Fourteenth Street Theatre Explained

Architectural Style:	Neoclassical architecture
Location:	Manhattan, New York City
Opened Date:	1866
Demolition Date:	1938

The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a New York City theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue.^[1]

History

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 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

• Sam'l of Posen; or, The Commercial Drummer (1881)^[8]
• Evangeline! (1885–1886) (252 perf.)
• The Still Alarm (1887)
• The Old Homestead (1887, by Denman Thompson) (155 perf.)
• A Romance of Athlone (1889, 1890, by Chauncey Olcott)
• Blue Jeans (1890)
• Mavourneen (1891)
• The Errand Boy (1904)

Civic Repertory Theatre

• Alice in Wonderland (1932–33, adapted by Eva Le Gallienne) (127 perf.)
• Peace on Earth (1933–34, by George Sklar and Albert Maltz) (126 perf.)
• Let Freedom Ring (1935–36) (108 perf.)

References

Notes

Bibliography

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

External links

• Listing on the Internet Broadway Database
• Civic Repertory Theatre Records. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Notes and References

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. . 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
8. M. B. Curtis and the Making of the American Stage Jew. Harley. Erdman. Journal of American Ethnic History. 15. 1. Fall 1995. 28-45. University of Illinois Press.