Olympia Theatre (New York City)

Coordinates: 40°45′27″N 73°59′09″W / 40.75738°N 73.98570°W / 40.75738; -73.98570
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Olympic Theatre (New York City).

Olympia Theatre
Hammerstein's Olympia, New York Theatre,
J. B. McElfatrick & Son

The Olympia Theatre (1514–16

Longacre Square (later Times Square) in Manhattan, New York City
, opening in 1895.

It consisted of a theater, a music hall, a concert hall, and a roof garden. Later, sections of the structure were substantially remodeled and used for both live theatere and for motion pictures. As a cinema, it was also known at various times as the Vitagraph Theatre and the Criterion Theatre.

History

According to

J. B. McElfatrick & Son.[1][2] The building opened on November 25, 1895 with the Broadway debut of Excelsior, Jr., with over 30 performers from Europe appearing.[3] It was the second theater to open in what is now known as the Theater District. (The first was the Empire Theatre
, on the southeast corner of 40th Street and Broadway.) The complex consisted of the Music Hall, a large variety theater, the Lyric, a legitimate theater, the Concert Hall, for smaller music performances, and a rooftop garden theater.

In 1898, Hammerstein was forced to sell the complex to settle debts from its construction.

Florenz Ziegfeld and hosted the first five editions of the Ziegfeld Follies under the name Jardin de Paris, named for the location in Paris of the Moulin Rouge. It, too, became a movie theater.[9]
The complex was demolished in 1935.

Subsequent site use

After the old venues were demolished, architects Thomas W. Lamb and Eugene De Rosa designed a new building on the site which included a new Criterion Theatre cinema, the International Casino nightclub, and retail space.[1] The nightclub closed after only two years, and the space became a Bond Clothing Stores location until 1977. It was then reconverted to a discotheque, Bond International Casino, which closed in 1986. The cinema was multiplexed in 1980.

In 1988, a portion of the former nightclub space was converted was to a pair of live theater spaces called the Criterion Center.

Laura Pels Theatre. Notable productions during Roundabout's tenure at the Criterion include the 1993 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (featuring Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson in their Broadway debuts),[11] the 1995 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company,[12] and the 1997 revival of 1776
. The company left the space in 1999 when their lease was canceled.

The Toys "R" Us Times Square store in 2012.

In the early 2000s,

Bow Tie Cinemas, the chain operated by the Moss family.[19]

Partial list of notable productions

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-486-40244-4
    .
  2. ^ "Olympia Ready to Open". The New York Times. November 24, 1895.
  3. ^ "Police Call in Olympia". The New York Times. November 26, 1895.
  4. ^ Shepard, Richard F. (November 5, 1995). "LOOKING BACK;Hammerstein's Gamble". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "Loew's New York". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
  6. ^ "Criterion Theatre". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  7. ^ "Criterion Theatre". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
  8. ^ "War Picture at the Vitagraph". New-York Tribune. September 5, 1915. p. 5. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  9. ^ "Jardin de Paris". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
  10. ^ "Criterion Center Stage Right – New York, NY". IBDB.
  11. ^ "Anna Christie – Broadway Play – 1993 Revival". IBDB.
  12. ^ "Company – Broadway Musical – 1995 Revival". IBDB.
  13. ^ Bagli, Charles V. (August 2, 2000). "Toys 'R' Us to Build the Biggest Store in Times Sq". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Harris, Elizabeth A. (December 30, 2015). "Several Days After Christmas, Toys 'R' Us Closes in Times Square". The New York Times.
  15. ^ Rupp, Lindsey (June 26, 2015). "Gap, Old Navy Brands to Take Over Toys 'R' Us Times Square Store –". Bloomberg Business. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  16. ^ Viagas, Robert (July 27, 2016). "Times Square Construction Workers Unearth Ruins of Old Theatre". Playbill.
  17. ^ Rosenberg, Zoe (August 5, 2016). "See the remnants of the historic theater unearthed at Times Square". Curbed NY.
  18. ^ Cote, David (August 5, 2016). "Ruins of an 1895 Broadway theatre found under Toys R Us in Times Square". Time Out New York.
  19. ^ Bow Tie Partners. "The Bow Tie Building". Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  20. ^ "At the Theatres; Acting of John Hare and Irene Vanbrugh in The Gay Lord Quex", The New York Times, November 18, 1900, p. 18 (subscription required)
  21. ^ Mantle, Burns; Sherwood, Garrison P.; Chapman, John Arthur (1944). "A Million Dollars". The Best Plays of 1899–1909. Dodd, Mead & Co. p. 372.
  22. ISBN 9781135871178
    .
  23. ISBN 9781442245280
    .
  24. ISBN 0-942191-01-3
    .
  25. ^ Riis, Thomas L., Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890-1915 (London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 91
  26. ^ Bordman & Norton, p. 250
  27. ^ Ben Brantley (March 12, 1999). "THEATER REVIEW; A Game Of Feudal Feuding". The New York Times. p. E1.
  28. ^ Vincent Canby (April 26, 1995). "THEATER REVIEW; Turgenev's Inquiry Into Calamitous Love". The New York Times.
  29. ^ Ben Brantley (March 12, 1999). "THEATER REVIEW; A Game Of Feudal Feuding". The New York Times. p. E1.

Bibliography

  • Bordman, Gerald Martin; Norton, Richard (2010). American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.
    ISBN 9780199729708
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hammerstein's Olympia.

40°45′27″N 73°59′09″W / 40.75738°N 73.98570°W / 40.75738; -73.98570

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