Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: Majestic Theatre

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The Majestic Theatre opened on February 16, 1903 with a performance of the jolly musical comedy, The Storks. Eben Dyer Jordan commissioned architect John Galen Howard to design The Majestic, who was one of only 400 American architects trained at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris in the late 1800s. Howard attended MIT before moving to Paris so his design of the Majestic combines plain old Yankee ingenuity with the classical perfection, Rococo decoration, functional quality, and pure visual fun taught at the Beaux Arts School. He used the newly invented electric light bulb to proclaim the theater’s grandeur by accenting the tall columns, soaring arches, and stained glass of the facade. The pattern was repeated in the lobby and auditorium – 4,500 light bulbs in all. The École des Beaux-Arts lead a resurgence of the highly decorative forms such as Rococo, blending them with Classical forms and accents referring to current popular styles. The Majestic therefore has a unique fusion of Classical form and art nouveau, with a touch of the Rococo influence. Since every piece of decorative plaster is gilded and the scheme has more decorative plaster than other forms (and hence an almost overwhelming amount of bright gold leaf ) the Majestic was called "The House of Gold."

The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, is a 1903 "Beaux Arts" style theater, designed by the architect John Galen Howard. The Majestic was converted to accommodate vaudeville shows in the 1920’s and eventually into a movie house in the 1950’s. The change to film came with renovations that transformed the lobby and covered up much of John Galen Howard’s original Beaux-Arts architecture. The theater continued to show movies until 1983 as the Saxon Theatre. By then, the theater began to deteriorate both in appearance and in programming. In the mid-1980’s Emerson College purchased the theater and restored it to its original Beaux-Arts appearance. The theater today is a performing arts center for both Emerson College and the community at large. It is the home base of Opera Boston as well as frequently staging shows by New England Conservatory, Teatro Lirico D’Europa, Celebrity Series of Boston, Emerson College’s Emerson Stage company and the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. The theater has again been renamed, the Cutler Majestic Theatre, after donors Ted and Joan Benard-Cutler. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Massachusetts Register of Historic Places, and is a "Boston Historic Landmark". The theatre is located at 219 Tremont Street in Boston’s theater district. It seats just under 1,200 people.

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