New Victory Theatre
Encyclopedia
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
theater
Theater (structure)
A theater or theatre is a structure where theatrical works or plays are performed or other performances such as musical concerts may be produced. While a theater is not required for performance , a theater serves to define the performance and audience spaces...
located at 209 West 42nd Street
42nd Street (Manhattan)
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
. The New Victory is New York's first and only theater for children and family audiences. The New Victory programs a full season of theater, dance, puppetry, circus, opera, physical theater and other types of performance art, presenting companies from around the world.
Early History
Built by Oscar Hammerstein IOscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
, and designed by architect Albert Westover, the theater opened as the Theatre Republic on September 27, 1900, with Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
in James Herne
James Herne
James A. Herne , was an American playwright, born James Ahearn. Considered by some critics to be the "American Ibsen," his controversial play Margaret Fleming is often credited with having begun modern drama in America....
's play Sag Harbor
Sag Harbor (play)
Sag Harbor was a sentimental comedy by American playwright James Herne. It inaugurated Oscar Hammerstein's Theatre Republic, the first Broadway theater on West 42nd Street, on September 27, 1900, starring the author as Capt. Dan Marble. Lionel Barrymore later took up the role...
. It was the first theater built on West 42nd Street.
Two years later the house was leased by David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
, who renamed it the Belasco Theatre. Belasco produced a series of plays at the theater starring George Arliss
George Arliss
George Arliss was an English actor, author and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award.-Life and career:...
, Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, and Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
.
In 1910 the name Theatre Republic was reinstated when Belasco renamed his Stuyvesant Theatre
Belasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 111 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan.-History:Designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco, the interior featured Tiffany lighting and ceiling panels, rich woodwork and expansive murals by American artist...
on West 44th Street for himself. The Republic's most famous tenant during this time was the play Abie's Irish Rose
Abie's Irish Rose
Abie's Irish Rose is a popular comedy by Anne Nichols familiar from stage productions, films and radio programs. The basic premise involves an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man who marry despite the objections of their families.-Theater and films:...
, which ran for 2,327 performances between 1922 and 1927.
Billy Minsky
Minsky's Burlesque
Minsky's Burlesque refers to the brand of American burlesque presented by four sons of Louis and Ethel Minksy: Abraham 'Abe' Bennett Minsky , Michael William 'Billy' Minsky , Herbert Kay Minsky , and Morton Minsky . They started in 1912 and ended in 1937 in New York City...
converted the Republic into Broadway's first burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
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
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...
.
In 1942, it became a movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
called the Victory Theatre, patriotically named in honor of the World War II conflict. In 1972, as the neighborhood gradually disintegrated, it became the first theater on 42nd Street to exhibit pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
films. 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
En Garde Arts
En Garde Arts was an award-winning New York City based not-for-profit arts organization that created site-specific theatrical production...
company's production of the play Crowbar in 1990 and in 1991 the Theater for a New Audience offered Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, followed by other productions.
New Victory Theater
In 1990, New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, together with the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, 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
New 42nd Street
The New 42nd Street is a not-for-profit organization in Manhattan, New York City. In 1990, The New 42nd Street was formed to oversee the redevelopment of seven neglected and historic theatres on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and to restore the block to a desirable tourist...
, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation set up to oversee the redevelopment of these historic theaters and operate three projects: The New 42nd Street Studios, The Duke on 42nd Street and The New Victory Theater.
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
Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....
of the architectural firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. The restoration included rebuilding the original exterior double staircase that had been removed by Minsky, 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. Its programming includes theatre, concerts, dance, circus arts, and puppetry. Upon its reopening, it became once more the oldest operating theater in New York City.
Education Department
The New Victory Theater's Education programs are committed to creating ever-widening avenues of opportunity for young people, their families and teachers to grow professionally and personally through the arts. These programs include: The New Victory Education Partnership Program, which subsidizes ticket costs to $2 per student and offers pre and post-performance workshops in schools; New Vic in the Classroom, which runs classroom workshops and in-school residency programs; New Vic Studio, where Teaching Artists teach skills inspired by the current production to families; and The New Vic/New 42 Youth Corps. The Youth Corps is made up of two programs, The Usher Corp and The New 42 Apprentice Program, both of which provide about 28,000 hours of paid part-time jobs to students in high school through graduate school.
In 2005, the theater was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
.
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.
In 2010, The New 42nd Street Gala will present Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
with the first ever New Victory Arts Award, in recognition of his monumental work introducing children to the arts. In 2011, Cheryl Henson will receive the New Victory Arts Award in recognition of her graceful advocacy and support of puppetry and puppeteers. Cheryl Henson is the daughter of Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
and the President of the Jim Henson Foundation
Jim Henson Foundation
The Jim Henson Foundation was founded by puppeteer and Muppet creator Jim Henson to promote and develop puppetry in the United States. It is the only grantmaking institution with this mission. The Jim Henson Foundation has bestowed 440 grants. Its president is Cheryl Henson, Jim Henson's...
.
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 Theatre. In Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
, the scene where Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
takes Cybill Sheppard to the movies was shot there. The scene's exterior shot shows them entering the former Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (New York)
The Lyric Theatre was a prominent Broadway theatre built in 1903 in Manhattan, New York City in the 42nd Street Theatre District. It had two entrances, one at 213 West 42nd Street and another at 214-26 West 43rd Street and was one of the few New York houses that had two formal entrances. In 1934,...
, which was next door. Scenes in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Manhattan Murder Mystery is a comedic murder mystery film directed by and starring Woody Allen and written by Marshall Brickman and Woody Allen.-Plot:...
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
The Siege
The Siege is a 1998 American thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a fictional situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks on New York City...
starring Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
. A woman walks down the theater's grand staircase with one arm missing after an explosion.
For the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American romantic science fiction film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by the French director, Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction, psychological...
, Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
and Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
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
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
filmed scenes in the theater.