The theater was renamed the Gershwin during the 37th Tony Awards in 1983, the first of six Tony Awards ceremonies to be hosted there. The musicals The King and I and Sweeney Todd had relatively long runs at the end of the decade. Following several flops, the theater was rented out for concerts and dance specials in the 1970s. The Uris opened on November 28, 1972, with a performance of the musical Via Galactica. The Uris Buildings Corporation built the theater within the Uris Building, now Paramount Plaza, in the 1960s in exchange for several additional floors of office space. The Gershwin's orchestra level, which has about 1,300 seats, is more than double the size of the mezzanine level, which has about 600 seats. The American Theater Hall of Fame, which contains inscriptions of the names of over 500 notable theatrical personalities, is placed within the lobby and rotundas. There are escalators leading from the ground floor to the second-story lobby and rotundas. The theater's main entrances are from a midblock passageway that runs between 50th and 51st Streets. It was one of the first theaters constructed under the Special Theater District amendment of 1967. The Gershwin was designed by Ralph Alswang. Over the years, it has hosted musicals, dance companies, and concerts. The Gershwin is Broadway's largest theater, with approximately 1,933 seats across two levels. Opened in 1972, it is operated by the Nederlander Organization and is named after brothers George and Ira Gershwin, who wrote several Broadway musicals. The Gershwin Theatre (originally the Uris Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 222 West 51st Street, on the second floor of the Paramount Plaza office building, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

Boston opera house mezzanine overhang