St. James Theatre, West 44th Street NYC

The St. James Theatre, originally Erlanger's Theatre, is located at 246 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. Opened in 1927. It has 1,709 seats across three levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.

The Erlanger Theater was designed by the architecture firm Warren and Wetmore in a neo-Georgian style and constructed for the theatrical producer and director Abraham Lincoln Erlanger (1859-1930). Its façade is made largely of stucco, except for the ground story, which is clad in cast stone above a granite water table. The ground floor has several recessed openings to the lobby, auditorium, and upper-story offices. Above that are two marquees and a double-story cast-iron loggia, masking the fire escapes from the auditorium. The top story contains windows from the offices there.

The auditorium is decorated with murals and ornamental plasterwork. The theater has a sloped orchestra level, two balcony levels, and a flat ceiling with a carved sounding board. The first balcony level contains box seats near the front of the auditorium, above which are murals. In addition, there are several lounges and passageways throughout the theater.

Erlanger's Theatre opened on September 26, 1927, with the musical The Merry Malones, which ran for 192 performances. In 1932, ownership of the theater reverted to the Astor family, the owners of the underlying land. In the same year, Lodewick Vroom announced that he had acquired the Erlanger from the Astors and, shortly afterward, Vroom renamed the venue the St. James. In 1941, the Shubert Organization started operating the St. James. By 1956, the Jujamcyn Corporation was formed to operate the theater. Jujamcyn and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) merged in 2023; the combined company would operate seven Broadway theaters, including the St. James.