Known as the “Crossroads of the World,” Times Square is New York’s most famous intersection and center of the lively theater district. It was called Longacre Square until 1904, when the New York Times built One Times Square, a 25-story tower on the site. Its occupancy on New Year’s Eve was marked with fireworks, a celebration that continues today. A giant crystal ball descends the building at midnight to herald the new year, cheered by thousands packed into the square.
NEED TO KNOW
Times Square is located where Broadway and 7th Ave intersect at 42nd St • www.timessquarenyc.orgMadame Tussauds New York • 234 West 42nd Street • 1 800 246 8872 • www.nycwax.com • Admission charge • Open 10am–8pm Sun–Thu, 10am–10pm Fri & Sat - Go to the TKTS booth in Times Square at Broadway and 47th (212 221 0013; www.tdf.org) for half-price tickets to all kinds of Broadway shows.
- Times Square Visitor Center, 7th Ave between 46th and 47th streets, has discount coupons for shows as well as a mini-museum on the square’s history.
1.Broadway Lights
The city’s longest street is known best for the section north of 42nd Street dubbed the “Great White Way” for its dazzle of neon.
Broadway Lights
2.ABC Times Square Studios
The show Good Morning America is taped at these Disney-owned studios (7–9am Mon–Fri). Large viewing windows allow passers-by to catch a glimpse of the celebrity guests or watch the occasional live pop concert.
ABC Times Square Studios
3.Times Square News Ticker
In 1928, the New York Times erected the world’s first moving electronic sign to post breaking news, a fixture that remains although the Times has now moved to 8th Avenue.
4.Nasdaq Headquarters
The headquarters of this over-the-counter stock market dominates the corner of Broadway and 43rd Street with a screen that regularly broadcasts financial news and live stock information.
Nasdaq Headquarters
5.Brill Building
Everyone from Cole Porter to Phil Spector has produced hits in this legendary music industry building, a long-time home to famous music publishers and arrangers.
6.Condé Nast Building
The environmentally-friendly, 48-story skyscraper, opened in 2000 to house this magazine empire, is a sign of the resurgence of Times Square.
7.Off-Broadway
Before the rest of 42nd Street was rejuvenated, this block between 9th and 10th Avenues was resurrected by Off-Broadway theater companies needing inexpensive homes. New plays are premiered at Playwrights Horizons, one of the area’s better-known tenants.
Off-Broadway
8.New 42nd Street
The renovation of the new Amsterdam Theater in the 1990s uplifted 42nd Street. Today, the New 42nd Street Studios and several theaters line the block.
9.Madame Tussauds, New York
Barack Obama, Brangelina, and Madonna are among the wax inhabitants of this 42nd Street tenant. The museum has exterior glass elevators and a huge hand holding the illuminated sign.
Madame Tussauds, New York
10.Duffy Square
The block was revitalized with the unveiling of the TKTS area in 2008, a dramatic wedge of red overlaid with a set of stairs to nowhere. A statue of World War I hero Father Duffy stands beneath the steps.
Duffy Square
THEATER DISTRICT
It was the move by the Metropolitan Opera House to Broadway in 1883 that first drew lavish theaters and restaurants to this area. In the 1920s, movie palaces added the glamour of neon to Broadway. After World War II, the popularity of movies waned and sleaze replaced glitter. Now a redevelopment program has brought the public and bright lights back to this area.
Theaters
1.Lyceum
The oldest playhouse boasts a vaulted ceiling, murals, and elaborate plasterwork. It is often used as an auxiliary for Lincoln Center.
Detail of the Lyceum facade
2.Hilton Theater
The run-down Lyric and Apollo Theaters were combined to form this showcase for musicals in 1998, marking the arrival of corporate sponsorship for theaters.
3.Shubert Theater
Built in 1912–13 as a lavish site for musicals and headquarters for the Shubert Organization. The Booth, opposite, was built at this time.
4.New Amsterdam Theater
This Art Nouveau beauty housed the famous Ziegfeld Follies. Restored by Disney, in the 1990s, it is now home to several hit Disney shows.
5.New Victory Theater
Built for Oscar Hammerstein in 1900, this theater had resorted to X-rated films until it was restored in 1995 to present family entertainment.
Interior of New Victory Theater
6.Hudson Theater
A restrained facade belies the lavish interior, including an inner lobby with a Classical arcade and domes of Tiffany glass. It is currently used as a conference center.
7.Belasco Theater
This 1907 monument to impresario David Belasco, who supervised the unusual Georgian Revival design, was restored in 2010. The rooftop duplex, with the decor of a Gothic church, was his personal residence.
8.Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Originally the Globe (finished in 1910), part of the roof of this venue could be removed to create an open-air auditorium. It was rebuilt in its current form in 1958.
9.Palace Theater
Sarah Bernhardt inaugurated the stage, and playing here became the ultimate assignment. It is now restored as a venue for musicals.
10.Winter Garden Theater
Originally the American Horse Exchange in 1885, this was acquired by the Shuberts in 1910 and remodeled in 1922. From 2001 to 2013 it was home to Mamma Mia!.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEW YORK THEATER
New York’s first theater is thought to have been the New Theater, erected in 1732. The city’s theatrical center steadily moved uptown to the Bowery, Astor Place, Union Square, and Herald Square, before finally settling around Longacre Square (now Times Square), after Oscar Hammerstein’s Olympia Theater opened on Broadway in 1895. Some 85 theaters were built over the next three decades, many with grand Beaux Arts interiors by architects such as Herts & Tallant, who were responsible for designing cantilevered balconies that eliminated the need for columns. Impresarios like the Shuberts and the Chanins made theater-going more democratic by blurring the class distinction between orchestra and balcony, using a single entrance for all. As modern theaters replaced them, more than 40 of these beauties were demolished. Fortunately, the rest have now been designated landmarks.
Oscar Hammerstein
The Broadhurst Theatre, designed by Herbert J. Krapp in 1917, remains one of the Shubert Organization’s most frequented theatres.
TOP 10 BROADWAY CLASSICS
1. The Phantom of the Opera
2. Jersey Boys
3. Chicago
4. The Lion King
5. Mamma Mia!
6. Billy Elliot
7. Annie
8. Wicked
9. Mary Poppins
10. Rain