The New York State Theater was built with funds from the State of New York as part of New York State's cultural participation in the
1964–1965 World's Fair. The theater was designed by architects
Philip Johnson and
John Burgee, opened on April 23, 1964. After the Fair, the State transferred ownership of the theater to the City of New York. The City leases the theater to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., which subleases it to City Center of Music and Drama, Inc. (CCMD). The present corporation of CCMD (originally affiliated with
New York City Center on 55th Street, but now a separate entity) continues to manage the theater today. Along with the opera and ballet companies, another early tenant of the theater was the now defunct Music Theater of Lincoln Center whose president was composer
Richard Rodgers. In the mid 1960s, the company produced fully staged revivals of classic Broadway musicals. These included
The King and I;
Carousel (with original star,
John Raitt);
Annie Get Your Gun (revised in 1966 by
Irving Berlin for its original star,
Ethel Merman);
Show Boat; and
South Pacific. In July 2008, oil-and-gas billionaire
David H. Koch pledged to provide $100 million over the next ten years to renovate the theater and provide an operating and maintenance endowment. The facility became the David H. Koch Theater at the New York City Ballet Winter gala, November 25 of that year. The theater is to bear his name for at least fifty years, after which it may be renamed; the Koch family retains the right of first refusal for any renaming. Some people continue to refer to the theater by its original name because of the
controversial political influencing of David and
Charles Koch. ==Building features and renovation==