| In 1943 Mayor Fiorello La guardia and the city of NY took over the building in 1943 as a home for performing arts that would be accessible to all. They did revivals of Broadway musicals, and NY Ity Ballet and NY City Opera were developed as affordable companies for audiences to see great works. Ticket prices in 1944 were 55 cents to 2.20. In today's $ that's $9 to $36. This is around half of what commercial Broadway shows charged. City center has 2,257 seats. The largest Broadway house, the Gershwin, has 1,933. Carnegie Hall and the Met both have 3,900+ seats. |
