Broadway theater
226 West 46th Street · 1,319 seats · opened 1925
Quick take
A 1,319-seat Broadway house on West 46th Street, home to Hamilton since 2015.
Musical · Now playing
Now playing since Aug 2015
2 h 45 min, one intermission · Ages 10+
Lin-Manuel Miranda's sung-through musical about Alexander Hamilton, the orphan from St. Croix who became the first Treasury Secretary, told in hip hop, R&B and show tunes.
The next 7 days at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
All times Eastern. Schedule last checked Nov 7
The Richard Rodgers Theatre is a 1,319-seat Broadway house on West 46th Street, one of nine Broadway stages owned by the Nederlander Organization. Built with musicals in mind, it has housed 11 winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical or Best Play, a record among Broadway houses as of October 2026.
Since March 27, 1990, it has honored Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), composer of 43 Broadway musicals, who partnered with lyricist Lorenz Hart and later with Oscar Hammerstein II.
Irwin S. Chanin, a builder new to show business, bought the site in January 1924 for his first Broadway house. As a poor Cooper Union student he had reached cheap gallery seats through a separate door, so here every ticket holder shares one lobby. The Shubert brothers leased the theater, and it officially opened as Chanin's 46th Street Theatre on February 7, 1925, with Is Zat So?, a boxing comedy moved over from the 39th Street Theatre.
Good News was the first hit in 1927, and Ginger Rogers made her Broadway debut here in 1929. The Shuberts bought the site from the struggling Chanins in 1931, and from 1932 it was simply the 46th Street Theatre.
Hits included Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Gwen Verdon won a Tony Award for each of the three musicals she starred in here, from Damn Yankees in 1955 to Redhead in 1959. Decades before the renaming, Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), Rodgers's only show with Stephen Sondheim, played here. Later came 1776, the original 1975 Chicago and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, whose 1,584 performances from 1978 to 1982 set the mark under the old name.
The Nederlander Organization bought into the theater in 1981. On November 17, 1987, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made landmarks of the exterior and the auditorium alike, a decision owners fought in court until it was upheld in 1992.
The renamed house welcomed Lost in Yonkers, Movin' Out and Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (2008 to 2011). His Hamilton opened on August 6, 2015, and by October 2026 it had passed 4,000 performances, the longest run in the building's history. The theater closed with the rest of Broadway on March 12, 2020, and reopened on September 14, 2021.
Herbert J. Krapp, Broadway's most prolific theater architect, designed it. His Shubert fronts were usually plain brick, but Chanin, lacking a booking circuit, wanted the building itself to draw audiences. The neo-Renaissance facade of glazed white brick and terracotta centers on a two-story loggia of three arches between Corinthian pilasters with swans in their capitals. Lyres decorate the wall behind the arches, panels with theatrical masks top the side bays, and urns line the roof balustrade.
Inside, the front orchestra sits at street level, while the rear rows climb steeply, stadium style, nearly a full story over the entrance foyer. Chanin also chose one large balcony instead of two, judging a second one too remote from the stage.
The plasterwork is low relief in the Adam manner: an elliptical proscenium edged with spiral leaves, two tiers of curved boxes on each side, and a shallow dome with a chandelier. A 2013 restoration by EverGreene Architectural Arts scraped off up to 20 coats of paint, replaced every seat and took down an extra arch built ahead of the old proscenium. A 2006 refurbishment added the Richard Rodgers Gallery of memorabilia.
Each order can include one wheelchair location in the orchestra and up to three companion seats. Aisle seats with folding armrests are in rows A, C, E and F, plus rows L and M up the stairs. Orchestra row B has seats for guests with low vision or hearing loss. The single wheelchair-accessible restroom is by the main lobby on the street floor. Staff can meet guests in the lobby and escort them, and service animals are welcome.
Free amplifying headsets are lent against a short contact form, and an induction loop serves telecoil hearing aids. Audio description is offered, handheld I-Caption units display captions, and the GalaPro app provides both on your own phone. Confirm details before your visit.
1,319 seats
The address is 226 West 46th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, near Times Square. The Imperial Theatre and the Music Box Theatre share its block, and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre stands across 46th Street. The stage door is on your left as you come out.
The nearest subway stop is 49th Street at Seventh Avenue (N, R, W), accessible uptown only. The C and E stop at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, accessible downtown only, and the 1 stops at 50th Street and Broadway. For step-free travel both ways, use Times Square-42nd Street (1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, W, S, plus A, C, E at 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal).
Open in Apple Maps (opens in a new tab)Open in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)
The closest Broadway houses to the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Walking times are straight-line estimates.
