The Birthplace of Off Broadway: 100 Years of Cherry Lane Theatre

From its humble origins as a brewery to the birthplace of off Broadway, Cherry Lane Theatre has nurtured the voices and visions of the American theater vanguard for over a century. Tucked into a tree-lined street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Cherry Lane was founded by a community of experimental artists in 1923. This is the story of how, despite countless setbacks and hardships, an unassuming theater more than 40 blocks south of the glitz of Broadway staged thousands of ambitious productions and kept original, provocative theater alive.

Hundreds of writers, directors, actors, and artists got their start on the Cherry Lane stage, including Kevin Bacon, Amiri Baraka, Tony Curtis, Katori Hall, Adrienne Kennedy, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Jerry Stiller, Barbra Streisand, and Bridgette Wimberly; and progressive companies like the Savoy Opera Company, the Living Theatre, and Edward Albee’s Albarwild called 38 Commerce Street home.

The Birthplace of Off Broadway: 100 Years of Cherry Lane Theatre is a front-row seat to the best play in town, about how unbridled creative expression prevailed against all odds. Welcome to New York’s longest continually running off-Broadway theater. Enjoy the show.