Designated 11/17/1987
The Cort Theater represents a special aspect of the nation’s theatrical history. Beyond its historical importance, it is an exceptionally handsome theater, with a facade modeled on the Petit Trianon in Versailles. Its triple-story, marble-faced Corinthian colonnade is very unusual among the Broadway theaters. Thomas Lamb was New York’s most prolific theater architect, but the Cort is one of only two legitimate stage theaters of his design surviving in the Broadway area.
The interior’s significant architectural features include plaster caemos, a mural, and a unique proscenium arch of plasterwork and art glass. For over three quarters of a century the Cort Theater has served as home to countless numbers of the plays through which the Broadway theater has come to personify American theater.