Lyric Theatre

Defunct

Address

213 West 42nd Street

GPS

40.756479458582, -73.987754142019

BOOK

Afterward they visited a ticket speculator and, at a price, obtained seats for a new musical comedy called High Jinks. In the foyer of the theatre they waited a few moments to see the first-night crowd come in. There were opera-cloaks stitched of myriad, many-colored silks and furs; there were jewels dripping from arms and throats and ear-tips of white and rose; there were innumerable broad shimmers down the middles of innumerable silk hats; there were shoes of gold and bronze and red and shining black; there were the high-piled, tight-packed coiffures of many women and the slick, watered hair of well-kept men—most of all there was the ebbing, flowing, chattering, chuckling, foaming, slow-rolling wave effect of this cheerful sea of people as to-night it poured its glittering torrent into the artificial lake of laughter….

The Beautiful and Damned

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Opened in 1903. In 1934 it was converted into a movie theatre, a role it kept until closing in 1992. In 1996 its interior was demolished and the site was combined with that of the former Apollo Theatre to create the Ford Center, today’s new Lyric Theatre. The original façades on 42nd and 43rd Streets were preserved, however, and they still serve as the main and rear entrances of the current theatre.

"High Jinks", a musical comedy with a book by Leo Ditrichstein and Otto Hauerbach, opened on December 10, 1913. On January 12, 1914, it transferred to the Casino Theatre, 1404 Broadway & West 39th Street.

"Omar, the Tentmaker", a melodrama by Richard Walton Tully, ran from January 13 to April 1, 1914.

OTHER LOCATIONS