Village Institution Cherry Lane Theater To Close

The New York Times is reporting that Greenwich Village is losing another longtime institution, the Cherry Lane Theater. The building at 38 Commerce Street was established as a theater in 1924 and has played host to numerous groundbreaking plays including works by Samuel Beckett and Sam Shepard.

It was purchased by its current artistic director Angelina Fiordellisi in 1996 for $1.7 million and underwent extensive $3 million dollar renovations. The 179-seat main stage and the 60-seat studio space will be put on the market for $12 million.

Why is Ms. Fiordellisi selling the landmark? She tells the Times that "constant financial struggles" and the "changing nature of the business" have forced her to step down and sell the space. The importance of casting "big name" actors has put immense pressure on the Off-Broadway theater world. Large scale productions like the recent Spiderman musical and The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino, have leveraged their big budgets and star actors in the hopes that ticket sales will soar (quite literally in Spidey's case). Ms. Fiordellsi confirmed this theory:

I feel that we can longer do theater for the sake of the art form. We have to adhere to the formula of having a film star in our productions to sell tickets because it's so financially prohibitive. I don't want to do theater like that.

Ms. Fiordellisi's replacement has not yet been announced, however she tells the Times that she has buyers interested in purchasing the space.