Cherry Lane Theater

Art & Culture | History

An Exceptional Spot for Off-Broadway Theater

Cherry lane theater greenwich village

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. 

By: Lucie Levine

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