Ambassador Theater
219 W 49th Street
between Broadway & 8th Avenue
Completed 1922
Architect Herbert J Krapp
A Shubert-built theater, the facade
of the Ambassador is not much to look at, except for the unusual
angled entrance. Krapp made a specialty of making theaters fit
where they shouldn't. The entrance is part of his solution for
this theater, siting the theater diagonally on the property to
have room for a standard-sized auditorium. As in much of his
theater work, Krapp saved money on the outside to pour plaster,
gild and paint into the now-landmarked interior. Plush yet
elegant, the Adamesque work evokes a feeling of grandeur as
fleeting as a stage set
The Ambassador's premier production
was the Anselm Goetzel-William Carey musical The Rose Girl,
on February 11, 1921. Through the depression and years following,
the theater was used as a movie house, radio and television
studios, as well as for some legitimate productions. It was
repurchased by the Shubert Organization in 1956 and returned to
strictly legitimate use. It was designated a New York City
landmark in August 1985
1921 Blossom Time, a Dorothy
Donnelly-Sigmund Romberg musical starts a run of 592 performances
1927 Edward G Robinson stars in
Bartlett Cormack's The Racket
1939 Danny Kaye, Alfred Drake and
Imogene Coca in breakout performances in Strawhat Revue of 1939
1957 Compulsion, Meyer Levin's
and Robert Thom's psychological drama stars Dean Stockwell, Roddy
McDowell, Howard Da Silva Barbara Loden, and Ida Balin
1966 Rosemary Harris wins a Tony
for her performance opposite Robert Preston in James Goldman's The
Lion in Winter
1967 You Know I Can't Hear You When
the Water's Running starts a 94 -week run
1968 Jason Robards Jr, Diana Sands and
Ron Liebman play in We Bombed in New Haven
1974 Linda Hopkins and Will Holtz wrote
Me and Bessie, in which Hopkins stars. It's runs for a
surprising 453 performances
1978 Eubie, the revue starring
Gregory Hines's performance and Eubie Blake's music is a hit
1980 John Lithgow and Christine Lahti
and Division Street can't make it past 21 performances
1996 Bring in 'Da Noise Bring in 'Da
Funk starts its Broadway run. It wins Tonys
for director George C Wolfe and choreographer Savion Glover
1999 After a 6-month run at
the Vivian Beaumont Theater It
Ain't Nothing But the Blues starts performances at the
Ambassador September 9th
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