Thefacade is relatively plain and is made of brick and stone, with amarquee above its entrance on Broadway. The outdoor ticket booth leads to a vestibule and a multi-storyrotunda lobby under the hotel, with a mural by Danish artist Valdemar Kjoldgaard in the lobby. The auditorium is in an adjacent structure on the eastern part of the site, near 75th Street andAmsterdam Avenue. The auditorium's side walls have ornate arched doorways and murals, while the multicolored ceiling has a chandelier. Theproscenium arch has Greek columns and is flanked by large statues. Theorchestra pit has aWurlitzer organ, one of three in a theater in Manhattan.
The theater was originally proposed in January 1927 as the Roxy Midway Theatre. Roxy severed his involvement andWarner Bros. took over the theater, opening it on December 24, 1929. The Central Amusement Corporation took over the Beacon in 1932, and Brandt Theatres assumed operation in 1944, running it for three decades. The theater started presenting live entertainment in 1966, and Steven Singer and Barry Kerr renovated it into a rock venue in 1974. After Singer'sbankruptcy,Kazuko Hillyer turned the theater into a performing arts center in 1976. Following a failed attempt to convert the Beacon into a nightclub and restaurant in 1986, the theater remained in use as a live music and entertainment venue.Madison Square Garden Entertainment took over in 2006 and renovated the Beacon shortly afterward.
Over the years, the Beacon has hosted numerous concerts. Some acts have appeared for extended residencies, includingthe Allman Brothers Band. It has also hosted other types of live performances, including dance troupes and plays. The Beacon has additionally been used for broadcasts, tapings, films, and ceremonies such as theTony Awards.
The Beacon Theatre had been designed as a miniature version of the earlierRoxy Theatre inMidtown Manhattan, which Ahlschlager also designed.[4][5][8] Whereas the Roxy Theatre had been designed withMoorish andRenaissance-inspired elements, the Beacon contains a variety of styles, including Renaissance,Ancient Roman,Ancient Greek, andRococo-inspired elements.[4][5] Danish artistValdemar Kjoldgaard designed numerous murals for the Beacon as well.[9][10] When the theater opened,Women's Wear Daily described Kjoldgaard's murals as being "themselves worth a king's ransom".[11] A reporter described the theater in general as "a true bit of Bagdad on Broadway",[12][13] while another critic called the theater's interior "like walking into an Arab sheik's tent".[14]
Rear facade of the Beacon Theatre on Amsterdam Avenue
The Beacon Theatre's entrance and lobby are within the hotel building, while the auditorium is in its own structure to the east. The hotel'sfacade is plain in design, and the theater's entrance is on the southern section of the hotel's Broadway facade. Above the theater'smarquee, the hotel building contains arched windows on the second floor and a brick facade on upper stories.[3]
The facade of the auditorium faces 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where the first floor is made of stone and the upper stories are made of brick. Both facades have blind openings without any windows. There are horizontalband courses above the first and fifth floors, corresponding to those on the hotel's facade, as well as anarcade near the auditorium's roof. On 75th Street, there is a large arch at the center of the facade, with a stone frame, along with three blind arches on the fifth-story band course above it. On Amsterdam Avenue, there is a large stone-framedogee arch at the fifth story, along with four blind arches to the sides. A steppedgable rises atop the auditorium's Amsterdam Avenue facade.[3]
Under the theater's marquee is a semicircular outdoor ticket lobby with tile flooring, which is recessed from the sidewalk. There is a ticket booth in the middle of the outdoor ticket lobby.[3][15] The ticket booth was originally gilded and was made of marble, glass, and metal. Prior to its renovation in 2009, the ticket booth had been painted over several times.[16] East of the outdoor ticket booth are glass and metal doors, topped bytransom windows, which lead to an indoorvestibule. This vestibule has a low ceiling with lamps and Renaissance-stylemolded bands. The north wall contains mirrors and signs, while the south wall has another ticket booth and an office. The doors to the west (leading from the street) and to the east (leading to the main lobby) both curve into the vestibule.[3][15]
