoms were used to make the seats "unusually comfy." The auditorium had an old-gold and brown colour scheme, according to a source from the theater's inception. The interior design incorporates Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam-style design elements.

Between 1900 through the Great Depression, Times Square became the focus for large-scale theatre productions. The Shubert brothers, one of the biggest theatrical syndicates of the time, established multiple theatres in Midtown Manhattan throughout the 1900s and 1910s. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Shuberts expanded downstate into New York City from Syracuse, New York. 

By 1925, the brothers controlled one-quarter of all plays and three-quarters of all theatrical ticket sales in the United States. In the 1920s, the Shuberts proceeded to develop Broadway theatres, constructing four theatres on 48th and 49th Streets, as well as the Imperial Theatre on 45th Street.

Waitress broke the Ethel Barrymore Theatre's box office record. On September 3, 2021, it garnered $197,878 in ticket sales, shattering the previous single-performance house record at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre established by the production of Betrayal ($184,476).