Central Theatre

The story

A Broadway house built on a piano factory site, Central Theatre hosted Oscar Hammerstein II's debut as librettist in January 1920 with Always You — before he became the Hammerstein. Herbert J. Krapp designed the 1,100-seat space for the Shubert family at 1567 Broadway, and it opened in 1918 with Owen Davis's Forever After. Rodgers and Hart songs played here in 1920 alongside Sigmund Romberg's. Then came movies, in 1921 — making Central Theatre one of the first Broadway houses to alternate film with live theatre and burlesque, a juggling act it kept up until 1957.