East of the vestibule is a circular rotunda with Rococo-inspired decorations. The rotunda ceiling is as high as the auditorium itself; it contains moldings ofrosettes andcoffers, as well as a large chandelier hanging from its center.[12][17] The western wall of the rotunda, which leads from the entrance vestibule, contains flutedpilasters on either side. Above the doorways is a landscape mural by Valdemar Kjoldgaard.[12][18] Some time before a renovation in 2008, the mural had been covered with wallpaper, though the artwork was restored during the renovation.[8] On the eastern wall of the rotunda is a passageway flanked byIonic-style pilasters, which reach from the floor to the ceiling. Above the passageway is a decorative panel, as well as an archway with full-heightcolonettes on the mezzanine and balcony levels.[12][17]
On either side of the passageway on the rotunda's eastern wall are Rococo-style stairways. The lowest flight connects to themezzanine level. Two more flights provide access to both the bottom and the top rows of the steeplyraked balcony.[19][20]
The auditorium has three levels of seating and aproscenium arch. The space is designed with both sculpted decorations and murals by Kjoldgaard.[12][19] As of 2022[update], the Beacon Theatre has 2,894 seats.[21][22] The theater's operator,MSG Entertainment, classifies the mezzanine level directly above the orchestra as aloge level. Two stories above the orchestra is the balcony level, which is divided into two sections: a lower balcony in the front and an upper balcony in the back.[23] When the theater opened, there was a smoking-room balcony behind the auditorium, with ventilation ducts in the ceiling. There was also a fireproof projection booth in the rear. The original seats were characterized as "fully upholstered"folding seats with large amounts of legroom.[11][24]
Left wall of the Beacon's auditorium
The side walls of the orchestra contain ornate arched doorways. Above each of the arches are theatrical masks, which are flanked by swags and cartouches. Above these arches are the balcony's side walls, which are divided into twobays by fluted pilasters. Each bay contains a piece of a mural by Kjoldgaard; according to theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, these represent "oriental scenes with caravans of elephants, camels, and traders".[12][19] The ceiling above the front of the auditorium contains a red, gold, green, and blue color scheme and is designed to resemble the draped roof of a tent. A Venetian-style chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling.[12][19]
The proscenium arch consists of Doric-style columns on either side, supporting the top of the proscenium.[25] The latticework of the proscenium had openings for the sound coming from the theater's organ.[11][24] Flanking the proscenium are bronze female figures,[11][25] which measure 30 ft-tall (9.1 m) and depict Greek goddesses.[12][19]Women's Wear Daily described these figures as "heroic-size bronzes ofAmazons with spear and shield".[11] Above the proscenium are green and gold plaster draperies.[12][19] The theater originally had a curtain that contemporary media described as the only "contour curtain" in a movie theater in the United States.[11][24]
The Beacon also retains its originalWurlitzer organ in its orchestra pit. The organ was manufactured in 1928[26] and contains fourmanuals and 19 ranks.[26][27][28] The Beacon is one of three theaters in Manhattan that retains its original organ, along withRadio City Music Hall and theUnited Palace.[26][29] The organ was abandoned by the early 1960s, but it was not removed because the removal cost was too high for the theater's operators.[30] The organ was restored in 1967[31] and remained in use at the Beacon until it was sealed in 2009.[26]
Movie palaces became common in the 1920s, between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression.[32][33] In the New York City area, only a small number of operators were involved in the construction of movie palaces. These theaters' designers included the architects Walter Ahlschlager,Thomas W. Lamb,C. Howard Crane, andJohn Eberson.[32] Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel was a successful theater operator who was prominent in the city's movie theater industry,[34] having built the 5,920-seatRoxy Theatre on 50th Street in midtown during 1927.[35] The Chanin brothers also had some experience in theatrical development, having built sixBroadway theaters in the mid-1920s.[36][37][a]
The Chanins acquired a site on 75th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue in 1925 for the construction of a hotel and an attached theater. Two years later, in January 1927, the Chanins sold the site to the Havemeyer Construction Company. Film producer Herbert Lubin negotiated the sale on behalf of Roxy, who would operate the theater on the site, known as the Roxy Midway Theatre. Roxy retained Ahlschlager to design the new hotel and theater, and the Chanins were hired as the consulting engineers for the project.[39][40] The sale came one month after Lubin established the Roxy Circuit, which planned to operate numerous movie theaters in New York City, with the midtown Roxy Theatre as its flagship.[41][42] In April 1928, S. W. Straus & Company underwrote a $4.45 million loan on the Midway project, which at the time was nearly completed.[43][44] Anairway beacon was placed on top of the hotel, and the project was renamed the Midway Beacon, a name that was kept as late as June 1928.[45]
