Ambassador Theatre

The Ambassador Theatre opened in 1921, designed by Herbert Krapp for the Shubert brothers on a relatively small lot. Krapp’s solution was to set the auditorium diagonally on the plot, producing a hexagonal seating arrangement that’s still unique among Broadway houses. The Shubert Organization’s page says the diagonal also left the stage short of wing space. In our view, the Adam-style plasterwork and the single mezzanine level give the room a quieter feel than the larger Shubert houses.

At 1,095 seats, the Ambassador is mid-sized. Shubert’s figures put 573 seats in the orchestra and 514 on one mezzanine level, two flights up (38 steps), split into a front mezzanine (264) and a rear mezzanine (250), with 8 box seats. Chicago has played here since 2003. In our view, the angled room makes the view from the ends of a row hard to judge from a flat seating chart, so look at a photo from a side seat before you buy one.

The Ambassador is a Shubert Organization venue on West 49th Street, slightly uptown from the central Times Square cluster.