Al Hirschfeld Theatre, West 45th Street NYC

The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally Martin Beck Theatre, is located at 302 West 45th Street, west side of 8th Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It opened in 1924 and today is operated by ATG Entertainment. It has 1,404 seats across two levels. Both the façade and the interior were designated New York City landmarks in 1987.

The original Martin Beck Theatre was constructed for vaudevillian Martin Beck (1868-1940), who also built the Palace Theatre in New York City. It was designed by U.S. architect Gustave Albert Lansburgh (1876-1969), who also designed other theaters in New York, New Orleans and California.

The theater's façade was designed in a Moorish and Byzantine style, with a long, two-story arcade and recessed entrances. Red brick was used for the upper stories of the façade. The auditorium was decorated with ornamental plasterwork and contains a sloped orchestra level, a mezzanine level, and a curved sounding board. In addition, there are box seats at the balcony level, near the front of the auditorium. The auditorium has an octagonal ceiling with a multicolored dome.

The Martin Beck Theatre opened on November 11, 1924 with a production of Madame Pompadour, which ran for 80 performances. It was followed in 1925 by a musical adaptation of the play Captain Jinks by Clyde Fitch. A. H. Woods subsequently leased the theater for his production of the John Colton play The Shanghai Gesture. In 1928, the theatrical society Theatre Guild took over the Beck.

Martin Beck managed the theater for the rest of his life, and even after his death in 1940 the theater remained in the family until 1966, when the theater was bought by William L. McKnight, who headed Jujamcyn Theaters.

In 2003, the theater was renamed after caricaturist and illustrator Al Hirschfeld, known for his fantastic black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. In 2023, Jujamcyn and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) merged and the combined company would operate seven Broadway theaters, including the Al Hirschfeld.