The Roxy Circuit never operated the Midway Theatre because, in July 1928, the company sued to get out of its lease.[5][15] None of the other planned theaters in the Roxy Circuit were ever built, in part because of the start of theGreat Depression shortly afterward.[28] TheNew York Herald Tribune was using the "Beacon" name exclusively by June 1929.[46] At the time, Warner Theatres was considering acquiring the theater, which had been completed for a year but was unused.[47] AfterRKO Pictures considered leasing the Beacon, Warner Theatres ultimately bought the theater in November 1929, turning it into a first-run showcase forWarner Bros. films on the Upper West Side.[48] Warner Theatres then conducted changes to the acoustical properties of the auditorium to accommodatesound films.[5][15] Warner Bros. unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the rights to screenFirst National Pictures films at the new Beacon.[49] The renamed Warner's Beacon Theatre opened on December 24, 1929, with the talking pictureTiger Rose featuringLupe Vélez.[11][25]
Originally, the Beacon played one motion picture per week, which ran continuously from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.[11][24] Among the early films screened at the Beacon wereOnce a Gentleman (1930),[50]A Soldier's Plaything (1931),[51] andThe Lawless Woman (1931).[52] The Chanins took over the Beacon Hotel and Theatre in April 1930, four months after the theater had opened.[53] Amid speculation that the Chanins might redevelop the site (in the past eleven years, the brothers had torn down every structure that they had bought),Irwin Chanin announced that the Beacon Hotel and Theatre would remain operational.[54] The Beacon Enterprise Company, in which Warner Bros. owned 75 percent of the stock, was subsequently recorded as having leased the theater.[55][56] The Beacon was one of several movie theaters that Warner Bros. operated along Broadway; the others included the Warners,Hollywood,Winter Garden, andStrand.[57]
At the end of January 1932, Warner Bros.' operating lease on the Beacon Theatre expired, and the Central Amusement Corporation took over.[58][59] The Chanins said the new management allowed the Beacon to show movies from more than one producer.[59] The Beacon largely continued to produce straight pictures, but it also broadened its offerings to radio broadcasts, such as Tru Blu Beer'sBroadway Bandwagon in 1935.[60] To recruit soldiers duringWorld War II, theUnited States Army exhibited a mortar and a machine gun in the Beacon's rotunda lobby while playing a short film in the auditorium.[61] The theater also hostedbond-buying events during the war.[62]Brandt Theatres acquired the Beacon in 1944 as the 120th theater in its chain.[63][64] Two years later, the Beacon began presenting films and stage performances for children during Saturday matinees.[65]
Right wall of auditorium as viewed from the stage
The Beacon implemented a policy of presenting onlyfirst runs at the end of 1948; the British pictureDon't Take It to Heart was the first to be screened under this policy.[66][67] During 1949, the films shown under this policy includeddouble features such asEasy Money/My Brother's Keeper,[68] as well as traditional single features likeA Yank Comes Back[69] andTemptation Harbour.[70] The Beacon continued to show double features throughout the 1950s, such asThe Frightened Bride/The Caretaker's Daughter in 1953.[71] The Beacon also screened Warner Bros. films. This caused a dispute in 1959, when the owners of the nearby Embassy Theatre filed a lawsuit, alleging that Warner Bros. had shown favoritism by selling distribution rights for three films to the Beacon rather than to the high bidders, the Embassy.[72] Starting in 1962, the Beacon also showedUnited Artists pictures through the UA's "Premiere Showcase";[73] the first film shown under this program wasHong Kong.[74][75]
In January 1966, Brandt announced that the Beacon would presentlegitimate plays along with films.[76] The first live show under this policy, aYiddish vaudeville show, was canceled after two days.[77] The next year, members of the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts restored the Beacon's long-unused organ.[31][78] The Beacon then screened silent pictures accompanied by organ music, starting withThe General.[31] By then,Boxoffice magazine characterized the Beacon as one of the Upper West Side's few movie palaces that remained in theatrical use.[78] The Beacon also continued to screen talking pictures such asUlysses,[79] as well as live shows including a ballet production in 1968.[80] The Beacon implemented a "firstsecond run" policy in 1971, showing reruns of films that had just premiered (as opposed to reruns that had already been shown at other theaters).[81] Accordingly, the Beacon reduced its ticket prices to $1.00–1.50, even as its competitors retained higher ticket prices.[81][82][b] Though the reduced ticket prices increased the theater's income by 15 to 20 percent, the Beacon's owners were looking to sell the theater.[83]
