Broadway History Lesson: archaic theater names

archaic theater names--to shut out outsiders, stagehands often refer to theaters by their previous names. The Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street had been closed for almost three decades and had suffered urine damage on the facade and a fire when it was reopened as the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2008, run by the Manhattan Theatre Club. Even the wet-behind-the-ears apprentices call it the Biltmore.

Before he died in November 2008, the Shubert bigwig Gerald Schoenfeld had the Plymouth Theatre on West 45th renamed after himself as the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, and also had the Royale (also on 45th Street) renamed for the late Bernie Jacobs. Schoenfeld and Jacobs were the two Shubert lawyers who saved the Shubert organization from ruin in the 1970's.

The Ford Center on West 43rd Street was created in 1997 by putting together two derelict Broadway theaters, the Lyric and the Apollo, a reconstruction that was financed by Garth Drabinsky and LivEnt, a Canadian concern, that lost the theater when Drabinsky was indicted on a stock floatation fraud. It has since been the Hilton, the Foxwoods and is now again the Lyric Theatre. I will always remember it as a house of pain called the Ford Center.

The Virginia Theatre on West 51st Street was renamed for the late, great playwright August Wilson, for several of his plays, including "Two Trains Running" and "King Hedley" played there.

The Selwyn Theatre on 42nd Street was renamed the American Airlines Theatre, which is run by the Roundabout.