Theaters w center aisles

I was reviewing my tickets for an upcoming trip in September (in order: American in Paris, King & I, Fun Home, Curious Incident, Hamilton, Something Rotten, Hand to God).

I recalled a recent discussion on which houses have a central aisle. For me, the theater that sprung to mind was the Palace. A central aisle is, in a sense, more populist. It seems to me that a 2 aisles arrangement gives preference to the most prime center seats, while shunting the sides off to their own section.

Back in the day, were theaters and vaudeville houses more likely to have reserved seats and different price levels on the main floor? (Of course today's pricing for premium seats, aisles and amex/citi preferences, takes that all to a new level).

Updated On: 7/15/15 at 05:30 AM

But is there a correlation between a center aisle and whether the theater was first built for movies and vaudeville? (as I assume the Palace was)

And just wondering for those who remember - back when there were reserved seats for first run movies, were there different prices for locations on the same level, or was it just Main floor & Balcony?

(and by the way, Hogan, thanks for your many detailed answers on this board)

The Shubert Theatre combines both - a single aisle for the first 6 rows, then a double aisle configuration for the rest of the theatre. It seems quite good as it doesn't block the dead centre seats further back, and for a lot of shows the dead centre seat in the first few rows is blocked by the conductor. However, there then is a lot of wasted space in the seventh row (where they don't have any seats at all in the middle section). At least Matilda takes advantage of it in their staging.

re Friedman, I do not know the original configuration but the current one is approx 1/3 smaller than the Biltmore (which was built as a legit house). (One other "plus" of a center aisle is that it requires less ushers.)