The Theatre Row Building is a complex of five

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

theatres at 410 West 42nd Street on Theatre Row in

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The building is owned by the

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit Building for the Arts and is the center piece of an effort to transform the

adult entertainment The sex industry (also called the sex trade) consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related se ...

district on 42nd Street between Ninth Avenue and Tenth Avenue into an Off-Broadway theater district.

History

The 42nd Street Development Corporation was formed in 1976 by Fred Papert with a mission of working to revitalize all of 42nd Street which had become home to numerous pornographic businesses. In 1977

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was elected to its board and in 1977 it began a process to replace porn stores between 9th Avenue and Dyer on the south side of the street with off Broadway theatres, rehearsal spaces and offices. Among the bigger adult venues being replaced were the 42nd Street Playhouse which had signs advertising "All Live Burlesk" and Mermaid. In the same year the Manhattan Plaza apartment tower opened on the north side of 42nd. The first theatre renovations were dedicated in 1978 with

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Joan Mondale Joan Mondale (née Adams; August 8, 1930 – February 3, 2014) was the Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States, second lady of the United States from 1977 until 1981 as the wife of Walter Mondale, the 42nd vice president of the United S ...

and

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among those attending. The transformation of the district was highlighted in the scenes and settings for the 1981 film ''

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''. Audiences to the Off Broadway venues noted in the 1980s that the buildings still maintained the rough edges of their porn history with poor seating, poor bathrooms and air conditioning that worked intermediately so in 1999, under Theatre Row Managing Director Ray Cullom, the core of the Theatre Row Buildings were gut renovated and rebuilt from the ground up with the five theatres opening in brand new spaces in 2002 in the original five-story brick building (even as tall apartment towers rose adjacent to it). In 2019 the theatre complex was renovated and the individual theatres renamed.

Theatres

* Theatre One, formerly the Lion Theatre, with 88 seats. It sits on the site of the original Clurman Theatre and was named for the Lion Theatre which was one of the original theatres to open on Theatre Row in 1977. * Theatre Two, formerly the Rodney Kirk Theatre, with 99 seats. The former name honored Rev. Rodney Kirk, first Director of the Development (1977–1997) for the nearby, arts-linked, Manhattan Plaza residential project. * Theatre Three, formerly the Acorn Theatre, is the largest in the complex with 199 seats. * Theatre Four, formerly the Samuel Beckett Theatre, with 99 seats. * Theatre Five, formerly the Harold Clurman Theatre, with 99 seats. The former name honored Harold Clurman, one of the three founders of the Group Theatre collective in 1931. * Studio Theatre which is a 55-seat

black box theater A black box theater is a performance space, typically a square or rectangular room, with black walls and a black, flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interact ...

References

{{Authority control Theatres completed in 2002 Theatres in Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan 2002 establishments in New York City 42nd Street (Manhattan)