Note: Visit the Hirschfeld Century Podcast to hear a chat about the creation of this (along with some great history of Al Hirschfeld’s legacy at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre with AH Foundation Creative Director David Leopold and Archives Manager Katherine Marshall-Eastman).
The final image created for the Al Hirschfeld Theatre centennial celebration.
The Al Hirschfeld Theatre (nee The Martin Beck Theatre) celebrated its CENTENNIAL on November 11, 2024, and the current owners of the theater, Ambassador Theatre Group, wanted to have an illustration created to celebrate this cathedral of the arts, specifically because it’s now named for the legendary caricaturist. I am not taking for granted the gravity of fact that they contacted me to take on the job. Al Hirschfeld is such a HUGE inspiration to me and this is such a huge honor! Once the project was a “go” I quickly contacted my pal David Leopold, Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, and was so grateful and relieved to get their support. The team at ATG and I came up with a master list of over 100 stars who have appeared on that stage along with a few other luminaries. They had final say over that list and came up with the idea of showing a view from the stage with all the stars – as they appeared when they took the stage here – sitting, waiting for the show to start. And we were on our way!
Planning stages.
Once the list was finalized, I dove in and mapped out the layout and where everybody would be. It’s actually a caricature of sorts of the interior of the theater. Keeping in mind the fact that we’d have only 106 luminaries in the sketch in contrast with the 1,424 actual seats – and wanting to see the detail of everyone’s face – I opted to condense the orchestra section to four rows and the balcony to two, and to minimize the aisles. In the boxes, I featured (stage left) original owner Martin Beck, architect G. Albert Lansburgh, and Al Hirschfeld with his pad and pencil; and (stage right) five legends who have perhaps the most appearances at the theater, Katharine Cornell, Burgess Meredith, Maureen Stapleton, Helen Hayes, and Elia Kazan. The sketch on the right, above, is a gesture drawing I did all on one page, then scanning sections of it, enlarging them, and using the printouts as a guide for drawing this illustration in larger pieces to assemble in Photoshop. The eventual penciled pieces were scanned and assembled for approval by the team.
Pencil proof for approval (with name legend overlaid).
Small sections of the full illustration in pencil (groups of three, four, or five), and then the inked versions.
Once the penciling was approved, I inked the sections of the piece, then scanned them in for layout using the pencil proof for a template. Then it was on to color. Perhaps the biggest challenge was the detail work on the chandelier medallion on the ceiling and the front of the boxes and mezzanine which I collaged together from various scribbles and circles and spatter and tears. As a fun detail to honor the years-long legacy of the Beck being the Broadway home to the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company who presented Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, represented in the circles on the front of the boxes with symbols from some of their popular titles. And as a final happy detail, in honor of Mr. Hirschfeld, I included three “Nina”s.
One of the happiest honors of the project was that I got to include some beloved folks who have somewhat recently left us all too soon: Rebecca Luker (pictured with her husband Danny Burstein), Marin Mazzie (with her husband Jason Danieley), and Gavin Creel (with Hair co-star Will Swenson). There are six married couples pictured (Rebecca and Danny, Marin and Jason, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. There is one set of siblings: Stella and Luther Adler. Two long-time ushers at the theater were chosen to appear at the back of the orchestra with stacks of Playbills.
Once again, I am tremendously honored and gobsmacked at the honor of this commission. Very grateful.