Gershwin Theatre

As of October 2026, the Gershwin Theatre has more seats than any other Broadway house, and it fits them onto just two levels. The auditorium is raised above street level inside Paramount Plaza, a 48-story office tower on Broadway between 50th Street and 51st Street, and the Nederlander Organization operates it. Its stage also ranks among the largest on Broadway.

The name honors George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, the brothers who wrote Broadway musicals together, George on music and Ira on lyrics. Until 1983 it was the Uris Theatre, named for Percy Uris, whose company built the tower.

In 1967 the Uris Buildings Corporation leased the old Capitol Theatre site for an office tower. A zoning change adopted that year, the Special Theater District amendment, rewarded developers with extra office space if they included a playhouse. The Uris and the theater at One Astor Plaza became the first entirely new Broadway houses since the Mark Hellinger Theatre of 1930, while the smaller Circle in the Square Theatre took the basement.

After a dedication on November 19, 1972, the house opened on November 28 with Via Galactica, a musical starring Raul Julia that lasted seven performances. No new plays or musicals opened in 1974, so after a Sammy Davis Jr. concert in May, Nederlander booked concerts through December. The Grammy Awards ceremony came here in March 1975, and that year also brought Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie on one bill.

Longer runs followed. The King and I, with Yul Brynner, opened in May 1977 and played 719 performances; Sweeney Todd, with Angela Lansbury, arrived in March 1979 and logged 557. In 1984 the Royal Shakespeare Company brought the first straight plays to this stage. Later tenants included Starlight Express (1987), whose elaborate set required a renovation, a Show Boat revival that began in October 1994 and reached 949 performances, and Riverdance on Broadway (2000).

The current name dates from June 5, 1983, when the house was rededicated to the Gershwins during the 37th Tony Awards. Five more Tony ceremonies were staged here, the last in 1999. Ira Gershwin died two months after the renaming, and his memorial took place in the theater.

Wicked opened at the Gershwin on October 30, 2003, and as of October 2026 it is the longest-running production in the theater's history. The pandemic shut the house on March 12, 2020, and it reopened on September 14, 2021.

Ralph Alswang designed the theater, and the firm Emery Roth and Sons designed the tower around it. Alswang described his decorative approach as Art Nouveau. The original white-and-gold finish gave way to blue and white during a 1993 makeover.

You arrive through a covered walkway that cuts through the base of the building from 50th Street to 51st Street, with a marquee at each end. The box office is at street level, and escalators carry you up to the lobby, past the names of 90 stage figures active from 1860 to 1930, lettered in bronze-gold.

The lobby is home to the American Theater Hall of Fame. Members' names run in gold across a wall 220 feet wide and four stories tall and continue into two rotundas. To qualify, an artist needs at least 25 years in American theater and five or more major Broadway credits.

Because the city accepted sprinklers instead, the house was built without a fire curtain, and its computerized Hydra-Float rigging made it the first fully automated commercial theater in the country. The stage measures 80 feet across and can be extended over the orchestra pit.

Wheelchair and companion locations are at the back of the orchestra, on the building's third floor, and in the mezzanine, on the fourth. A lobby elevator reserved for guests with disabilities serves those areas, and staff can escort patrons up from the building lobby. All other seats involve stairs, though some aisle seats have folding armrests for easier transfers. The second floor has a wheelchair-accessible restroom, and the fourth-floor restrooms have wide stalls.

As of October 2026, handheld captioning and audio description units can be borrowed free on the second level, and an induction loop serves hearing aids with a telecoil. Service animals are welcome.