New Victory Theatre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New Victory Theatre in 2006
The New Victory Theatre in 2006

The New Victory Theatre is an off-Broadway theatre located at 207 West 42nd Street in midtown-Manhattan.

Designed by architect Albert Westover for Oscar Hammerstein, it opened as the Theatre Republic on September 27, 1900 with Lionel Barrymore in the play Sag Harbor. Two years later it was leased by David Belasco, who renamed it for himself and produced a series of plays starring George Arliss, Mary Pickford, and Lillian Gish.

In 1910, when Belasco renamed his Stuyvesant Theatre on West 44th Street for himself, the name Theatre Republic was reinstated. Its most famous tenant was Abie's Irish Rose, which ran for 2327 performances between 1922 and 1927.

Billy Minsky converted it into a burlesque house in 1931, and it remained as such until 1941, when it became a movie house called the Victory. The neighborhood gradually disintegrated, and by the 1970s it was one of several porn palaces lining the street.

The City and State of New York took possession of the Victory in 1990. In 1992, it was one of six 42nd Street theatres to fall under the protection of the New 42nd Street organization.

The Victory was the first theatre to be restored in an effort to revitalize 42nd Street and Times Square, and between 1994 and 1995 it underwent an $8.5 million renovation headed by the architechtural firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. The restoration replaced the double staircase on the exterior that had been removed by Minsky, and returned the rest of the theatre to the way it appeared during the Belasco era.

On December 11, 1995, as part of the New 42nd Street campaign, the refurbished theatre, renamed the New Victory, opened as a venue for family entertainment, including concerts, dance recitals, circus performances, and puppetry, and educational programs.

[edit] External links