Inside the Richard Rodgers Theatre Renovation

Inside the Richard Rodgers Theatre Renovation

The Richard Rodgers Theatre, which was built in 1925 as Chanin's 46th Street Theatre, underwent a $3.5 million renovation in anticipation of the starry Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet.

The Richard Rogers, pre-renovations

The design process began with overall concepts for color palettes, wall coverings, gilding options and decorative painting styles

EverGreene performed testing of materials on site. On a portion of the balcony and the walls is a mock up of the potential design scheme. If approved, this design scheme would be carried throughout the theatre.

The proscenium design with the oversized leaves seemed to be incongruous with the surrounding decoration and not original to the theatre.

Further investigation, here one of the gilded leaves was removed, revealed that the original proscenium appeared intact underneath the post-historic additions

In June of 2013, EverGreene craftsmen demolished the outer plaster piece, and discovered a beautifully ornamented proscenium. The delicate design of unique figural forms and floral patterns still retained traces of gilding.

An EverGreene conservation technician uses water to soften the post‐historic plaster that previously supported the exterior molding with water. By delicately scraping the plaster away, he reveals the bas relief sculpture of figural characters.

Well‐versed in Classical design, mythology and symbology, EverGreene’s design team creates with sketches, then full color painted designs for review and approval by the client.

Once a design is approved, the rondels will be hand painted by a professional muralist executed full‐size in EverGreene’s studio on West 31st Street and installed in the Richard Rogers Theater. There are two primary rondels, each about 6’ in diamete