New Victory Theater

The New Victory Theater is a theater at 209 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, near Times Square. Built in 1900 as the Republic Theatre (also Theatre Republic), it was designed by Albert Westover and developed by Oscar Hammerstein I as a Broadway theater. The theater has been known by several names over the years, including the Belasco Theatre, Minsky's Burlesque, and the Victory Theatre. The theater is owned by the city and state governments of New York and leased to nonprofit New 42, which has operated the venue as a children's theater since 1995. The New Victory presents theater shows, dance shows, puppet shows, and other types of performance art shows from all around the world.

The New Victory Theater's modern design dates to a 1995 renovation; its facade reflects its appearance in 1900, while the interior incorporates details that were added when David Belasco took over the theater in 1902. The theater has a brick and brownstone facade with a central stoop leading to the second floor. Inside the entrance is a lobby and reception area, as well as a basement with the theater's restrooms, lockers, and concessions. The New Victory Theater's auditorium seats 499 people on three levels, although it originally accommodated over 900 guests. The auditorium is designed in a red-and-gold palette, with green and purple accents, and contains box seats and a decorative domed ceiling. The backstage areas were initially extremely small, but they were expanded into a new wing in 1995.

The theater opened on September 27, 1900, with the play Sag Harbor. Two years later, Belasco leased the theater, renamed it for himself, and completely reconstructed the interior. Although Belasco restored the Republic Theatre name in 1910, he continued to operate it until 1914. A. H. Woods then leased the theater until 1922, when Oliver D. Bailey took over, hosting the play Abie's Irish Rose at the theater for five years. Due to a lack of theatrical productions, Billy Minsky converted the Republic into a burlesque house in 1931, and his family operated it as such until 1942. Afterward, the Republic became a movie theater, the Victory, operated by the Brandt family. The theater became the first adult movie theater on 42nd Street in 1972. New 42 took over the Victory and several neighboring theaters in 1990. Plans for the children's theater were announced in 1993, and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates restored the theater, which reopened on December 11, 1995, as the New Victory.

The New Victory Theater is at 209 West 42nd Street, on the northern sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, at the southern end of Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. The building occupies a rectangular land lot covering 6,942 sq ft (644.9 m²), with a frontage of 69 ft (21 m) on 42nd Street and a depth of 100.5 ft (30.6 m). The theater abuts 3 Times Square to the east and northeast, as well as the Lyric Theatre to the west and northwest. It also shares the block with the Hotel Carter building, the Todd Haimes Theatre, and the Times Square Theater to the west. Other nearby buildings include 255 West 43rd Street, the St. James Theatre, and the Hayes Theater to the northwest; 229 West 43rd Street and 1501 Broadway to the north; 5 Times Square and the New Amsterdam Theatre to the south; and the Candler Building to the southwest.

The surrounding area is part of Manhattan's Theater District and contains many Broadway theaters. In the first two decades of the 20th century, eleven venues for legitimate theatre were built within one block of West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The New Amsterdam, Harris, Liberty, Eltinge, and Lew Fields theaters occupied the south side of the street. The original Lyric and Apollo theaters (combined into the current Lyric Theatre), as well as the Times Square, Victory, Selwyn (now Todd Haimes), and Victoria theaters, occupied the north side. These venues were mostly converted to movie theaters by the 1930s, and many of them had been relegated to showing pornography by the 1970s.

The New Victory Theater was designed by architect Albert Westover; its current design dates to a 1995 renovation by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (HHPA). The design of the facade reflects its appearance in 1900, when Oscar Hammerstein I developed the theater. The interior design incorporates details that were added when David Belasco took over the theater in 1902. The theater's interior was intended to be completely fireproof, with marble stairways, artificial stone, and plaster surfaces with wire-net lathing.

The brick and brownstone facade was inspired by Venetian architecture. When the theater was completed in 1900, the main facade measured 70 ft (21 m) tall and 100 ft (30 m) wide. The New-York Tribune described it as being made of "iron, brownstone, and Powhatan brick". At the front of the theater, a brownstone stoop with two staircases rises from ground level to the second story. Ten wrought-iron street lights decorate the perimeter. The current stoop is a replica of the theater's original stoop, which led to the auditorium's second balcony level; the original lobby was below the original stoop. The original stoop was removed in 1910 before being restored in 1995. The New York City government had to approve the installation of the current stoop because it extends onto the sidewalk of 42nd Street.

When Belasco renovated the theater in 1902, he installed a wrought iron and glass canopy in front of the entrance, which was also eliminated in 1910. Prior to the New Victory's restoration, there had been an Art Deco-style marquee in front of the entrance, dating from 1932. This was removed in 1995, along with a piece of the neighboring Lyric Theatre's marquee.