Playhouse Theatre/Jack Lawrence Theatre?

[MichaelCassara]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 2:07pm

Was wondering if someone could help clarify something for me...

I'm curious about The Playhouse Theatre, which was ultimately renamed the Jack Lawrence Theatre... and is now an apartment building on W. 48th Street. I know that it was technically a Broadway house - for the original production of QUILTERS among other things... does anyone know how many seats it had? Was it sometimes used as an off-Broadway house - with seats roped off? Or did it become a Broadway house when it became the Jack Lawrence Theatre - perhaps more seats were added?

It technically would have been the only Broadway theatre west of 8th Avenue, excepting the Martin Beck/Hirschfeld, no?

I'm curious, because I always thought the 1979 production of THE KING OF SCHNORRERS had been considered an Off-Broadway run - but it's still included in the IBDB. Anyone care to shed some light?
IBDB

[Smaxie]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 5:12pm

It was a 500 seat house that was active as a Broadway house, mostly with a lot of flops, during the 70s and 80s, before it was demolished.

You didn't ask, but there were several small 499+ seat theatres that cropped up during that same time period that served brief lives as Broadway theatres, in addition to the Playhouse/Jack Lawrence. None of them were very successful.

-The Rialto, a former movie theatre, which stood at 42nd and Seventh Avenue, that was the home of Musical Chairs, The World of Sholem Aleichem, A Reel American Hero and Marlowe, among others.
The Reuters Building was built on that location.

- The Century, which was at one time Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, on 46th Street, in the basement of the Paramount Hotel. It housed A Taste of Honey, Waltz of the Stork, and On Golden Pond transferred there from the New Apollo. I think the place still exists in the Paramount, but is sitting unused.

- The 22 Steps/Princess Theatre, a truly odd theatre, that was on 48th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenues. The Renaissance Hotel is now on that land. That theatre (which had once been the Latin Quarter) housed some spectacular disasters, including Censored Scenes from King Kong, Coquelico, Fearless Frank, and was also home to the Tony-nominated Pump Boys and Dinettes, which ran a little over a year there.

- The Criterion, on 45th Street and Seventh Avenue, which was Roundabout's first Broadway home, prior to moving to the American Airlines. The Criterion had two stages, a Broadway and Off-Broadway space, and before becoming home to Roundabout, had a very checkered life as a commercial Broadway theatre. Starmites is the only thing off hand that I can remember playing there, but I'm sure IBDB will list more... Those spaces are now occupied by Toys 'r Us and Bond 45.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 10/29/05 at 5:16pm

By the way, I looked at your IBDB link for the Playhouse/Jack Lawrence, and that photo that they show was for the OTHER Playhouse Theatre that used to stand across the street from the Cort, east of Seventh Avenue. (That's the theatre that was used for interior/exterior shots for the original movie of The Producers, and was torn down soon thereafter.)