Fourteenth Street Theatre

The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a New York City theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue.[1] It was designed by Alexander Saeltzer and opened in 1866 as the Theatre Francais, as a home for French language dramas and opera.[2]

The Lyceum Theatre c.1871, from a stereoscopic image
The theatre in 1936 with fire escapes added, photographed by Berenice Abbott

The theatre was renamed the Lyceum in 1871. In 1879, it was taken over by producer J.H. Haverly who renamed it Haverly's 14th Street Theatre. By the mid-1880s, it had become simply the Fourteenth Street Theatre.[3]

By the mid-1910s it was being used as a movie theatre, until actress Eva Le Gallienne made it the home of her stage company and renamed it to Civic Repertory Theatre in 1926. She mounted 34 successful productions at the theatre,[4] but the Great Depression ended that venture in 1934.[5]

The building was demolished in 1938.[6][7]

Selected productions

14th Street Theatre

Civic Repertory Theatre

References

Notes

  1. Berg, J.C. (9 January 2011). The Fourteenth Street Theater, nycvintageimages.com
  2. Fisher, Hames and Londré, Felicia Hardison. "Modernism" in The A to Z of American Theater Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. ISBN 0-8108-6884-9. pp.180-81
  3. Steinberg, Mollie B. The history of the Fourteenth street theatre (1931)
  4. Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre, Second Edition. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1974. p. 553.
  5. (30 May 1942). Producer of Play Found Dead in Hotel, The New York Times
  6. Cooper, Lee E. (1 April 1938). Old Fourteenth St. Theatre to Pass Into Hands of Wreckers on Monday, The New York Times
  7. (3 September 2011). The Lost 1866 Theatre Francais -- 107 West 14th Street, Daytonian In Manhattan

Bibliography

  • Brockett, Oscar G. History of the Theatre, Second Edition. Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1974.
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