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Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York

In the late 19th century, what is now Times Square was known as Longacre Square and was heavily frequented by the horse and carriage industry. The site of the Winter Garden Theatre was originally occupied by the American Horse Exchange, which was built by William K. Vanderbilt. The Horse Exchange, on the east side of Broadway between 50th and 51st Streets, was designed by D. & J. Jardine. the Horse Exchange was not completed until the next year. The exchange burned down in June 1896, killing close to a hundred horses. After the exchange was destroyed, Vanderbilt hired A. V. Porter to construct a new structure of two to four stories. In 1911 the Shubert family leased the building and architect William Albert Swasey redesigned the building as a theater. The Winter Garden was completely remodeled in 1922 by Herbert J. Krapp. The theater is still operated by the Shubert Organization.

As designed, the main entrance was on Broadway and there were ten exits on Seventh Avenue. The Broadway facade was designed in a colonial style with plain gray stone. The original exterior used much of the existing facade of the Horse Exchange, though a cupola was added in the modification, as well as a heavy cornice. The columns rose two stories, supporting a cornice and a pediment. The billboards date to at least the 1930s. Because of the number of exits to the surrounding streets, Architecture and Building magazine wrote in 1911 that the theater "is said to have more exits than any other auditorium of its size in the United States". A portion of the old American Horse Exchange facade was visible on Seventh Avenue until the late 1990s, when it was refaced in brick. It was originally designed as a restaurant space in the Flemish style. Over the years, it became a nightclub known as Palais de Danse, Montmartre, and Singapore. The walls contain panels with foliate decorations in the Adam style. These are separated by Adam style pilasters, topped by Corinthian style capitals. The west doors lead to the ticket lobby and are made of bronze. The east doors lead to the auditorium and are made of bronze with glass frames; these doors are separated by pilasters that hold up an arched entablature. The walls also have lighting sconces. The lobby's ceiling contains Adam style bands that split the ceiling into Adam style quadrilateral panels. According to the Shubert Organization, the auditorium has 1,600 seats; and The Broadway League cites 1,526 seats. There are 1,045 seats in the orchestra, 486 on the balcony, 36 in the boxes, and 33 standing only spots. In addition, the original theater had 150 box seats. The theater was initially designed with latticework rather than Adam style detailing, since latticework was commonly used as a design motif in Broadway theaters of the 1910s.

The orchestra floor is raked. The rear (north) end of the orchestra contains a shallow promenade, which wraps around to the auditorium's sides. Pilasters with Corinthian capitals divide the promenade's rear wall into sections, and a cornice with dentils and modillions also runs along the wall, above the pilasters. The promenade is separated from the orchestra seating by a row of columns, also topped by Corinthian capitals. The orchestra promenade's coved ceiling is divided by Adam style bands with foliate decorations. Each cove has circular decorative elements at their centers, which contain coffers and swags. The promenade forms part of a "grand promenade" connecting Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The orchestra level previously had 12 boxes extending along the sides of the auditorium. The walls originally contained latticework, behind which were lights. On either side of the stage is an outwardly splayed wall section with boxes at the balcony level and directly above the balcony. Both levels have three boxes on either side, which are curved outward. The original design had only one level of boxes, which was at the balcony level. In the proscenium's original configuration, it measured 30 feet (9 m) high and about 50 feet (15 m) wide. efn| According to Architecture and Building, the stage originally measured 45 feet (14 m) deep and 108 feet (33 m) deep. The dressing rooms were placed in a separate structure directly behind the stage, separated from the auditorium by brick walls. The original ceiling had poor acoustics. Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during the first decade of the 20th century. From 1901 to 1920, forty three theaters were built around Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. The Winter Garden Theatre was predated by an earlier theater of the same name, which opened in 1850 and was further downtown, at Broadway and Bond Street. The current Winter Garden was developed by the Shubert brothers of Syracuse, New York, who expanded downstate into New York City in the first decade of the 20th century. After the death of Sam S. Shubert in 1905, his brothers Lee and Jacob J. Shubert expanded their theatrical operations significantly. The brothers controlled a quarter of all plays and three quarters of theatrical ticket sales in the U. S. by 1925.

