Classic Stage Company
134 East 13th Street | also 136 East 13th Street | East Village | built 1900
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1853
Tax records date the East 13th Street buildings to 1853, built by owner George Law
Tax records suggest the buildings at 134-136 East 13th Street were put up in 1853 by their owner, George Law. An 1881 alteration permit describes the property as a stable and shops with multiple dwellings. Later in the century a lithographer named R. Teller, who illustrated piano sheet music, worked at 136 East 13th Street.
- 1881
An 1881 alteration permit describes 136 East 13th Street as a stable with shops and dwellings
An alteration permit from 1881 for 134-136 East 13th Street, as summarized in Village Preservation's East Village Building Blocks survey, describes the property as a stable and shops with multiple dwellings. Today the ground floor of the same buildings is the home of the Classic Stage Company, which has occupied the space since 1973.
- 1969
The ground-floor stage, a theater since the 1920s, operates as the Abbey Theatre
Village Preservation finds evidence that the ground floor has housed a theater since at least the 1920s, under names that include the Mercury Theater and the Abbey Theatre, the latter active from the late 1960s into the early 1970s. The space also seems to connect at the rear with the theater at 100 Third Avenue. Classic Stage Company took it over in 1973.
- 1973
Classic Stage Company, founded in a 100-seat church theater, moves into a former carriage house
Director Christopher Martin started Classic Stage Company in 1967 in a 100-seat theater inside Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73rd Street. After short stays in small spaces, the company needed a permanent home and moved in 1973 to 136 East 13th Street, described as a former East Village carriage house. Martin led the company until 1985, and CSC has stayed at the address for more than five decades.
Source: classicstage.org
- 1975
Ron Perlman stars in CSC's Woyzeck, staged by founder Christopher Martin
In 1975 Classic Stage Company produced Georg Buchner's unfinished play Woyzeck with Ron Perlman starring. Critic Clive Barnes wrote that Christopher Martin's staging stressed the fluid movement of the play and its sullen realism.
“In the 1975 staging by the Classic Stage Company starring Ron Perlman, Christopher Martin 'stressed the fluidity of the play's movement…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1999
Uma Thurman prepares to perform live for almost the first time in The Misanthrope
By early February 1999 the film star Uma Thurman was in previews of Martin Crimp's modern update of Moliere's The Misanthrope at the Classic Stage Company, which the New York Times described as a 180-seat theater in the East Village. Roger Rees played Alceste, now a playwright, and Michael Emerson played his friend John. Barry Edelstein, in his first season as artistic director, directed, and Thurman admitted she was scared.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2002
Steve Martin's adaptation of The Underpants plays at the Classic Stage Company
Steve Martin's adaptation of Carl Sternheim's 1910 German farce Die Hose was produced here from April 4 to April 28, 2002. Barry Edelstein directed, with Cheryl Lynn Bowers as Louise and Byron Jennings as her husband Theo Maske. The play is a farce that mocks middle-class snobbery and conformity.
“…produced at New York City's Off-Broadway theater Classic Stage Company from April 4, 2002 through April 28, 2002…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in Uncle Vanya, directed by Austin Pendleton
Previews of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya began at Classic Stage Company on January 17, 2009, and the limited run ended March 1. Austin Pendleton directed. Peter Sarsgaard played the doctor Astrov, and the cast also included Mamie Gummer, Denis O'Hare, George Morfogen and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The New York Daily News gave it one star out of four but called Sarsgaard credible as the doctor.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
David Ives's Venus in Fur opens here with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley before heading to Broadway
Venus in Fur opened Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company on January 13, 2010. Walter Bobbie directed Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, and the run, first set to close February 21, was extended to March 7. The play transferred to Broadway in November 2011, a production that earned Arianda the Tony Award for best leading actress in a play.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Sondheim's Passion becomes the first musical the theater company ever produces
John Doyle directed a stripped-down staging of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, starring Judy Kuhn (Fosca), Melissa Errico (Clara) and Ryan Silverman (Giorgio). The company, known mainly for classical plays, had never mounted a musical before. No instruments appeared onstage, and the run was extended through April 2013.
“Passion was the first musical that the company had ever produced.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Christopher Lloyd plays both narrator and judge Azdak in Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Brian Kulick directed Bertolt Brecht's play with Christopher Lloyd as the narrator and the rascally judge Azdak, Elizabeth A. Davis as the kitchen maid Grusha and Mary Testa as the governor's wife. Duncan Sheik wrote the original music. The Times review said the staging moved the story from feudal Georgia to the Soviet Union in its death throes, with a statue of Lenin pulled down and smashed amid the upheaval.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2021
John Doyle's Assassins opens after a COVID delay and closes early because of positive cases in the company
John Doyle's Off-Broadway staging of Sondheim's Assassins was announced for 2020 but delayed by the pandemic, and it officially opened at Classic Stage Company on November 14, 2021. The run was extended through January 29, 2022, but it closed on January 24 because of positive COVID-19 cases in the company. The cast reunited for a concert staging on Broadway that May.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
Stephen Sondheim attends the opening of Assassins here, days before his death
On November 14, 2021, Stephen Sondheim went to the opening of John Doyle's revival of his musical Assassins at the Classic Stage Company. The next night he saw the first post-shutdown preview of the Broadway revival of Company. The New York Times reported that he kept going to the theater until two days before he died.
Source: Internet Archive
Further reading
- Classic Stage CompanyWikipedia
- 134 East 13th Street, 134-136 East 13th StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
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