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150 West 65th St. at Broadway
New York, NY 10023
BUILT: 1965
SEATING CAPACITY: 1080
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Vivian Beaumont Theatre (Broadway) History
The Vivian Beaumont Theater opened to the public on October 21, 1965. Designed by the renowned architect Eero Saarinen and named for Vivian Beaumont Allen, a prominent New York philanthropist, the Beaumont was originally the home of the now-defunct Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, which closed in 1973 after nine seasons (two of which were presented in a temporary theater erected in Washington Square Park). From 1973 to 1977, Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival was in residence at the Beaumont. From 1978 through 1985, the Beaumont was mostly rented to outside producers or was not used at all; a new resident company was formed in 1979, but it only presented one Beaumont season in 1980-81. In 1985, the building's current management -- Lincoln Center Theater -- was established. Former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay assembled a new board of directors and signed Gregory Mosher as Director and Bernard Gersten as Executive Producer. In 1991, Linda LeRoy Janklow and Andre Bishop succeeded Messrs. Lindsay and Mosher as Chairman and Artistic Director. Lincoln Center Theater has not only outlasted all the prior managements combined, but it has become America's largest not-for-profit theater, producing a year-round program of plays and musicals at the Beaumont and at various other theaters around New York City.
On the roof of the Beaumont is the Claire Tow Theater, which opened in 2012! The theater is home to LCT3, and dedicated to producing the work of new artists. The theater seats 112, and stages three to four productions a year. The most recent shows to play the Claire Tow theater in 2020 and 2019 include the Headlands by Christopher Chen, Power Strip by Sylvia Khoury, In the Green by Grace McLean and Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury. The lower level of the building houses the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. This theater seats 299 and houses Off-Broadway plays and musicals. The last shows to play the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in 2020 and 2019 include Greater Clements by Samuel D. Hunter, The Rolling Stone by Chris Urch, Nantucket Sleigh Ride by John Guare, and The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard.