Following the closure of rock venueFillmore East, Bow Wow Productions proposed hosting rock concerts at the Beacon in 1971.[84] The concert series began later that year,[85][86] and the theater charged ticket prices of up to $7.50 on these shows.[87] The Beacon's concerts in 1971 tended not to have long runs due to disagreements between promoters and the theater's operators.[88] By the early 1970s, the theater was still showing movies but was dimly lit and deteriorating.[28] In March 1974, the Beacon was leased by Vidicoth Systems,[c] a company operated by Steven Singer and Barry Kerr.[13][28] The new operators spent $250,000 on renovations, including $75,000 on a new sound system.[89][13] The operators reupholstered the seats, installed new carpets, and repainted the ceiling and statues. The theater continued to show movies until the renovations were finished.[28]
When the Beacon reopened in October 1974, Stephen Metz took over the theater's bookings, using the Beacon primarily for rock concerts.[90][91] A writer forNewsday said of the Beacon: "A rock ballroom is not just what Manhattan needs, but that may be what it's getting."[92] By the next year, the Beacon had gained a reputation as a rock venue.[93][94] ANew York Amsterdam News reporter said in 1976 that the Beacon "has transcended a galaxy of live-entertainment theaters" and had become a competitor to theApollo Theater inHarlem.[94] Some residents raised complaints about the noise and crowds at the rock concerts, though Singer and Metz addressed most of these complaints.[95] Singer and Metz formed a firm in August 1976, Singmet, which produced some of its own shows for the Beacon.[96] The theater was closed in 1976 after Singer and Metz went bankrupt,[97] and it was planned to be replaced by a supermarket.[98][8]
Kazuko Hillyer announced plans in February 1977 to convert the Beacon into a performing arts center.[97][99][100] Hillyer, a Japanese-American, said she wanted to make the theater "a center for the two heritages we all have".[98] Hillyer immediately booked dance shows for the Beacon,[101] and she intended to spend $75,000 on renovations.[100] The same year, Concert Arts Society was recorded as having leased the theater for 15 years.[102] TheNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Beacon Theatre as an interior landmark on December 11, 1979, citing the theater's "dramatic effects of rich ornamental details".[103] 50/50 Productions, a company operated by Steve Martin, took over the Beacon's bookings in October 1981[102] and booked jazz and contemporary musicians for the theater.[104] Martin wanted to stageBroadway shows at the theater, but he faced competition fromthe Shubert Organization and theNederlander Organization, the two largest operators of Broadway theaters.[105] The Beacon was renovated in 1982,[106] and it was added to theNational Register of Historic Places the same year.[1] The theater was renovated again in 1985.[107]
Andy Feltz became the Beacon's manager in 1986.[108] That February, the theater's owners announced plans to convert the Beacon into a nightclub and restaurant with adiscotheque. At the time, the Beacon was the only mid-sized live-concert venue in Manhattan; the two other similarly sized venues in the borough,Avery Fisher Hall andCarnegie Hall, were largely used for classical music.[109] The operator of the planned nightclub,Olivier Coquelin, said he and his architectCharles A. Platt (a former LPC commissioner) had chosen the Beacon Theatre for conversion specifically because of its landmark status.[110][111] Coquelin's company signed a seven-year lease for the theater that April.[111][112] The nightclub would be built as a freestanding structure within the auditorium, thus reducing the need to modify the protected interior spaces.[113] Area residents expressed concerns that the renovations would damage the landmarked design features.[114] Preservationists and community groups, including the Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre, organized in opposition to the plans.[111][113][115]
