.jpg) 2019 | |
 Interactive map of Cherry Lane Theatre | |
| Address | 38 Commerce Street Manhattan,New York City United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°43′53″N74°00′19″W / 40.731317°N 74.005337°W /40.731317; -74.005337 |
| Owner | A24, Taurus Investment Holdings |
| Operator | Cherry Lane Theatre Company, Managing Director, Mary Geerlof |
| Capacity | 179 main stage, 60 studio |
| Construction | |
| Opened | December 1923 |
| Architect | Cleon Throckmorton (conversion) |
| Website | |
| cherrylanetheatre | |
TheCherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously runningoff-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in theWest Village neighborhood ofGreenwich Village,Manhattan,New York City. The Cherry Lane Theatre contains a 179-seat main stage and a 60-seat studio.[1]
The building was constructed as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a brewery, tobacco warehouse, and box factory before Evelyn Vaughn, William S. Rainey, Reginald Travers &Edna St. Vincent Millay converted the structure into a theater they christened the Cherry Lane Playhouse. It opened in 1923.[2] Its first reviewed show wasSaturday Night by Robert Presnell, which opened on February 9, 1924.[3] This was followed by the playsThe Man Who Ate Popomack, by W. J. Turner, directed by Reginald Travers, on March 24, 1924; andThe Way of the World by William Congreve, produced by the Cherry Lane Players Inc., opening November 17, 1924.[3] The theatre received a significant makeover in 1954 when it acquired much of the expensive furnishings sold off byRockefeller Center's failingCenter Theatre.[4]
The Cherry Lane Theatre has long been a home for nontraditional andexperimental works. Particularly during the 1950s and '60s, it hosted manyavant garde performances that were identified with thecounterculture. It regularly staged works by playwrights associated with theTheatre of the Absurd. The modernist stage companyThe Living Theatre was in residence in 1951 and 1952, performing rarities likePablo Picasso'sDesire Caught by the Tail. Occasionally, the theatre even hosted musical performances, providing a venue forBob Dylan andPete Seeger long before their ascensions to fame.[5]
A succession of major American plays was produced at the theater by writers includingF. Scott Fitzgerald,John Dos Passos, andElmer Rice in the 1920s;[3]Eugene O'Neill,Seán O'Casey,Clifford Odets,W. H. Auden,Gertrude Stein,Luigi Pirandello, andWilliam Saroyan in the 1940s;[6] Samuel Beckett,Pablo Picasso,T. S. Eliot,Jean Anouilh, andTennessee Williams in the 1950s;[7]Harold Pinter,LeRoi Jones,Eugène Ionesco,Terrence McNally,Lanford Wilson, andLorraine Hansberry, in the 1960s, as well asEdward Albee, staging a large number of his plays;[8] andSam Shepard,Joe Orton andDavid Mamet in the 1970s and 1980s.[9][10]
Beckett'sHappy Days had its world premiere at the Cherry Lane, directed byAlan Schneider, on September 17, 1961,[8][11] and the American premiere of hisEndgame opened on January 28, 1958, also directed by Schneider, starringAlvin Epstein andLester Rawlins.[12]
Sam Shepard'sTrue West premiered at the Cherry Lane on October 17, 1982, starringJohn Malkovich andGary Sinise.[13]
Angelina Fiordellisi bought the theater and the building in 1996 for $1.7 million and renovated it for $3 million.[1] That year, artistic director Fiordellisi and Susann Brinkley co-founded the Cherry Lane Theatre Company, and the Cherry Lane Alternative followed in 1997.[14]
In 1998, Fiordellisi, Brinkley, and playwrightMichael Weller co-founded the company's Mentor Project,[15] which matches established dramatists with aspiring playwrights in one-to-one mentoring relationships. Each mentor works with a playwright to perfect a single work during the season-long process, which culminates in a production.[15] Participants have includedPulitzer Prize-winnersDavid Auburn,Charles Fuller,Tony Kushner,Marsha Norman,Alfred Uhry,Jules Feiffer, andWendy Wasserstein; Pulitzer nomineesA.R. Gurney,David Henry Hwang,Craig Lucas, andTheresa Rebeck; andObie Award winnersEd Bullins andLynn Nottage, as mentors. From the outset,Edward Albee has participated as the Mentor's Mentor by attending Project readings and performances and conducting a yearly Master Class.[citation needed]
In July 2010, the theater announced a one-year hiatus in an effort to tackle mounting debt.[2] In August 2011, Angelina Fiordellisi announced that Cherry Lane Theatre had been able to work off almost all of its debt, and planned to produce again in 2012. Fiordellisi had received hundreds of phone calls, emails, and visits from people who were concerned to hear that she was leaving and that the theatre was for sale, and when those people started referring rentals to Cherry Lane, she was able to look ahead and feel more secure about the theatre's financial future.[16][17] Cherry Lane Theatre began producing new works again with itsObie Award–winning Mentor Project in February 2012.[18]
In July 2021, it was announced that the theatre had been sold to the Lucille Lortel Foundation, and Fiordellisi would remain involved with the Cherry Lane Alternative.[19][20] However, the sale to the Lortel Foundation fell through due to disputes over the price.[21] In November 2021, the theater was placed back on the market for nearly $13 million.[22][23]
In March 2023, a partnership between film studioA24 and global private equity real estate firm Taurus Investment Holdings, LLC purchased the theatre from Fiordellisi for a little over $10 million, marking an expansion for A24 beyond film and television into theatre.[24][25] A24 indicated that it would retain the Cherry Lane as a live-theatre venue.[21][26] Following a renovation, A24 announced in mid-2025 that the Cherry Lane Theatre would reopen that September.[26][27][28] The modifications included upgrades to equipment, seating, and the lobby.[27] A24 also built a restaurant called Wild Cherry, hiringFrenchette's operators to operate the restaurant.[26] Following the renovation, the Cherry Lane had 167 seats.[28]
Productions staged at the Cherry Lane includeThe Rimers of Eldritch,Claudia Shear'sBlown Sideways Through Life,Fortune's Fool withAlan Bates andFrank Langella,The Sum of Us withTony Goldwyn, theRichard Maltby Jr./David Shire musicalCloser Than Ever,Sam Shepard'sTrue West,Joe Orton'sEntertaining Mr. Sloane,Edward Albee'sThe Zoo Story,John-Michael Tebelak andStephen Schwartz'sGodspell,Paul Osborn'sMorning's at Seven,Laura Pedersen'sThe Brightness of Heaven (later changed toFor Heaven's Sake!), the long-runningNunsense, andDavid Rimmer'sAlbum, aPulitzer Prize finalist.
Also presented was a 25th-anniversary revival ofNunsense, running June 15 to July 18, 2010.[29]
Authority control databases: Geographic |
|---|