Hulu Theater

The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden is a theater located in New York City's Madison Square Garden. It seats between 2,000 and 5,600 for concerts and can also be used for meetings, stage shows and graduation ceremonies. No seat is more than 177 feet (54 m) from the 30-by-64-foot (9.1 by 19.5 m) stage. Since it is located beneath the main Madison Square Garden arena, the theater has a relatively low 20-foot (6.1 m) ceiling at stage level[1] and all of its seating except for boxes on the two side walls is on one level slanted back from the stage. There is an 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) lobby at the theater.

Hulu Theater
Full nameHulu Theater at Madison Square Garden
Former names
  • Felt Forum (1968–89)
  • Paramount Theater (1991–97)
  • The Theater at Madison Square Garden (1997–2007; 2009–18)
  • WaMu Theater (2007–09)
Address4 Pennsylvania Plaza
LocationNew York City, New York
OwnerMadison Square Garden Entertainment
Capacity5,600
Construction
OpenedFebruary 14, 1968 (1968-02-14)
Renovated1989–91, 2011–13
ArchitectCharles Luckman Associates
Services engineerSyska Hennessy
General contractorTurner Construction and Del E. Webb Construction Company
Website
Venue Website

History

When the Garden opened in 1968, the theater was known as the Felt Forum, in honor of then-president Irving Mitchell Felt.[2] In the early 1990s, at the behest of then-owner Paramount Communications, the theater was renamed the Paramount Theater after the Paramount Theatre in Times Square had been converted to an office tower.[3] The theater received its next name, The Theater at Madison Square Garden, in the mid-1990s, after Viacom bought Paramount and sold the MSG properties. In 2007, the theater was renamed the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden through a naming rights deal with Washington Mutual. After Washington Mutual's collapse in 2009, the name reverted to The Theater at Madison Square Garden.[4] In 2018, the theater signed a deal with Hulu to become the "Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden".[5]

Events

It was the host for Mike Tyson's fourteenth professional fight against Sammy Scaff on December 6, 1985.[6] The theater occasionally hosts boxing matches on nights when the main arena is unavailable, or fights between promising boxers who management believe will not fill up "the big room".

Music band Menudo's February 5, 1983, concert at Madison Square Garden was held at the Felt Forum. It was member Xavier Serbia's last official concert with the band (he would return to the band in 1983 for another Madison Square Garden show to substitute for an ill Ricky Melendez) and the first for member Ray Reyes.[7] This concert was transmitted live to most Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela, and to the United States.

On December 8, 1991, the draw for the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was held at the theater.

WCW held two live events there, one on April 13, 1993, marking the first time an WCW event was ever held in New York City, and again on June 30, 1996. NXT held one event in the theater on November 16, 2016. Lucha Libre AAA and Impact Wrestling hosted Lucha Invades NY on September 15, 2019.

It was the home of the NFL draft from 1995 until 2004. In 2005 the NFL Draft moved to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, after MSG management opposed a new stadium for the New York Jets. It also hosted the NBA draft from 2001 to 2010.

From 2004 to 2006 and in 2008 Theatre of MSG hosted the Jammy Award honoring improvisational music. [8]

The first ever mixed martial arts event held at the theater was World Series of Fighting 34: Gaethje vs. Firmino on December 31, 2016.

Future

In January 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a redevelopment proposal for Penn Station that would involve the removal of The Theater at Madison Square Garden.[9][10]

References
  1. "Wintuk created exclusively for Wamu Theater at Madison Square Garden" Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, cirquedusoleil.com, November 7, 2007
  2. Blair; William G. (January 27, 1989). "Garden to Close The Felt Forum For Two Years". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  3. Holden, Stephen (September 11, 1991). "New Paramount Theater to Give Radio City a Run for Its Music". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  4. "WaMu Theaters name likely to change due to financial crisis". ticketnews.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  5. "The Theater at Madison Square Garden Is Now the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden". MSG. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  6. Anderson, Dave (July 8, 1993). "Sports of The Times; The Garden Throws Its Last Punch". Retrieved May 5, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  7. Victor Sangama Mendoza (December 28, 2010). "MENUDO APERTURA AL CONCIERTO EN EL MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.wmv". Retrieved May 5, 2019 – via YouTube.
  8. http://www.jambands.com/news/2008/05/08/trey-mike-page-and-fish-appear-together-at-the-jammys Jambands.com
  9. Higgs, Larry (January 6, 2016). "Gov. Cuomo unveils grand plan to rebuild N.Y. Penn Station". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  10. "6th Proposal of Governor Cuomo's 2016 Agenda: Transform Penn Station and Farley Post Office Building Into a World-Class Transportation Hub". Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Retrieved January 7, 2016.

Preceded by
New York Marriott Marquis		 Venues of the
NFL Draft
1995–2004		 Succeeded by
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
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