The LPC voted to approve the plan in July 1986.[116][117] Afterward, Coquelin said he would need to spend $3 million to renovate the theater because of its deteriorated condition.[118] The city rejected the conversion proposal that December because the planned dance floor was too large underzoning regulations.[119][120] The city government approved the plan after the dance floor's size was reduced.[110][121][122] Two benefit concerts were hosted to fund the groups that opposed the theater's conversion.[123] In September 1987, aNew York Supreme Court judge overturned the LPC's approval of the conversion on the grounds that it would threaten the quality of the theater's architecture.[124][125] During this time, the Beacon was still hosting concerts;[126] along with the Apollo, it was one of two venues in Manhattan with frequent rock, pop, and soul concerts.[127] The theater's operators filed an appeal of the Supreme Court's ruling in October 1988.[128] TheNew York Court of Appeals overturned the Supreme Court decision, sending the plan back to the LPC.[129][130]
By 1989, the theater's operators no longer intended to turn the theater into a nightclub, having hired MSG Entertainment as the theater's exclusive booking agent for several years.[131][132] The Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre expressed optimism but continued to monitor the theater's usage.[133] Following the efforts of the Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre, Nanci Callahan founded the West Side Cultural Center, which was to stage children's programming, dances, and operas at the Beacon.[134] In late 1991, the Beacon was temporarily converted into anIMAX theater; the IMAX format's large screen necessitated that most of the seats be closed off due to poor sightlines.[135][136] The theater was then refurbished again in the early 1990s for rock concerts.[137]
Feltz continued to manage the Beacon until 2006.[108] That November, the theater was leased for 20 years to MSG Entertainment's parent companyCablevision, which also leasedRadio City Music Hall and ownedMadison Square Garden.[138][139] Cablevision committed at least $10 million toward a future restoration of the Beacon,[139] which closed for a major renovation in August 2007.[8]Beyer Blinder Belle was hired for the project, fixing longstanding issues such as a leaking roof and damage to original decorations.[8][140] The restoration also involved replacing the electrical system, upholstering the seats, restoring decorations in the lobby and the auditorium, and upgrading backstage functions.[16][141] The workers restored features such as the Broadway ticket booth, which had been painted over numerous times, and the chandelier above the auditorium, which had been hanging from a coffee tin.[16] The project involved 1,000 workers and was completed in February 2009 for $16 million.[16][141]
MSG Entertainment split from Cablevision in mid-2009 but continued to operate the Beacon Theatre and its other venues.[142] The Beacon's lighting system was upgraded in 2014 to accommodate the venue's events, which at the time included concerts, comedy, broadcasts, and film screenings.[143] For over a year, from early 2020 to July 2021, the Beacon Theatre was temporarily closed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[144] A new sound system was installed at the Beacon in August 2022.[145][146]
After the Beacon Theatre started presenting live performances, it became one of the most popular concert halls in New York City. In addition, it has hosted other types of live events such as comedy specials.[147] By 2006, the theater hosted about 70 performances a year; box-office figures were available for 52 of these events, which collectively grossed $8 million and had 136,000 total patrons.[139] During the Beacon's 2008 renovation,The New York Times referred to the venue as the "Carnegie Hall of rock rooms".[8]
The rock bandthe Allman Brothers Band was at one point the most frequent performer at the Beacon,[8] appearing there nearly every year from 1989 to 2014.[192] After their first performance in 1989, the band returned in 1992[193] 1994,[194] and annually after 1996;[195] aNew York Times article in 2002 called the band's performances "as sure a sign of spring as the reappearance of robins and bellybuttons".[196] The band recorded a live album at the theater in March 2000, releasingPeakin' at the Beacon that November.[197] In 2009, the Allman Brothers Band celebrated its 40th anniversary at the Beacon with shows dedicated to the band's founder and original frontman,Duane Allman.[198][199] The band could not perform at the Beacon in 2010 because the theater was hosting an extended run of aCirque du Soleil production,[200] but the band was invited back in 2011.[201][202] The band played the final show of its career at the Beacon Theatre on October 28, 2014, after 238 total concerts at the theater.[192][203]
