Bernard B Jacobs Theatre

242 West 45th Street, New York, NY 10019

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre Information, Shows and Tickets

Directions & Box Office

  • Directions: By Subway, take the A/C/E to 42nd Street, walk north on Eight Avenue and then turn right onto 45th Street. Or take the 1/2/3 to 42nd Street, walk north on Seventh Avenue and then make a left onto 45th Street.
  • Entrance: 45th Street, between 8th and Broadway The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre is located on the south side of 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue.
  • Box Office Hours:
    Monday - Saturday:
    10am - 8pm
    Sunday:
    12pm - 8pm

Best Seats In The House

  • Seats: 1024

The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre has generally good sightlines all around. For the very best viewing, go for mid-center orchestra or the front mezzanine. Keep in mind that obstructed view seats in this theater can be more heavily obstructed than expected.

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre Seating Chart

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre Seating Chart

Additional Notes

Landlord: Shubert Organization

Official Ticketer: Telecharge

Notes:

This theatre was formerly called the Royale Theatre.

Elevator: No

Escalator: No

Now Playing The Outsiders

  • Previews Began: March 16, 2024
  • Opens: April 11, 2024
  • Show Closes: Open ended
Two rival teenage groups, from different socio-economic backgrounds, navigate the tensions and violence that arise between them, ultimately leading to tragic events. …more
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Previous Shows

Parade

  • Opened: March 16, 2023
  • Show Closed: August 6, 2023
Ben Platt plays Leo Frank, a factory boss convicted of killing a young girl in a case tainted by antisemitism and early 20th century injustice …more

Almost Famous

  • Opened: November 3, 2022
  • Show Closed: January 8, 2023
Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical story where a teenage journalist is given a shot to cover a deeply troubled tock band and his efforts to get them onto the cover of Rolling …more

Company

  • Opened: December 9, 2021
  • Show Closed: July 31, 2022
An updated gender-bender version of the classic Sondheim show made up of vignettes that challenge personal relationships and what they really mean, when a poignant 35th Birthday celebration approaches. …more

Betrayal

  • Opened: September 5, 2019
  • Show Closed: December 8, 2019
The story of a forbidden affair that is told in reverse chronological order, starting from the end of a marriage to the first spark of the relationship. …more

The Ferryman

  • Opened: October 21, 2018
  • Show Closed: July 7, 2019
Set in a turbulent time in Northern Ireland during the 1980's this production features a huge cast set to a beat of murder, espionages and double-crossing. …more

The Iceman Cometh

  • Opened: April 26, 2018
  • Show Closed: July 1, 2018
The Iceman Cometh is a masterpiece of American theatre and was written by Eugene O’Neill in 1939. The show was first produced on Broadway in 1946 and since then has …more

Bandstand

  • Opened: April 26, 2017
  • Show Closed: September 17, 2017
Bandstand is a new musical that comes to Broadway following a successful run at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Set in 1945, this show tells the story …more

The Color Purple

  • Opened: December 10, 2015
  • Show Closed: January 8, 2017
The Color Purple, a Broadway musical, is based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker, which was made into a 1985 film by Steven Spielberg starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover …more

It's Only A Play

  • Opened: October 9, 2014
  • Show Closed: June 7, 2015
A play about the theatre, It’s Only a Play is the story of a playwright named Peter Austin (Matthew Broderick) whose new piece “The Golden Egg” receives less than positive …more

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre History

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.

Bernard B Jacobs Theatre Design

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.