Cherry Lane Theater

Greenwich Village

New York City

Art & Culture | History

An Exceptional Spot for Off-Broadway Theater

About Cherry Lane Theater

& why it made the Carpe City list

38 Commerce Street has served as many things, including a farm, brewery, tobacco warehouse, and box factory.
In 1924, The Cherry Lane Theater, New York’s oldest active off-Broadway venue, opened.
The theater, originally called The Cherry Lane Playhouse, was founded by members of the Provincetown Players, including Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Cherry Lane is part of the Avante Garde and countercultural movements and associated particularly with the Theater of the Absurd and The Living Theater.
The theater has showcased some of the boldest and most innovative productions from writers F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eugene O’Neill, Clifford Odets, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, and David Mamet.
Acting Alumni include James Dean, Barbra Streisand, James Earl Jones, Gene Hackman, John Malkovich, Kevin Bacon, and Joan Cusack.
The theater appears in many films, including Reds, Godspell, and Mo’ Better Blues.
The Cherry Lane Theatre is an intimate space, and viewers feel a personal connection with the actors on stage.

Carpe City Trivia

What exactly is an "off-Broadway" Theater?

A show’s status has nothing to do with theater location but is based on the number of seats. Broadway theaters have 500 or more seats, off-Broadway theaters have 100-499 seats, and off-off-Broadway theaters have fewer than 100 seats.

There are a few misleading signs on Commerce Street?

At #11, there is a plaque for “Irving House,” though it didn’t belong to Washington Irving himself, but to his sister! #17 has a plaque reading “Aaron Burr House,” but Burr never lived there.