From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Palace Theatre, circa 1920. The Palace is in the tall building on the right side of the photograph.

The Palace Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 1564 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.

Designed by architects Kirchoff & Rose, the theatre, built by California vaudeville entrepreneur and Broadway impresario Martin Beck, experienced a number of problems before it opened. E. F. Albee, one of the main executives for B. F. Keith and his powerful vaudeville circuit, demanded that Beck turn over three-quarters of the stock in the theatre in order to use acts from the Keith circuit. In addition, Oscar Hammerstein was the only person who could offer Keith acts in that section of Broadway, so Beck paid him off with $225,000. The theatre finally opened on March 24, 1913 with headliner Ed Wynn. To "play the Palace" meant that an entertainer had reached the pinnacle of his career, and it became a popular venue with performers like Sarah Bernhardt, Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, George Jessel, and Jack Benny.

With the Great Depression came a rise in the popularity of film and radio, and vaudeville began its decline. In 1929 the two-a-day Palace shows were increased to three. By 1932, the Palace moved to four shows a day and lowered its admission price. In November of that year, it converted to a movie house. CITIZEN KANE had its world premiere at the theatre on May 1, 1941.

In the 1950s, the RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) chain tried to revive vaudeville with shows by such names as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, Betty Hutton, and Harry Belafonte. While the shows were successful, they did not lead to a revival of the genre. On January 29, 1966, the Palace reopened as a legitimate theatre with the original production of the musical Sweet Charity, although for a period of time it showed films and presented concert performances by Bette Midler, Josephine Baker, Eddie Fisher, Shirley MacLaine, Diana Ross, and the like between theatrical engagements.

In the 1980s, a towering hotel was built above the theater, cantilevered over the auditorium; today, the theater is practically invisible behind an enormous wall of billboards and under the skyscraper, and only the marquee is visible.

The Palace is somewhat infamous for having an enormous and difficult-to-sell second balcony in which nearly every seat has an obstructed view.^[1]

Legally Blonde: The Musical, a stage adaptation of the 2001 film, is scheduled to begin previews on April 3, 2007.

• 1967: Henry, Sweet Henry
• 1968: George M!
• 1970: Applause
• 1973: Cyrano
• 1975: Goodtime Charley
• 1976: Home Sweet Homer
• 1977: Man of La Mancha
• 1979: The Grand Tour
• 1981: Woman of the Year
• 1983: La Cage aux Folles
• 1991: The Will Rogers Follies
• 1994: Beauty and the Beast
• 2000: Aida
• 2005: All Shook Up
• 2006: Lestat

1. ^ Witchel, Alex. "Is Disney the newest Broadway Baby?" New York Times, 17 April 1994. Retrieved 23 January 2007. Available here.

• Palace Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database