Manhattan Center

The Manhattan Center began its life in nineteen hundred and six as the Manhattan Opera House, the passion project of impresario Oscar Hammerstein the First. He built the venue specifically to challenge the city's established Metropolitan Opera by offering world-class performances to ordinary New Yorkers at lower prices. The competition grew so intense that the Metropolitan Opera eventually paid Hammerstein over one million dollars to stop producing opera entirely for a decade. With that payout in hand, the building transitioned into a versatile stage for vaudeville, concerts, and social gatherings.