The vaudevillian Martin Beck was the operator of the
Orpheum Circuit, which in the early 20th century was the dominant vaudeville circuit on the
West Coast of the United States. Its
East Coast complement was the Keith–Albee circuit, composed of
Benjamin Franklin Keith and
Edward Albee, who operated venues both by themselves and through their United Booking Office. The Orpheum and Keith–Albee circuits had proposed a truce in 1906, wherein Orpheum would control vaudeville west of
Chicago and Keith–Albee would control vaudeville east of Chicago, including New York City.
Development Beck and Herman Fehr announced in December 1911 that they had leased the site with plans to construct a venue, the Palace Theatre. In February 1912, Kirchhoff & Rose and Gavigan filed plans with the
New York City Department of Buildings for a theater building at Broadway and 47th Street. Due to the truce between Orpheum and Keith–Albee, Edward Albee initially said any vaudeville act that played the Palace would not be allowed on the Keith–Albee circuit. Albee demanded that Beck turn over three-quarters ownership to use acts from the Keith–Albee circuit, to which Beck acquiesced. Albee moved the B. F. Keith office to the fifth floor, and the UBO office moved to the office wing as well. Because of the vaudeville restriction, Werba & Luescher obtained an option on the new theater in mid-1912. Hammerstein initially refused to sell his exclusive vaudeville franchise to Albee, but Hammerstein agreed to a $200,000 settlement in May 1913, after the theater had opened. The Palace's programming was still unknown to the public until February 1913, when
The New York Times announced the theater would be "something along the lines of English music halls", with events such as ballets, rather than "strict vaudeville".
Vaudeville The theater finally opened on March 24, 1913, with headliner
Ed Wynn. Tickets cost $1.50 for matinees and $2.00 for nighttime performances. The screenwriter
Marian Spitzer wrote of opening day: "The theatre itself, living up to advance publicity, was spacious, handsome and lavishly decorated in crimson and gold. But nothing happened that afternoon to suggest the birth of a great theatrical tradition." Rather, the public mostly considered its $2 admission fees to be expensive. The media widely mocked the opening bill; Also problematic was the presence of Hammerstein's
Victoria Theatre, a much more successful and established vaudeville venue. The
Variety article noted that, while the Victoria had played to capacity two days in a row, the Palace had to give out free coupons to half the guests and still struggled to fill the balcony seats. Except for a period from May to December 1913, the Palace had performances every day for the next two decades. By December 1914,
Variety was characterizing the Palace as "the greatest vaudeville theater in America, if not the world". The death of Willie Hammerstein the same year, and the subsequent closure of the Victoria, contributed to the Palace's popularity. To "play the Palace" meant that entertainers had reached the pinnacles of their vaudeville careers. A typical bill would have nine acts, who would perform twice a day. The bills were rotated every Monday. Consequently, the Monday matinee was generally considered among vaudevillians to be the most important of any given week, with the harshest audience.
Vaudeville headliners Throughout vaudeville's heyday, the headliners (usually billed next to the closing act) included:
Other performers Other vaudeville performers appearing at the Palace included: •
Burns and Allen •
Jack Benny •
Eddie Cantor •
Gus Edwards •
Frank Fay •
Bob Hope •
George Jessel •
Bert Lahr •
Ethel Merman •
Bill Robinson •
Blossom Seeley Decline The circuit became
Keith–Albee–Orpheum in 1925 and it acquired film companies the following year. the Palace moved to four shows a day in May 1932 and lowered its admission prices. A fifth show was subsequently added, but this failed to increase the number of attendees.
Post-vaudeville Movie palace use The last week of straight vaudeville at the Palace premiered July 9, 1932, featuring
Louis Sobol. Afterward, the Palace instituted a mixed policy of vaudeville before a feature film, which continued for several months. The last vaudeville accompaniment took place on November 12, 1932, Thereafter, the Palace was converted to a
movie palace, showing films exclusively under
RKO Pictures. The film-only policy was not initially successful because many major studios already operated their own theaters in Times Square. Theatrical historian Louis Botto said that "from the 1930s on, it was a constant struggle for survival" for the Palace, which frequently flipped between film-only, vaudeville/film, and live performance formats. The Palace reverted to a vaudeville-before-film policy on January 7, 1933, two months after it started showing films exclusively. The venue spent the next two years alternating between film-only and vaudeville-before-film formats. For fourteen years beginning in 1935, the Palace showed movies almost exclusively. Among the films shown at the RKO Palace was the RKO picture
Citizen Kane, which had its world premiere at the theater in 1941. In preparation for the
1939 New York World's Fair, RKO began to erect a marquee in front of the office wing in April 1939. The next month, RKO announced the Palace would be renovated. The alterations included renovating the outer lobby with black-and-white granite walls and the inner lobby with zebra wood and black marble walls. Additionally, aluminum and bronze frames were installed in the outer lobby. The work also included installing doors between the inner and outer lobbies. The renovations were finished in August 1939. It received new seats and carpets; upgraded acoustic features and stage; and a new ticket booth in the lobby. Beginning in May 1949, under RKO vice president Sol Schwartz, the RKO Palace tried to revive vaudeville with a slate of eight acts before a feature film. Within two months of vaudeville being reintroduced, Schwartz said patronage was "very encouraging". The Palace was closed for a two-week renovation in October 1951. After the Palace reopened,
Judy Garland staged a
19-week comeback at the venue, supported by acts such as
Max Bygraves. This was the first occurrence of two-a-day vaudeville at the Palace in nearly 18 years.
