The City of New York defines the subdistrict for zoning purposes to extend from 40th Street to 57th Street and from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue, with an additional area west of Eighth Avenue from 42nd Street to 45th Street. The Times Square Alliance, a Business Improvement District organization dedicated to improving the Theater District, defines the district as an irregularly shaped area within the bounding box of 40th Street, 6th Avenue, 53rd Street, and 9th Avenue. As of 2018, the Vivian Beaumont Theater (part of Lincoln Center) is the only Broadway-class theater not located in the Theater District. The area known as Theatre Row is an area on 42nd Street from Ninth Avenue to Eleventh Avenue, which includes many Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theaters.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered protecting close to 50 “legitimate theaters” as individual city landmarks in 1982, following the destruction of the Helen Hayes and Morosco theatres. A city-landmark status would prevent the theaters from being modified without the LPC’s permission, thereby protecting them from development. The landmarks under consideration included both facades and interiors, which were designated separately. Manhattan Community Board 5, under whose jurisdiction the vast majority of the theaters fell, supported many of the proposed landmark protections. An advisory panel under mayor Ed Koch voted to allow the LPC consider theaters not only on their historical significance but also on their architectural merits. In response to objections from some of the major theatrical operators, several dozen scenic and lighting designers offered to work on the LPC for creating guidelines for potential landmarks.
The first theaters to be landmarked under the 1982 plan were the Neil Simon, Ambassador, and Virginia (August Wilson) in August 1985. The landmark plan was then deferred temporarily until some landmark guidelines were enacted; the guidelines, implemented in December 1985, allowed operators to modify theaters for productions without having to consult the LPC. The three theaters’ operators objected to the landmark statuses.
