John Golden Theatre

The John Golden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 252 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in midtown Manhattan. Designed in a Moorish style and opened as part of a three-theater complex for Irwin Chanin by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the present-day Golden was constructed by the Chanin Brothers as part of an entertainment complex including the Royale- now Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, designed for small musicals and large plays, the Majestic, a large musical house, and the Lincoln Hotel (now the Row NYC Hotel, and previously the Milford Plaza). It opened as the Theatre Masque (also known as the Masque Theater) on February 24, 1927 with the play Puppets of Passion. Seventy-six years later it housed another production known for its puppets, the award-winning Avenue Q.

John Golden Theatre

Theatre Masque (1927-1937)
John Golden Theatre, showing Avenue Q, 2006
Address	252 West 45th Street New York City United States
Owner	The Shubert Organization
Type	Broadway
Capacity	804
Construction
Opened	February 24, 1927
Architect	Herbert J. Krapp

In 1937, impresario John Golden acquired the theatre and renamed it for himself. It also operated as a movie house in the late 1940s and 1950s before it was purchased by the Shubert Organization, who returned it to full-time theatrical use. The exterior of the theatre was used as the location of the movie version of the film A Chorus Line. It is also shown in the background during the opening scenes of All About Eve as the home of Margot Channing's Aged In Wood.

With a seating capacity of only 800, it is one of the smallest houses on Broadway.