New Victory Theater

Coordinates: 40°45′21″N 73°59′18″W / 40.755833°N 73.988333°W / 40.755833; -73.988333

New Victory Theater
Theatre Republic, Belasco Theatre, Minsky's Burlesque, Victory Theater

The New Victory Theater in 2006
Address 209 W. 42nd Street
New York City
United States
Owner City and State of New York
Operator New 42nd Street
Type Children's theater
Capacity 500
Construction
Opened September 27, 1900
Reopened December 11, 1995
Rebuilt 1994–1995
Architect Albert Westover
Tenants
New 42nd Street
Website
www.newvictory.org

The New Victory Theater is an off-Broadway theater located at 209 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in Midtown Manhattan. The New Victory is New York's first and only theater presenting work for children and family audiences year-round, programming a full season of theater, dance, puppetry, circus, opera, physical theater and other types of performance art from around the world. In 2012, The New Victory Theater received a special Drama Desk Award for “providing enchanting, sophisticated theater that appeals to the child in all of us, and for nurturing a love of theater in young people.”

Early History

Built by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1900 and designed by architect Albert Westover, the theater opened as the Theatre Republic [1][2][3] on September 27, 1900, with Lionel Barrymore in James Herne's play Sag Harbor.[4] It was the third theater built on West 42nd Street. Inside the theater, the elaborately decorated interior was crowned with a large dome that featured lyre-playing cherubs (or putti in Italian) perched on its rim. Amazingly, all of the original putti and one lyre still remain today.

Two years later the house was leased by David Belasco,[2][3] who renamed it the Belasco Theatre and made major renovations to both the house and the stage.[5] Belasco produced a series of plays at the theater starring Mrs. Leslie Carter, George Arliss, Mary Pickford,[6] and Lillian Gish.

In 1910 the name became Republic Theatre[7] when Belasco renamed his Stuyvesant Theatre on West 44th Street for himself. The Republic's most famous tenant during this time was the play Abie's Irish Rose, which ran for 2,327 performances between 1922 and 1927.

Billy Minsky[2][3] converted the Republic into Broadway's first burlesque house in 1931, calling it Minsky's Burlesque. It remained as such until 1941. Minsky built a double runway down the middle of the auditorium for his strippers, the most famous of whom was Gypsy Rose Lee.

In 1942, it became a movie theater called The Victory, patriotically named in honor of the World War II conflict.[2][3] In 1972, as the neighborhood gradually disintegrated, it became the first theater on 42nd Street to exhibit XXX pornographic films.[1] In the early 1990s, the Victory returned to legitimate theater, using its stage space as a venue for offering plays by non-profit companies. It presented the En Garde Arts company's production of the play Crowbar in 1990 and in 1991 the Theater for a New Audience offered Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, followed by other productions.[8]

In 1990, New York City, together with the State of New York, jointly took possession of the Victory. In 1992, it was one of seven 42nd Street theaters to fall under the auspices of The New 42nd Street, Inc., a non-profit corporation set up to oversee the redevelopment of these historic theaters and operate three projects: The New Victory Theater, The New 42nd Street Studios and The Duke on 42nd Street.

The Victory was the first theater to be restored in an effort to revitalize 42nd Street and Times Square, and between 1994 and 1995 it underwent an $11.4 million renovation headed by Hugh Hardy of the architectural firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates.[2] The restoration included rebuilding the original exterior double staircase that had been removed in 1911 for the widening of West 42nd Street,[9] and returning the rest of the theater to much the way it looked during the Belasco era.

On December 11, 1995, the refurbished theater, renamed The New Victory Theater, opened as New York's first theater for kids and families. Upon its reopening, it became once more the oldest operating theater in New York City.

Education Department

The New Victory Education programs [10] are committed to creating ever-widening avenues of opportunity for young people, their families and teachers to grow professionally and personally through the arts. Through the award-winning New Victory Partnership Program,[11] 33,000 students in grades pre-K through 12 annually visit The New Victory Theater at just $2 per ticket (the same price they were when The New Victory opened in 1995) and participate in free classroom workshops taught by an exceptional team of New Victory Teaching Artists. Many Education Partners are NYC-area Title I schools, with a high percentage of students who would be unable to experience live theater if it were not for The New Victory.

