The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior design is largely unchanged, though it had 295 seats.
In the early 1950s, the site was converted to an off-Broadway theater as , opening on June 9, 1953, with a production of Maya, a play by Simon Gantillon starring Kay Medford, Vivian Matalon, and Susan Strasberg.Maya, It closed after seven performances. Much more successful was The Threepenny Opera which opened March 10, 1954, with a cast that included Bea Arthur, John Astin, Lotte Lenya, Leon Lishner, Scott Merrill, Gerald Price, Charlotte Rae and Jo Sullivan.The Threepenny Opera (1954), Because of an incoming booking, it was forced to close after 96 performances. Re-opening September 20, 1955, with largely the same cast, The Threepenny Opera this time played until December 17, 1961, a then record-setting run for a musical in New York City.The Threepenny Opera (1955),
In 1955, financier Louis Schweitzer acquired the building as an anniversary present for his wife, actress-producer Lucille Lortel. In 1981, the year of her 81st birthday, the theatre was renamed in her honor. After Lortel's death in April 1999, she left the theatre to the Lucille Lortel Foundation.
Timeline of productions
1953: Maya 1953: The Scarecrow 1953: The School for Scandal 1953: The Little Clay Cart 1953: Little Red Riding Hood 1953: End as a Man 1953: The Knight of the Burning Pestle 1953: Moon in Capricorn 1954: Bullfight 1954: The Threepenny Opera 1955: The Immortal Husband 1955: Teach Me How to Cry 1955: The Threepenny Opera 1956: Cry, the Beloved Country 1956: Lovers, Villains and Fools of Shakespeare 1956: U.S.A. 1957: The Happy Prince 1957: The Birthday of the Infanta 1957: Hamlet 1957: Pelléas and Mélisande 1957: Metamorphosis 1957: Candida 1957: World Famous Dramatic Recitals 1957: Pale Horse, Pale Rider 1957: Santa Claus 1957: For the Time Being 1958: Edward II 1958: Guests of the Nation 1958: Aria Da Capo 1958: Maidens and Mistresses at Home at the Zoo 1958: The Catbird Seat 1958: Riders to the Sea 1958: Blood Wedding 1958: Curtains Up 1959: Philoctetes (Andre Gide play) 1959: Philoctetes (Sophocles play) 1959: Sweet Confession 1959: I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix 1959: Soul Gone Home 1959: Shakespeare in Harlem 1959: This Music Crept by Me Upon the Waters 1959: A Masque of Reason 1959: The Purification 1959: Glory in the Flower 1960: Victims of Duty 1960: Notes from the Underground 1960: Too Close for Comfort 1960: The Gay Apprentice 1960: The Coggerers 1960: Time to Go 1960: Nekros 1960: Fam and Yam 1960: Embers 1960: The Lady Akane 1960: Hanjo 1960: The Shepherd's Chameleon 1964: As You Like It 1967: The Viewing, (Lyle Kessler); The Deer Park 1967: Now Is the Time for All Good Men 1968: House of Flowers; Private Lives 1968: Futz 1969: Dames at Sea 1971: Black Girl 1971: Acrobats/Line 1973: Moonchildren 1973: The Children’s Mass 1976: Eden 1977: A Life in the Theatre 1981: Cloud 9; A Soldier's Play 1984: 'night, Mother 1987: Steel Magnolias 1990: Falsettoland 1992: Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Destiny of Me 1995: Mrs. Klein 1996: The Boys in the Band 1996: Tooth of Crime: Second Dance 1997: As Bees In Honey Drown 2004: Fat Pig 2005: Silence! The Musical 2006: Some Girl(s) 2007: In a Dark Dark House 2007: Seussical 2008: reasons to be pretty 2009: Coraline 2012: Carrie 2016: The School for Scandal 2016: Ride the Cyclone 2017: The Lightning Thief 2019: Fear 2023: The Knight of the Burning Pestle 2023: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea 2024: Oh, Mary! 2024: Hold On to Me Darling 2025: Vanya 2025: Duke and Roya 2025: Gruesome Playground Injuries 2026: Data 2026: KENREX 2026: Broad Strokes
References
External links
Productions, past and future