The first live show in the Beacon's modern history was the Yiddish vaudevilleBagels & Yox, which closed after two days in 1967.[77] The Beacon hosted a performance ofErik Satie's symphonic dramaSocrate in 1967, in tribute to themobile artistAlexander Calder, featuring a recreation ofCalder's set for a 1936 production of the work.[214] During the early 1970s, the Beacon featured weeklyprofessional wrestling matches.[215] When the Beacon operated as a performing arts center in the late 1970s, it hosted appearances by dance companies such as theAlwin Nikolais Dance Theatre,[216] theMurray Louis Dance Company,[101] the GrandKabuki troupe of Japan,[217] and a festival called "Ballet at the Beacon".[218] During that era, the Beacon also hosted another performance ofSocrate alongside the operaFour Saints in Three Acts,[219] as well as anElizabeth Swados musical with a cast composed entirely of children.[220]
In the early 1980s, the Beacon continued to host dance and musical performances, including the National Dance Company of Senegal,[221] an annual Hasidic Song Festival,[222] the Guangdong Yue Opera,[223] and a production of the opera cycleDer Ring des Nibelungen.[224]Michaele Vollbracht held a fashion show at the Beacon in 1982, although the theater's stage was poorly equipped to host such events.[225][226] Near the end of the decade, the theater also hosted the melodrama1000 Airplanes on the Roof.[227] Live performances in the 1990s included a production of the musicalThe Wiz with an all-Black cast in 1993[228][229] and a comedy routine bySandra Bernhard in 1994.[230] The14th Dalai Lama also gave two series of lectures at the Beacon in 1999[231] and 2003.[232]
The theater's stage has hosted a variety of broadcasts and films. For example,VH1 broadcast its popular productionDivas Live from there in 1998[241] and 1999.[242] Many ofGeorge Carlin'sHBO comedy specials were broadcast from or filmed at the Beacon, includingYou Are All Diseased (1999).[243]Conan O'Brien taped hisLate Night 10th anniversary special at the theater in 2003,[244] and O'Brien briefly returned in late 2011 to tape shows for his seriesConan.[245]
Some of the concerts at the Beacon have been taped as well.Duran Duran recorded a live concert at the Beacon on August 31, 1987, calledLive at the Beacon Theatre.[246] The theater was also used in late 2006 for the filming ofShine a Light, a film of a live concert bythe Rolling Stones.[247]Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday with a concert at the theater on January 27, 2016, which was broadcast onPBS'sGreat Performances and released on CD and DVD.[248] She also included the theater in her worldwide Fare Thee Well tour with three concerts in September 2018 and in May 2019.[249]
Even after being converted into a live-performance venue in the 1970s, the Beacon still occasionally hosted film screenings. These included a series of Cuban films in 1978,[250] a marathon run of Russian films in 1979,[251] and a "worst-film festival" in 1980.[252] The theater also hosted a silent-film festival in 1985, accompanied by music from the organ,[107][253] as well as the filmKoyaanisqatsi with a live accompaniment in 1988.[254] The Beacon was temporarily converted to an IMAX theater for the screening of the filmStones at the Max in 1991.[135][255] Some film screenings continued at the Beacon through the 21st century, such as the filmWalk the Line in 2005[256] and a premiere of the filmSuicide Squad in 2016.[257][258] The Beacon has also hosted some films for the annualTribeca Film Festival, includingLove, Gilda in 2018[259] andApocalypse Now in 2019.[260]
The Beacon has also been used for benefits. For example, in 1975, the theater hosted a jazz concert to fund opposition toRiverside Church's planned sale of its radio stationWRVR-FM.[267] A concert was hosted in December 1986 to fund opposition to the Beacon Theatre's proposed conversion into a nightclub,[268][269] followed by another concert in June 1987 for the same purpose.[123] The biennial autism-awareness benefit "Night of Too Many Stars", hosted byJon Stewart, has also been hosted at the Beacon several times, including in 2008,[270] 2010,[271] and 2015.[272]
The Beacon Theatre started hosting the New York Music Awards in 1987, the year after the award was founded.[273] The awards were hosted annually at the Beacon until 1992.[274][275]The Broadway League temporarily relocated theTony Awards, the annual ceremony forBroadway theatre, to the Beacon in the early 2010s due to prior bookings at the ceremony's traditional home, Radio City Music Hall.[276][277] The Beacon thus hosted the65th Tony Awards in 2011;[278] the theater also hosted the66th Tony Awards in 2012[279][280] because the Beacon had a "multi-year contract" with the Tonys,[281] Another extended run at Radio City forced the Tonys to again relocate to the Beacon in 2016,[282][283] when the latter theater hosted the70th Tony Awards.[284]
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