Lena Horne Theatre

The Lena Horne Theatre has carried three names in its history. It opened in 1926 as the Mansfield, designed by Herbert Krapp for the Chanin brothers in the Spanish Revival style they favored for the West 47th Street cluster. It became the Brooks Atkinson in 1960 — named for the New York Times critic — and was renamed again in 2022 to honor Lena Horne, the singer and civil rights advocate.

At 1,232 seats, this is one of the mid-sized Broadway houses — large enough to support a full musical orchestration, small enough that even the rear orchestra reads as intimate. The mezzanine is well-raked with clean sight lines; the orchestra slopes more gently than the newer houses, which makes seat-height a real consideration if you’re shorter or sitting behind someone particularly tall. Front mezzanine here is one of Broadway’s quiet sweet spots — a complete stage picture from the right height at a meaningful discount to center orchestra.

The Lena Horne is operated by the Nederlander Organization and sits on West 47th Street, in the cluster Krapp built for the Chanins in the mid-1920s.