New World Stages
322 West 50th Street | also 340 West 50th Street, 313 West 49th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1988
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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.
- 1989
A multiplex cinema opens on the site of the old Madison Square Garden
The Worldwide Cinemas multiplex opens in June 1989 on the site of the third Madison Square Garden, under the Cineplex Odeon Corporation. It later passes to Loews Cineplex, which closes it in early 2001 after the operator goes bankrupt.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The former cinema briefly serves as office space for Deloitte after 9/11
After the multiplex closes in early 2001, the empty building is used for a time as office space by the accounting firm Deloitte. The firm needs the space later that year because its own offices were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2004
The multiplex reopens as a five-stage off-Broadway complex
Dodger Stage Holding Theatricals leases the former cinema in 2002, planning to turn its six screens into five off-Broadway stages. The complex reopens as Dodger Stages in 2004 after major renovations, with Beyer Blinder Belle as architects and Sachs Morgan as theater designers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
Stage Entertainment renames the complex New World Stages
Dodger Stages is renamed New World Stages on March 16, 2006, as Stage Entertainment takes sole ownership of the complex. The Shubert Organization has owned and operated it since November 2014, and shows that have played there include Avenue Q, Jersey Boys, and The Play That Goes Wrong.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
Avenue Q leaves Broadway and reopens Off-Broadway at New World Stages
In October 2009 Avenue Q left its Broadway home of six years, the Golden Theatre, for New World Stages, giving up 306 seats. Playbill reported that the show kept the same orchestrations but trimmed the band from six players to four, and still used seven actors and four understudies for the humans and puppets. Producer Kevin McCollum said the audience ran from age 16 to 101.
Source: playbill.com
- 2011
Rent returns Off-Broadway with its original director and a new cast
Rent ran 5,124 performances at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre and closed there in 2008. Three years later it came back at New World Stages, again directed by Michael Greif. Theatre Development Fund reported that this version had a new set by Mark Wendland, choreography by Larry Keigwin and a new cast, and that much of Greif's original staging had been reimagined for audiences who had never seen the show live.
Source: tdf.org
- 2014
The Shubert Organization buys New World Stages
On November 21, 2014, the Shubert Organization announced that it had completed its purchase of New World Stages, five Off-Broadway playhouses of 199 to 499 seats at 340 West 50th Street. The shows running at the time included Avenue Q, the Gazillion Bubble Show, Blank! The Musical and iLuminate.
Source: shubert.nyc
- 2017
Jersey Boys begins a run on Stage 1 that lasts until May 2022
Jersey Boys began its run at New World Stages on November 22, 2017, taking Stage 1, one of the complex's two 499-seat theaters. It played there until May 22, 2022. Stage 1 had earlier hosted the Off-Broadway returns of Rent in 2011-12 and Peter and the Starcatcher in 2013-14.
“Jersey Boys, November 22, 2017 – May 22, 2022…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
Avenue Q ends nearly ten years at New World Stages with 6,569 performances in all
Avenue Q closed its Off-Broadway run at New World Stages on May 26, 2019, nearly a decade after it opened there in October 2009. The puppet musical had first announced an April 28 closing in December before extending. Playbill counted 6,569 performances across its Broadway and Off-Broadway lives.
Source: playbill.com
Further reading
- New World StagesWikipedia
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