7. The Winter Garden Theatre, 1896, 1911
The Winter Garden Theatre has been reconfigured multiple times in its history. In 1911 the Shuberts purchased the second American Horse Exchange building, a structure built in 1896 by William K. Vanderbilt when Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, was the center of the horse and carriage industry. The Shuberts had architect William Albert Swasey convert the building into a theater, and it was later remodeled in 1922, so pieces of the original structure still remain. Its first show was a production of “La Belle Paree” starring Al Jolson, who rose to stardom after that production. The Winter Garden is currently home to “Beetlejuice.”
The theater’s longest-running production was “Cats” which ran from 1982 until 2000, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway show of all time. The auditorium was remodeled and essentially gutted in 1982 specifically for “Cats” to accommodate the production’s junkyard setting. When “Cats” closed in 2000, the theater was restored to its original 1920s model which features a stage wider than most Broadway stages, and a relatively low proscenium arch. Notable productions to premiere at the Winter Garden Theatre include “West Side Story” (1957), “Funny Girl” (1964), “Gypsy” (1974), and “Mamma Mia!” (2001).