17-509: The Vineyard Theatre is a 120-seat Off-Broadway non-profit theatre company, located at 108 East 15th Street in Manhattan , New York City , near Union Square . Founded in 1981 by Barbara Zinn Krieger, the Vineyard states that its goal is "to give daring artists a safe space to create exhilarating, original theatre." The company is operated by Vineyard Theatre and Workshop Center Inc. ,
34-719: A Drama Desk award. Productions have included Nicky Silver 's Pterodactyls , Craig Lucas 's The Dying Gaul , Christopher Shinn 's Where Do We Live , Cornelius Eady 's Brutal Imagination , Gina Gionfriddo 's After Ashley , and the Laura Nyro musical Eli's Comin' . Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres , but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production"
51-509: A new outlet for "poets, playwrights, actors, songwriters, and designers. ... The first great Off-Broadway musical was the 1954 revival" of The Threepenny Opera , which proved that off-Broadway productions could be financially successful. Critic John Gassner argued at the time, however, that "Broadway is just as eclectic – and just as footless – as 'Off-Broadway'." Theatre Row , on West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan,
68-472: A nonprofit organization. The Vineyard Theatre is known for its productions of the Tony Award -winning musical Avenue Q , Paula Vogel 's How I Learned to Drive (a Pulitzer Prize winner), and Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell's musical [title of show] (which won an Obie Award ). The company has a long history of recognition by their theatrical peers. Doug Aibel and the Vineyard were the recipients of
85-482: Is a concentration of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatres. It was developed in the mid-1970s and modernized in 2002. Many off-Broadway shows have had subsequent runs on Broadway, including such musicals as Hair , Godspell , Little Shop of Horrors , Sunday in the Park with George , Rent , Grey Gardens , Urinetown , Avenue Q , The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee , Rock of Ages , In
102-555: Is a production of a play , musical , or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on a street intersecting Broadway in Midtown Manhattan 's Theater District , the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by
119-552: Is based on the capacity given for the respective theatre at the Internet Off-Broadway Database . The Theater Center The Theater Center (known as The Snapple Theater Center until 2016) is an off-Broadway theater on 50th Street in Manhattan , New York City. It has two stages. The complex was built by actress and producer Catherine Russell in partnership with Snapple, marking Off-Broadway's first such corporate sponsorship. It opened as
136-606: The COVID-19 pandemic . In January, 2022, thieves stole copper pipes from the building, disabling the plumbing and heating and necessitating the cancellation of twelve performances of Perfect Crime . As of 2023 , Perfect Crime continues its run in the space. It is a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m ) state of the art entertainment center consisting of two theaters with a total seating capacity of 398, rehearsal studios, contemporary lobbies, WiFi, two bars with cabaret-style seating and two merchandise stands. There are two stages,
153-600: The Lucille Lortel Award (created in 1985 by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers), and the Drama League Award . Although off-Broadway shows are not eligible for Tony Awards , an exception was made in 1956 (before the rules were changed), when Lotte Lenya won Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for the off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera . Capacity
170-660: The 1998 Obie's Ross Wetzsteon Award "For Sustained Support of artists and Creativity in the Theater". The company received the Lucille Lortel Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence in 2003. In addition, the Vineyard Theatre was the recipient of a 1998 Jonathan Larson Grant, and of the related 2003 Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation grant, the latter for the production of Kirsten Childs ' Miracle Brothers . It has also received
187-667: The Broadway Box are the Laura Pels Theatre and The Theater Center . The off-Broadway movement started in the 1950s as a reaction to the perceived commercialism of Broadway and provided less expensive venues for shows that have employed many future Broadway artists. An early success was Circle in the Square Theatre 's 1952 production of Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams . According to theatre historians Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, off-Broadway offered
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#1732783192571204-932: The Heights , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Fun Home , Hamilton , Dear Evan Hansen , Hadestown , and Kimberly Akimbo . In particular, two that became Broadway hits, Grease and A Chorus Line , encouraged other producers to premiere their shows off-Broadway. Plays that have moved from off-Broadway houses to Broadway include Doubt , I Am My Own Wife , Bridge & Tunnel , The Normal Heart , and Coastal Disturbances . Other productions, such as Stomp , Blue Man Group , Altar Boyz , Perfect Crime , Forbidden Broadway , Nunsense , Naked Boys Singing , Bat Boy: The Musical , and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change have had runs of many years off-Broadway, never moving to Broadway. The Fantasticks ,
221-574: The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Previously, regardless of the size of the venue, a theatre was considered a Broadway (rather than off-Broadway) house if it was within the "Broadway Box", extending from 40th Street north to 54th Street and from Sixth Avenue west to Eighth Avenue , including Times Square and West 42nd Street . This change to
238-690: The Snapple Theater Center on May 22, 2006, with Wendy Kaufman , "the Snapple Lady," ceremonially lighting the marquee. Long-running play Perfect Crime (starring Russell) transferred to the Theater Center upon the facility's opening, and a revival of The Fantasticks was mounted that summer. In 2007, the space in which The Fantasticks was performed was named in honor of actor Jerry Orbach , who starred as El Gallo in that show's original production in 1960. In 2012,
255-462: The contractual definition of "off-Broadway" benefited theatres satisfying the 499-seat criterion because of the lower minimum required salary for Actors' Equity performers at Off-Broadway theatres as compared with the salary requirements of the union for Broadway theatres. The adoption of the 499-seat criterion occurred after a one-day strike in January 1974. Examples of off-Broadway theatres within
272-681: The longest-running musical in theatre history, spent its original 42-year run off-Broadway and had another off-Broadway run from 2006 to 2017. Off-Broadway shows, performers, and creative staff are eligible for the following awards: the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award , the Outer Critics Circle Award , the Drama Desk Award , the Obie Award (presented since 1956 by The Village Voice ),
289-549: The other space was named for producer Anne L. Bernstein. In May 2016, the theater dropped "Snapple" from its name and became "The Theater Center". The Fantasticks closed in June 2017. Various other productions came to the Jerry Orbach thereafter. In 2021, Perfect Crime was the first live stage production in New York City to receive approval from Actors' Equity to resume performances after theatres were shuttered due to
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