Winter Garden Theatre

It's hard to believe that the main sounds coming from the present-day Winter Garden Theatre, home to fantastic musical numbers and choreography, used to be the sounds of horses neighing and the clip clop of hooves. The second American Horse Exchange was converted into the Winter Garden Theatre in 1911 by architect William Albert Swasey, who designed the theater's original garden motif. After an extensive renovation 12 years later, the garland leaves and latticework were removed by Herbert J. Krapp to create a more Adamesque style, but the theater's exceptionally wide stage and low proscenium remained. For a short period, the theater became a Warner Brother's movie house, but returned as a live-performance venue five years later under the control of the Shubert organization. In 2001, the Winter Garden Theatre was once again renovated and restored to 1920s style, now with a seating capacity of 1526.

Few might have guessed that a show ring for a horse exchange would eventually become the Broadway stage that would make Barbra Streisand a star in Funny Girl, dazzle audiences with Mary Martin's performance in Peter Pan, and cause a resounding purr to rise from the theatre during the long-running musical Cats. The Winter Garden Theatre has been home to other such defining female roles as Chita Rivera in West Side Story and Angela Lansbury in Mame.

Once again, the theater is an arena for successful women, both on and off stage in the Swedish pop group ABBA-inspired hit, Mamma Mia!. The jukebox musical stars several strong female characters and was also produced, written and directed by three women, a rare equation for commercial success in musical theater. In the musical, a young girl is determined that her real father walk her down the aisle on her wedding day, but is faced with uncertainty when three different men from her mother's past show up to their Greek island home. With songs like "Thank You for the Music," "Dancing Queen," and "Take a Chance on Me," the Winter Garden Theatre has come a long way since the clip clop of horses.

- Callie Worsham