Both Sam and Lee Shubert had prevented Jacob from taking a full role in the operation of the Shubert syndicate, and Lee had often sent Jacob to oversee productions outside New York City after Sam died. This prompted Jacob to develop his own theater; he subsequently recalled that, while walking up Broadway in early 1910, he looked at the Horse Exchange. Though the exchange was far north of the established Broadway theater district at the time, the raked balcony above the horse auction ring appealed to Jacob, even after he learned that Vanderbilt was the landlord. With the horse transportation declining in favor of automobiles, Vanderbilt leased the Horse Exchange site to the Shuberts in 1910. In May 1910, the Shubert brother filed plans for a theater called Lew Fields' Winter Garden, which would be built on the Horse Exchange site at a cost of $500,000. William Albert Swasey would be the architect while John McKeefrey would be the builder. During mid 1910, while Fields was on tour, Jacob changed many of Fields's plans for the theater's physical specifications. Jacob also sent harsh letters to Fields about the latter's overspending, causing conflict between the two men. A factor in Fields's withdrawal was Lee's lack of intervention in the dispute, implicitly favoring his less experienced brother over his longtime partner.

The Winter Garden was supposed to open at the beginning of March 1911, but ticket sales did not even begin until March 6 due to difficulties in scheduling productions. It opened on March 20, 1911, with the two part musical La Belle Paree. The show featured the Broadway premiere of actor and singer Al Jolson. The New York Times wrote that the Winter Garden was "New York's latest plaything, a very flashy toy, full of life and go and color and with no end of jingle to it". Conversely, when flops were staged at the Winter Garden, critics said they could smell the horse stables. After La Belle Paree closed, the show Revue of Revues, featuring Gaby Deslys, opened in September 1911 and ran for two months. That November, the revue Vera Violetta opened, the first show to use the Winter Garden's runway. leading the runway to be nicknamed the "bridge of thighs". (From) Broadway to Paris premiered in November 1912, and Jolson, Deslys, and Fanny Brice appeared in The Honeymoon Express the next year. Jacob's son, John Shubert, subsequently recalled that after The Honeymoon Express, Jolson returned to the Winter Garden once every 18 months on average. Jolson's shows typically premiered early in the year, then went on tour after a summer break. These shows included Dancing Around (1914), Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1916), Sinbad (1918), and Monte Cristo, Jr. (1919). Though Jolson made the Winter Garden popular, the Shuberts had to fill the theater when Jolson was on tour. Jacob Shubert, who considered Florenz Ziegfeld as an adversary, rushed the production of his revue The Passing Show in mid 1912 after hearing that Ziegfeld was on vacation. Efn|The Passing Show of 1921 technically opened at the end of 1920. Jolson never appeared in any edition of The Passing Show, but the series nonetheless had notable acts such as Miller's dancing debut in 1914. In addition to Jolson's performances and The Passing Show, the Winter Garden hosted other musicals and revues. These included Cinderella on Broadway and the Broadway Brevities in 1920; The work was intended to make the theater suitable "more for revue than for extravaganza", as The New York Times described it. One hundred seats were installed in the former runway, and mulberry colored damask panels were installed to give a perception of intimacy. which was followed by that year's edition of The Passing Show. The end of that year saw the first edition of another revue at the Winter Garden, the Greenwich Village Follies. and 1927. In addition to these revues, the musical Innocent Eyes was staged in 1924, Also presented at the Winter Garden were Gay Paree (1925 and 1926), The Great Temptations (1926), and The Circus Princess (1927). and used it as a cinema for the next five years. The first film shown was The Singing Fool, featuring Al Jolson, which was screened in September 1928.

Warner Bros. ended its lease in 1933. After the cinema lease was terminated, the first legitimate play to be presented was Hold Your Horses, which opened in September 1933. This was followed by the 1934 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies, Another edition of the Follies was hosted in 1936. and At Home Abroad in 1935. This was followed the next year by Hooray for What!, an antiwar musical. another Olsen and Johnson hit, which ran at the Winter Garden for over a year before transferring in 1943. The Winter Garden hosted the Ziegfeld Follies once again in 1943, with Milton Berle, Jack Cole, Ilona Massey, and Arthur Treacher. This edition of the Follies ran longer than any previous edition. This was followed in 1944 by Cole Porter's Mexican Hayride the Winter Garden again became a cinema for three years. United Artists started negotiating for the rights to use the Winter Garden for motion pictures in August 1945, but there were disputes over sound equipment. An agreement was reached later that month, with United Artists taking over that October. By the end of 1947, United Artists struggled to find films to screen, and it was paying $7,500 a week in rent. As the Girls Go, which opened in November 1948,