José Greco,
Betty Hutton,
Danny Kaye,
Dick Shawn, Garland returned for a successful run in 1956, this time with
Alan King. While the shows were successful, they did not lead to a revival of the vaudeville format. As a result, the Palace dropped its vaudeville policy in July 1957. Its film screenings began with
James Cagney's
Man of a Thousand Faces on August 13, 1957. The films included
The Diary of Anne Frank, which premiered in 1959. The Palace hosted one more vaudeville performance by
Harry Belafonte in December 1959.
Broadway theater Nederlander conversion The RKO Palace was no longer profitable as a cinema by March 1965, and RKO considered selling it to
Sherman S. Krellberg for conversion into a
Broadway theater. That July, the
Nederlander Organization agreed to purchase the Palace from RKO for about $1.4 million or $1.6 million. The Nederlanders incorporated the All State Amusement Corporation to operate the theater. Among the decorations uncovered were ironwork, marble balustrades, and the molded ceiling of the lobby. In the basement, workers found a gold vault that was filled with paint cans, as well as crystal chandeliers. The auditorium was outfitted with red decorations and gold-and-cream walls, while the basement was renovated to include a dressing room for the primary performer. The renovations made the Palace the only Broadway theater that was actually on Broadway, On January 29, 1966, the Palace opened as a Broadway venue with the original production of the musical
Sweet Charity. The production ran at the Palace for 608 performances. For some time, the Palace showed films and presented concert performances between engagements. Judy Garland's performance in July 1967 was recorded for a live album,
Judy Garland at Home at the Palace: Opening Night; it was followed the same year by a double bill with
Eddie Fisher and
Buddy Hackett. Later in 1967, the musical
Henry, Sweet Henry had a relatively short run of 80 performances.
Bette Midler,
Vikki Carr, and
Diana Ross. The Palace additionally hosted the
25th Tony Awards in 1971. During this time, the theater hosted the musical
Applause, which had opened in 1970 and ran for 896 performances over two years. and lasted ten months. which had 301 performances. Yet another musical,
Woman of the Year, opened in 1981 and stayed for two years. which opened in 1983 and ran for more than four years.
1980s renovation to mid-2010s Developer
Larry Silverstein had planned to build a skyscraper on the Palace Theater's site since the mid-1980s. Such a development was contingent on his ability to acquire a
Bowery Savings Bank branch at the corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, surrounded by the original Palace Theatre building. This was part of the LPC's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. The Nederlanders, the
Shuberts, and
Jujamcyn collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the Palace, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the
New York Supreme Court and the
Supreme Court of the United States, but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992. Meanwhile, the office wing was demolished (except for the lobby running until 1993. The Palace then presented
Beauty and the Beast from 1994 to 1999, before it transferred to the
Lunt-Fontanne.
Aida, which ran from 2000 through 2004,
West Side Story from 2009 to 2011;
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert from 2011 to 2012; and
Annie from 2012 to 2014. As part of a settlement with the
United States Department of Justice in 2014, the Nederlanders agreed to improve disabled access at their nine Broadway theaters, including the Palace. Also in early 2014, the orchestra seating was rearranged as part of a $200,000 renovation prior to the opening of
Holler If Ya Hear Me; that musical opened in June 2014 and ran for six weeks.
An American in Paris, a stage adaptation of the
1951 MGM film, opened in April 2015 for an 18-month run.
The Illusionists: Turn of the Century ran a limited engagement from November 2016 to January 2017, and
Sunset Boulevard also had a limited engagement from February to June 2017.
2010s and 2020s renovation In 2015, the Nederlander Organization and Maefield Development announced another renovation in conjunction with the TSX Broadway development. The project would include a new lobby and entrance on 47th Street as well as dressing rooms and other patron amenities. The landmark interior would be raised to accommodate ground-floor retail spaces. The LPC approved the plan in November 2015, even as many preservationists expressed concern over the idea. The
New York City Council approved the plan in June 2018, allowing the redevelopment to progress. The musical
SpongeBob SquarePants was the last show to play at the theater prior to the renovation, running from December 2017 to September 2018. Demolition of the existing structure began in late 2019. The reconstruction was originally estimated to keep the Palace closed until 2021. The renovation was delayed during 2019 because the contractors needed to inspect an adjacent building, but the property's owners did not grant permission for the inspection for over a year. The old 1568 Broadway building was being demolished by early 2020. Work was only interrupted for three weeks during the
COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, as the TSX Broadway project had hotel rooms and was thus classified as an "essential jobsite". The theater also underwent a renovation, which involved restoring the plasterwork and original chandelier, adding sound insulation, and erecting a new box office and new restrooms. During the lift, the bottom of the auditorium was cushioned by a layer of concrete, which were sunk into the ground. The lifting process was completed on April 5, 2022, Afterward, the permanent supports under the auditorium were installed. At the time, TSX Broadway was planned to be completed in 2023, Although the cost of the renovation was estimated in 2022 at $50 million,
Mid-2020s to present In March 2024, the Nederlander Organization announced that the theater would reopen on May 28, 2024, with a concert residency by
Ben Platt. The residency lasted for 18 performances. This was followed by the musical
Tammy Faye, which opened in November 2024 A revival of
Glengarry Glen Ross opened at the theater in March 2025 for a three-month limited engagement, which was followed by a revival of
Beetlejuice in October 2025 for a 13-week limited engagement. The musical adaptation of
The Lost Boys opened at the Palace in April 2026. ==Alleged haunting==