Hirschfeld At The Hirschfeld

Aug 4, 2014

Al Hirschfeld may be gone eleven years, but thanks to Louise Hirschfeld, Arthur Gelb, Rocco Landesman, and Jujamcyn Theatres, he remains part of Broadway today. The Al Hirschfeld Theater, on 45th Street and Ninth Avenue, currently houses the 2013 Best Musical, Kinky Boots, a show we think Al would have enjoyed. He had been drawing drag queens since 1927, and he loved good songs and story.

The theater was renamed in 2003 on what would have been Al’s 100th birthday. Although he died five months earlier, he had learned of the greatest of Broadway honors in April 2002 and was genuinely moved by it. In October 2012, selections from the theater dedication evening were shown as part of the New York Public lIbrary for the Performing Art’s exhibition, The Line King’s Library and included Whoopi Goldberg telling the story of her first drawing; Arthur Miller telling why no one can ever be tired looked at a Hirschfeld drawing; and Frank Langella’s poignant story of visiting Al in his studio late in the game.

When you visit the theater, no matter where your tickets are, you should visit the mezzanine lobby at intermission or before the show to see reproductions of Hirschfeld drawings of plays presented at the theater. Built in 1924 by Martin Beck, a vaudeville impresario responsible for the first successes of performers such as Houdini and W. C. Fields, the theater has been home to many of the most important plays and musicals of the 20th century.

While you can learn more about the theater at Spotlight on Broadway “a multimedia project of the City of New York's Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment to celebrate the unique, indelible legacy of Broadway and its forty theaters”, we wanted to share even more of the shows that have played at the theater than can be seen in the Hirschfeld Gallery there. Beginning in 1927, soon after Al began drawing theatrical productions, he drew his first show at the Martin Beck Theatre. Over 75 years he drew 76 different productions, virtually one from every season. There are plays by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Eugene O’Neill and musicals by Kander and Ebb, Sondheim, Bernstein, Loesser, Cy Coleman, and Comden and Green. Actors include the Lunts, Katharine Cornell, Marlon Brando, Vanessa Redgrave, Ethel Waters, Nathan Lane, Helen Hayes, Meryl Streep, Brian Stokes Mitchell, John Lithgow, to name a few. There are plenty of Tony winners, and few Pulitzers.

1927
A La Carte

1928
Wings Over Europe
Dynamo
The Camel Through the Needle’s Eye

1929
Porgy

1929- 1930
Red Rust
The Apple Cart
Hotel Universe

1934
Yellow Jack

1935
Winterset

1936
Saint Joan
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company season of Gilbert and Sullivan

1937
High Tor

1939
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company season of Gilbert and Sullivan

1940
Lady in Waiting

1941
Watch on the Rhine

1942
The Moon is Down
The Pirate