Winter Garden

A winter garden is a kind of garden where winter-hardy plants grown for winter interest and decoration, or to be harvested for food between winter and early spring.

Winter Garden(s) may also refer to:

Gardens and other landmarks

Elgin Theatre

The Elgin Theatre can refer to:

Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre was a major theatre on Madison Avenue and 27th Street in New York City, New York. The theatre opened on September 27, 1890, and closed in 1925. Part of the second Madison Square Garden complex, the theatre presented Broadway plays for two decades and then, as high-end theatres moved uptown to the Times Square area, became a facility for German and Yiddish theatre, motion pictures, lectures, and meetings of trade and political groups.

The Garden Theatre has been erroneously referred to as the Madison Square Garden Theatre. It was not related to a theatre on New York's Madison Ave. and 24th St. that was called the Madison Square Theatre from 1879 to 1891 and later called Hoyt's Theatre.

Building, dimensions

The Garden Theatre was architecturally and structurally part of, but managed separately from, the Madison Square Garden (1890) complex designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, that replaced the original Madison Square Garden (1879) at the same site. Unlike most theatres of the day, patrons entered from street level and it was described as "fireproof", in an era when theatre fires were not uncommon. The auditorium had eight boxes, a gallery and a balcony, with 1,200 seats plus room for 400 standees. The building was 117 feet long and 70 feet wide, and the stage was 39 feet deep and 70 feet wide.

Winter Garden Theatre

The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 1634 Broadway between 50th and 51st Streets in midtown Manhattan.

History

The structure was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange.<ref name = ”Mordden 154-5">Mordden, Ethan (2008). Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business. New York: St. Martin’s Press. p. 154-5. ISBN 978-0-312-37543-0. </ref>

In 1911 the Shuberts leased the building and architect William Albert Swasey redesigned the building as a theatre. The fourth New York City venue to be christened the Winter Garden, it opened on March 10, 1911, with the early Jerome Kern musical La Belle Paree. The show starred Al Jolson and launched him on his highly successful singing and acting career. He played the Winter Garden many times after that.

The Winter Garden was completely remodeled in 1922 by Herbert J. Krapp. The large stage is wider than those in most Broadway houses, and the proscenium arch is relatively low. The building is situated unusually on its lot, with the main entrance and marquee, located on Broadway, connected to the 1526-seat Seventh Avenue auditorium via a long hallway, and the rear wall of the stage abutting 50th Street. When Al Jolson performed there, the Winter Garden had a runway built, going out into the audience, and Jolson would run out and slide on his knees while singing, and the audience, not used to such dynamic and close-up showmanship from a performer, would go wild.

Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are a pair of stacked theatres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Winter Garden Theatre is seven storeys above the Elgin Theatre.

They are the last surviving Edwardian stacked theatres in the world. The pair were originally built as the flagship of Marcus Loew's theatre chain in 1913. The building was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, who also built the Ed Mirvish Theatre.

Both theatres were built to show vaudeville acts and the short silent movies of the time. Each theatre was intended to compete in a different market.

The gold-and-marble, domed, 'hard-top' lower theatre, Loew's Yonge Street Theatre, was home to continuous vaudeville and movies. The upper-level Winter Garden is an 'atmospheric' country garden under the stars. The upper theatre was built for the 'Big Time' vaudeville market and had reserved seats at premium prices, catering to the upper middle class. As well as competing in a different market, the upper theatre could be used for experimentation with acts, without the risk of closing the lower theatre.