Bernard B Jacobs Theatre

This theatre opened as the Royale Theatre in 1927 and was built by the Chanin brothers

Royale Named To Golden For One Year

In its early years, the Royale was "invaded" variously by specialty troupes, like a group that performed several Gilbert & Sullivan operettas here, and a Dublin-based company that did a slew of Irish plays. In 1934, after producer John Golden lost his self-named theater on 58th Street, he leased the Royale and renamed it the Golden Theatre . It only retained this name briefly, until the producer moved in on the Masque next door, which to this day is now known as the John Golden Theatre.

CBS Radio Acquires The Theatre

CBS Radio then took over the theater in 1937, until it became the Royale once more, three years later.

Named Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in 2005

The theater is now owned by the Shubert Organization and on May 9, 2005 it was officially named the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, after the man who was president of the Shubert Organization from 1972 until his death in 1996.

Big Stars Have Graced The Stage

The Jacobs has seen some big stars in its time, from Mae West, who did her shows Diamond Lil and The Constant Sinner here, to Julie Andrews in her Broadway debut of The Boy Friend, Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, Lauren Bacall in Cactus Flower, Madonna in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, and A Raisin in the Sun starring embattled hip-hop icon Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

Notable Past Productions

Many of the more noteworthy shows to play the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre were plays and musicals that initially opened in other theaters and then transferred, such as Du Barry Was a Lady, The Corn Was Green, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Grease (which occupied the theater from 1972 to 1980), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.

Other notable shows that played here include The Lady's Not for Burning, Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952, Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, The Night of the Iguana, The Subject Was Roses, Hughie, Moonchildren, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song & Dance (starring Bernadette Peters), Lend Me a Tenor, Conversations with My Father, The Kentucky Cycle, Skylight, Art, Copenhagen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics, Frost/Nixon, Rock 'n' Roll, 13, God of Carnage, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Like so many of the theaters on Broadway, the Bernard B. Jacobs was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp. With just over 1,000 seats, the space is suitable for musicals but is much more often used for plays, especially in recent years.