Tony Awards will be held at historic United Palace theater in Washington Heights
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Next year’s Tony Awards will be held outside of Manhattan’s theater district for the first time in 75 years. The presenters of the Tony Awards on Tuesday announced that this year’s ceremony will move uptown to Washington Heights. The event will be hosted at the historic United Palace theater on Sunday, June 11, 2023.
Constructed in 1930, the United Palace is one of the five ornate Loew’s “Wonder Theatres” that were built around the New York City area to establish the corporation’s prominence in the film world and expand people’s access to cinema amidst national tragedies like the Great Depression and wars.
“We are excited to bring the Tony Awards to the historic United Palace for the first time. As we celebrate the best of this Broadway season and 76 years of the Tony Awards, we look forward to ushering in a new golden age for the show from this majestic, golden age theatre,” Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, said.
United Palace can house nearly 3,400 guests and is Manhattan’s fourth-largest theater. Besides movie screenings, the theatre hosts concerts, film shoots, and more.
Designed by Thomas W. Lamb, the theatre’s diverse interior has been described by many as “Cambodian neo-Classical,” and was once described in the Times as “Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco.”
The theatre’s eastern-inspired design came at a time when Americans had become fascinated with travel to the “Orient” and “Far East.”
Lamb himself said, “exotic ornaments, colors and scenes are particularly effective in creating an atmosphere in which the mind is free to frolic and becomes receptive to entertainment.”
Nominations for the 2023 Tony Awards will be announced on May 2, 2023.
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