Reopened under the Apollo name in January 1934, the theater hosted one of its earliest Amateur Nights that November, when a 17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald entered as a dancer, sang instead, and won.
The Apollo is a working theater rather than a museum, and its 125th Street auditorium closed in mid-2025 for the largest renovation in its history, with programming moved to the organization's stages at the Victoria Theater nearby — check which address a ticket names before you travel.
The building opened in 1914 as Hurtig and Seamon's New Burlesque Theater, designed by George Keister in a neo-classical manner and run as a whites-only house on the Columbia burlesque circuit. Sidney Cohen bought it after Billy Minsky's death and reopened it as the 125th Street Apollo in January 1934, programming Black vaudeville; Leo Brecher and Frank Schiffman took it over when Cohen died in 1935, and their families ran it into the late 1970s. The city designated both the exterior and the interior as landmarks in June 1983, and it was listed on the National Register that November. The nonprofit that runs it today was established in 1992.
Amateur Night began in 1934 under the emcee Ralph Cooper, who had started the format the previous year at the Lafayette Theatre, and it was broadcast live from the stage. Ella Fitzgerald won on November 21, 1934, having entered as a dancer and sung The Object of My Affection instead; by her own account she could not think of anything else to do. Much of what surrounds that night — the prize money, whose dancing scared her off — is repeated everywhere and sourced nowhere, so treat it as story rather than record.
The protected interior is an orchestra and two balconies with boxes at both levels, plaster ornament and murals around a proscenium, seating roughly 1,500 today against about 2,000 in the 1930s. Two live albums titled Live at the Apollo were recorded in that room and are worth knowing apart: James Brown financed his own in October 1962, and B. B. King made his in November 1990.
The theater closed on July 1, 2025 for a rebuilding described as the largest in its history, with reopening anticipated late in 2026 and a public opening in spring 2027. In the meantime the institution programs Apollo Stages at the Victoria, two black-box rooms of 199 and 99 seats opened a few doors east in February 2024 — its first physical expansion in ninety years.
253 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027 · Official site ↗
The Apollo Theater is a multi-use theater at 253 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a popular venue for Black American performers and is the home of the TV show Showtime at the Apollo. The theater, which has approximately 1,500 seats across three levels, was designed by George Keister with elements of the neoclassical style. The facade and interior of the theater are New York City designated landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation (ATF) operates the theater and a recording studio at the Apollo Theater, as well as two smaller auditoriums at the Victoria Theater.
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