Lucille Lortel Theatre

The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unchanged to this day.

In the early 1950s, the site was converted to an off-Broadway theater as Theatre de Lys, opening on June 9, 1953, with a production of Maya, a play by Simon Gantillon starring Kay Medford, Vivian Matalon, and Susan Strasberg. It closed after seven performances. Much more successful was The Threepenny Opera which opened March 10, 1954, with a cast that included Bea Arthur, John Astin, Lotte Lenya, Leon Lishner, Scott Merrill, Gerald Price, Charlotte Rae and Jo Sullivan. Because of an incoming booking, it was forced to close after 96 performances. Re-opening September 20, 1955, with largely the same cast, The Threepenny Opera this time played until December 17, 1961, a then record-setting run for a musical in New York City.

In 1955, financier Louis Schweitzer acquired the building as an anniversary present for his wife, actress-producer Lucille Lortel. In 1981, the year of her 81st birthday, the theatre was renamed in her honor. After Lortel's death in April 1999, she left the theatre to the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Timeline of productions

 * 1953: Maya
 * 1953: The Scarecrow
 * 1953: The School for Scandal
 * 1953: The Little Clay Cart
 * 1953: Little Red Riding Hood
 * 1953: End as a Man
 * 1953: The Knight of the Burning Pestle
 * 1953: Moon in Capricorn
 * 1954: Bullfight
 * 1954: The Threepenny Opera
 * 1955: The Immortal Husband
 * 1955: Teach Me How to Cry
 * 1955: The Threepenny Opera
 * 1956: Cry, the Beloved Country
 * 1956: Lovers, Villains and Fools of Shakespeare
 * 1956: U.S.A.
 * 1957: The Happy Prince
 * 1957: The Birthday of the Infanta
 * 1957: Hamlet
 * 1957: Pelléas and Mélisande
 * 1957: Metamorphosis
 * 1957: Candida
 * 1957: World Famous Dramatic Recitals
 * 1957: Pale Horse, Pale Rider
 * 1957: Santa Claus
 * 1957: For the Time Being
 * 1958: Edward II
 * 1958: Guests of the Nation
 * 1958: Aria Da Capo
 * 1958: Maidens and Mistresses at Home at the Zoo
 * 1958: The Catbird Seat
 * 1958: Riders to the Sea
 * 1958: Blood Wedding
 * 1958: Curtains Up
 * 1959: Philoctetes (Andre Gide play)
 * 1959: Philoctetes (Sophocles play)
 * 1959: Sweet Confession
 * 1959: I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
 * 1959: Soul Gone Home
 * 1959: Shakespeare in Harlem
 * 1959: This Music Crept by Me Upon the Waters
 * 1959: A Masque of Reason
 * 1959: The Purification
 * 1959: Glory in the Flower
 * 1960: Victims of Duty
 * 1960: Notes from the Underground
 * 1960: Too Close for Comfort
 * 1960: The Gay Apprentice
 * 1960: The Coggerers
 * 1960: Time to Go
 * 1960: Nekros
 * 1960: Fam and Yam
 * 1960: Embers
 * 1960: The Lady Akane
 * 1960: Hanjo
 * 1960: The Shepherd's Chameleon
 * 1964: As You Like It
 * 1967: The Viewing, (Lyle Kessler); The Deer Park
 * 1967   Now Is the Time for All Good Men
 * 1968: House of Flowers; Private Lives
 * 1968   Futz
 * 1969: Dames at Sea
 * 1971: Black Girl
 * 1971   Acrobats/Line
 * 1973: Moonchildren
 * 1973: The Children’s Mass
 * 1976: Eden
 * 1977   A Life in the Theatre
 * 1981: Cloud 9; A Soldier's Play
 * 1984: 'night, Mother
 * 1987: Steel Magnolias
 * 1990: Falsettoland
 * 1992: Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Destiny of Me
 * 1995   Mrs. Klein
 * 1996: The Boys in the Band
 * 1997: As Bees In Honey Drown
 * 2004: Fat Pig
 * 2005: Silence! The Musical
 * 2006: Some Girl(s)
 * 2007: In a Dark Dark House
 * 2007: Seussical
 * 2008: reasons to be pretty
 * 2009: Coraline
 * 2012: Carrie
 * 2016: The School for Scandal
 * 2016: Ride the Cyclone
 * 2017: The Lightning Thief
 * 2023: The Knight of the Burning Pestle
 * 2023: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
 * 2024: Oh, Mary!

In popular culture

 * In 1970, the theatre was used in "Manhattan Manhunt", a first-season episode of McCloud. It used both interior and an exterior shots with the original marquee "Theatre de Lys".
 * In 1996–97, for the TV comedy Friends, the theatre was used for the filming of 3 episodes of season 3: episode 19 ("The One with the Tiny T-Shirt"), episode 20 ("The One with the Dollhouse"), and episode 22 ("The One with the Screamer"), which guest-starred Ben Stiller as Rachel's crazy boyfriend Tommy.