The theatre was originally built by developer Eugene C. Potter as a home for composer Reginald De Koven's American School of Opera.

However, the school went bankrupt before construction was finished, and Potter leased the theatre and its offices to the Shubert brothers.

It was designed by architect Victor Hugo Koehler, and opened on October 12, 1903, with Richard Mansfield's production of Old Heidelberg.

[1][2][3] While De Koven's plans for the school did not bear fruit, his opera Red Feather was the first stage work with music to be presented at the Lyric Theatre when it premiered on November 9, 1903.

Other Shakespearean classics included The Taming of the Shrew, The Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth and Julius Caesar.