There are few stages in New York that seem to hold more than applause. Some theaters are remembered for a single production, a famous opening night, or the stars who passed through their doors. But the Ed Sullivan Theater has lived many lives. It has been a Broadway house, a radio studio, a television landmark, a home for variety, comedy, music, game shows, sitcoms, and late night. Now, as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert prepares to sign off on May 21st, the theater at 1697 Broadway is once again standing at the edge of a new chapter.
For more than 30 years, modern audiences have known the building as the home of The Late Show, first with David Letterman, then with Stephen Colbert. But long before the bright “Late Show” marquee, and the nightly walk-ons, the theater began as a tribute from one generation of show business to another. It opened in 1927 as Hammerstein’s Theater, built by Arthur Hammerstein in honor of his father, Oscar Hammerstein I, one of the great impresarios of American entertainment. Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the building stood on Broadway between West 53rd and West 54th Streets, close enough to Times Square to feel the pulse of the theater district, but distinct enough to become its own kind of monument.
Its first production, Golden Dawn, opened on November 30, 1927. Among the performers was a young Archie Leach, who would later become known to the world as Cary Grant. It is a detail that feels almost too perfect, a future Hollywood legend appearing at the very beginning of a stage that would later introduce so many other stars to America. But Hammerstein’s dream arrived at a difficult moment. The theater opened only a few years before the Great Depression tightened its grip on Broadway, and by 1931, Arthur Hammerstein had lost ownership of the building. The theater created as a family tribute was forced to reinvent itself almost immediately.
That reinvention became part of the building’s character. Through the 1930s, the theater changed names and identities, becoming the Manhattan Theater, then Billy Rose’s Music Hall, before CBS eventually took over the space for radio broadcasts. What had begun as a Broadway playhouse became a broadcast room, carrying voices instead of footlights into American homes. By 1950, as television began reshaping the country’s habits and imagination, CBS converted the theater into CBS-TV Studio 50. The change was more than technical. It marked the moment when an old Broadway house became part of a new national ritual, gathering around a screen.
Then came Ed Sullivan. In 1953, Sullivan moved his variety program, then known as Toast of the Town, into Studio 50 after outgrowing its previous home at the Maxine Elliott Theater. From that point forward, the building became inseparable from his name, even before it officially carried it. Week after week, Sullivan stood on that stage and introduced America and Canada to singers, dancers, comics, opera stars, novelty acts, actors, athletes, and musicians who would define entire eras of popular culture. His show was renamed The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955, and in 1967, to mark Sullivan’s 20th year on television, Studio 50 was officially renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater.
That stage did not merely host performances. It created moments people remembered for the rest of their lives. Through The Ed Sullivan Show, the theater became a national showcase for some of the most defining entertainers of the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Marvin Gaye, and The Jackson 5. Sullivan had a rare gift for bringing different worlds of entertainment into the same room, and from that Broadway stage, he helped introduce America to artists who would shape popular culture for generations.
Part of what made the Ed Sullivan Theater special was that it never belonged to just one kind of performer. Sullivan’s program could move from opera to rock and roll, from Broadway to comedy, from dance to novelty acts, sometimes all in the same evening. That range reflected the host himself. Ed Sullivan was not a singer, comedian, or actor in the traditional sense. His gift was his eye. He understood what America wanted to see, and often, what it did not yet know it wanted to see. Standing in that theater, with his famous delivery and unmistakable presence, he became the bridge between performers and the living rooms of millions.
The building also carried on beyond Sullivan. CBS Studio 50 and later the Ed Sullivan Theater housed or supported a long list of programs, including The Jackie Gleason Show, What’s My Line?, To Tell the Truth, Password, The Merv Griffin Show, and later the sitcom Kate & Allie. That history matters because it shows the theater was never frozen in one golden age. It adapted. It served whatever form entertainment was taking at the moment, whether that meant radio microphones, television cameras, game show panels, sitcom sets, or late-night desks.
By the early 1990s, the building was ready for another transformation. In 1993, David Letterman left NBC for CBS, and the network purchased and renovated the theater for Late Show with David Letterman. It was a fitting move. Letterman brought a different kind of energy to the room, more unpredictable, more modern, but he also understood the weight of the space he was entering. The Sullivan was not just a studio with seats, it was a stage with entertainment history .
By the time Stephen Colbert took over The Late Show in 2015 the theater’s second life in late night had become part of its story too. Following David Letterman was no small task, especially in a room already filled with so much history, but Colbert made the stage distinctly his own. He brought intelligence, warmth, sharp political humor, and a respect for the tradition of late night while still shaping the show for a new era. Under his watch, the theater remained more than a famous address on Broadway. It became a place where audiences could come together at the end of the day to laugh, think, listen, and make sense of the moment. That is what makes this final stretch feel so meaningful.
CBS announced in July 2025 that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would end in May 2026 and that the Late Show franchise would be retired. The network described the decision as financial, not a reflection of Colbert’s performance, voice, or impact. For nearly a decade, Colbert carried the Sullivan tradition forward with wit, humanity, and a steady command of the room. His final episode is scheduled for May 21, 2026, marking the end of a major era not only for CBS late night, but for one of New York’s most storied stages.
However, that does not mean the Ed Sullivan Theater is disappearing. Its lobbies and auditorium interiors were designated a New York City landmark in 1988, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In other words, this is not a story about a theater being erased. It is a story about a room losing its current purpose and waiting to find out what comes next.
There is something poetic about that uncertainty, because the Ed Sullivan Theater has always survived by changing. Born from Broadway, reshaped by hardship, revived through radio, transformed by television, immortalized by Sullivan, reintroduced by Letterman, and carried into the twenty-first century by Colbert, each era left its mark.
The final days of The Late Show at the Ed Sullivan Theater are not simply the end of a television program. They are a reminder of how much American entertainment has passed through one Broadway address. Wherever comes next, the Ed Sullivan Theater remains one of New York’s great show business survivors, a place where history didn’t just pass through, it performed.