Michael Todd staged Michael Todd's Peep Show, a burlesque, in 1950. This was followed by the satire Top Banana in 1951, with Phil Silvers; The 16th century classic Tamburlaine The Great was staged at the Winter Garden in 1956. The Old Vic, a theater company from London, arrived the same year, presenting several Shakespeare plays. The last Ziegfeld Follies at the Winter Garden was staged in 1957, featuring Beatrice Lillie and Billy De Wolfe, but it was not as successful as previous versions, closing after 123 performances. The Winter Garden's last productions of the 1950s were Juno and Saratoga in 1959. having transferred the previous year. which ran 732 performances. For much of the rest of the decade, the Winter Garden presented two hits. and ran for two years before transferring. and ran for three years. which opened in 1971. This was followed the next year by a revival of Much Ado About Nothing, produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival and featuring Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes. In addition, Neil Diamond performed a series of solo concerts in October 1972, and Liza Minnelli performed in a concert run in January 1974. A revival of the Sondheim musical Gypsy, featuring Lansbury, was staged later in 1974, Yet another Sondheim musical, Pacific Overtures, was staged at the Winter Garden in 1976. as well as a 167 performance run of Fiddler on the Roof. The musical Beatlemania opened in 1977 and ran for two years,

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Winter Garden was used mostly for several minor shows and live appearances. and in August by Gilda Radner's Live From New York appearances. Next to be staged, in 1980, was Twyla Tharp's dance series. The musical 42nd Street premiered later in 1980, This was followed by Camelot in 1981

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats had been booked for the Winter Garden in April 1982, with a premiere scheduled for that October. In mid 1982, the Shuberts closed the Winter Garden Theatre for a major renovation of both the exterior and the interior. under the supervision of designer John Napier. In addition, the interior was painted black, as was the billboard outside. Cats opened on October 7, 1982, and quickly became successful, winning multiple Tony Awards. Cats became the longest running Broadway show in history in June 1997, when it hit 6,138 performances. Ultimately, Cats ran 7,485 performances spanning nearly eighteen years. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting the Winter Garden as an official city landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. Though both the exterior and interior were considered, This was part of the LPC's wide ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters, which had commenced in 1987. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. The Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Winter Garden, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992.

In 2000, the Shubert Organization and General Motors (GM) began discussions over a possible sponsorship, in which the Winter Garden could be rebranded for Cadillac, a division of GM. Early the same year, theatrical media announced that Cats would close that June, having played to more than 10 million guests and grossing over $380 million. and objects from the production were auctioned at the Winter Garden. The $10 million project entailed restoring many of the architectural features that had been heavily modified for Cats, as well as restoring the lobby, lounges, seats, and ticket areas. Historical design features, such as light fixtures and plasterwork, were restored or replaced. with a premiere in October 2001. Following the Shuberts' discussions with GM, the theater was renamed the Cadillac Winter Garden Theatre in May 2002. As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2003, the Shuberts agreed to improve disabled access at their 16 landmarked Broadway theaters, including the Winter Garden. At the beginning of 2007, GM's sponsorship ended and the venue returned to its original name. Mamma Mia! was similarly long running, transferring to the Broadhurst in 2013 to make way for Rocky the Musical. Rocky opened in 2014 and ran for 188 performances. as well as a much longer run of School of Rock, which closed in early 2019 after over 1,300 performances. Beetlejuice opened in April 2019, In March 2020, the theater closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic; Beetlejuice run, which had been scheduled to end that June, ended prematurely due to an extension of the COVID 19 closure. The musical eventually relocated to the Marquis Theatre in 2022. During its closure, a stagehand at the Winter Garden died after falling while taking down props for Beetlejuice in November 2020; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the Shuberts as a result. The theater also served as the venue for the 74th Tony Awards in September 2021. The Winter Garden reopened on December 20, 2021, with previews of The Music Man, which officially opened in February 2022. The production ran for 374 performances through January 2023. Back to the Future: The Musical opened at the theater in August 2023.