Through the years, CDL has always performed beyond expectations. Our many overseas ventures have led us to one of Broadway's oldest, most elegant theatres in Manhattan – the Hudson Theatre.
The theatre was owned by the couple Henry B. and Renee Harris, who were on the ill-fated RMS Titanic. As luck would have it, it was Renee who managed to make it to the final lifeboat. Her husband waved her goodbye from the Titanic's deck, with all their jewels in his pockets.
When she returned to New York City, she became the first female producer on Broadway. During her time, numerous artists graced the stage including Louis Armstrong, Douglas Fairbanks, Helen Hayes, William Holden and Lena Horne. She also oversaw world premieres of works by George M. Cohen, George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen.
In 1950, NBC became the new owner and turned the theatre into the home of broadcast with The Tonight Show by Steve Allen, later hosted by Jack Paar. Among the many world-famous guests who performed here were Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Paul Newman, Elvis Presley and Barbara Streisand who made her TV debut.
With developers chomping their bit in land-scarce Manhattan, the fate of the Hudson would almost come to a dramatic end had it not been granted legal protection as a recognised historical landmark in 1987.
It wasn’t until 1994, that the theatre was restored to its legendary glory when CDL’s Millennium & Copthorne Hotels bought the hotel and renamed it the Millennium Broadway Hotel.
During the extensive yet sensitive restoration in 2005, the Tiffany Mosaics along the proscenium, boxes, dress circle and balcony ledges were discovered and reinstated to their original glory.
Yet it was only thanks to a shared love of theatre between M&C Chairman Mr Kwek Leng Beng and Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) founder Sir Howard Panter, that paved the way for the Hudson to get a second shot at stardom.
An official partnership between M&C and ATG was born in 2015. It was announced that the Hudson Theatre would be restored to its original beauty and return as a legitimate Broadway stage.
After a multimillion-dollar renovation, the Hudson Theatre raised its curtain in 2017 to the Broadway revival of ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ starring Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and Tony Award winner Annaleigh Ashford.