Working with the New Victory Front of House staff, the Education Department also oversees the New Vic/New 42 Youth Corps,[12] a job training program that provides over 27,000 hours of paid employment and professional development to high school and college-age youth each season. Families who attend the New Vic together pair their visit with New Victory Family Workshops,[13] as well as in-theater arts activities.[14]

Together, these nationally-recognized programs exemplify the theater’s long-standing commitment to the intrinsic value of cultural participation in the lives of young people and families.

New Victory Arts Award

The New Victory Arts Award recognizes a person or organization that has used their public position and powers of persuasion to help bring kids to the arts and the arts to kids. Bill Irwin, celebrated actor, outspoken advocate for arts education and New 42nd Street founding board member, was honored with the inaugural award in 2010. In 2011, the New Victory Arts Award was presented to Cheryl Henson, President of the Jim Henson Foundation, and, in 2012, to the Australian Arts Council.

Film location

Before The New 42nd Street, Inc. took over the theater's lease in the early 1990s, several films were shot at the Victory Theater. In Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, the scene where Robert De Niro takes Cybill Sheppard to the movies was shot there. The scene's exterior shot shows them entering the former Lyric Theatre, which was next door. Scenes in Woody Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery were also filmed there. Toward the end of the movie, Diane Keaton’s character is held hostage in the Victory's dressing rooms and the finale of the film was shot on the stage.

The exterior of the New Victory Theater is shown in the 1998 film The Siege, when a bomb is detonated inside the theater by terrorists.

For the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey were filmed outside the theater, on the staircase and on the main floor of the auditorium. These scenes were cut from the film but are included as deleted scenes on the DVD. An episode of Sex and the City filmed scenes in the theater.

Video game

The façade of The New Victory Theater is in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. During the sequence in "Liberty City's" fictionalized 42nd Street/Times Square, the theater is featured. In the game, the theater is called the Liberteen and presents shows like Banging Trash Can Lids for an Hour.

References

  1. 1 2 Theatre Republic (New Victory) at the Internet Broadway Database
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; AIA Guide to New York City, 4th edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-3106-8; ISBN 0-8129-3107-6. p.256.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kenneth T. Jackson, The Encyclopedia of New York City The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 1170.
  4. ↑ "Dramatic and Musical. Mr. Hammerstein's New Theatre Republic Opened Last Night" The New York Times 1900-09-28; "Good Company in Herne's New Play" The World (New York) 1900-09-28 Evening Edition, p. 7; and "The Drama. The New Theatre Republic" New-York Tribune 1900-09-28, p. 9 col. 2
  5. ↑ "A Modern Dramatic Temple" The Sun (New York) 1902 09 28, Third Section, p. 4 col. 7 and "Belasco Theatre Opens," The New York Times, September 30, 1902
  6. ↑ "Good Little Devil Gives Rare Delight" The New York Times 1913-01-09; Mary Pickford and Earnest Truex, Image ID 2018025, New York Public Library Digital Gallery
  7. ↑ "The Easiest Way Ends at Republic" The New York Times 1911-04-30 (scroll down); "Canopy for Republic Theatre" The New York Times 1911-08-25, col. 2; and "Good Little Devil Gives Rare Delight" The New York Times 1913-01-09
  8. ↑ "The Victory Theater". New 42nd Street. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
  9. ↑ "M'Aneny Planning Changes in Streets" The New York Times 1910-12-12, paragraph 5; "Thoroughfares Are Now Being Widened" The New York Times 1911-03-26, paragraph 3; "The Easiest Way Ends at Republic" The New York Times 1911-04-30 (scroll down); and "Canopy for Republic Theatre" The New York Times 1911-08-25, col. 2
  10. ↑ http://www.newvictory.org/Schools.aspx
  11. ↑ http://www.newvictory.org/Schools/Education-Partnerships.aspx
  12. ↑ http://www.newvictory.org/About/Youth_Corp.aspx
  13. ↑ http://www.newvictory.org/Workshops.aspx
  14. ↑ http://www.newvictory.org/About/EngagementPrograms.aspx

External links


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