theaters
New Haven's Shubert, Long Wharf and Yale Repertory Theaters are renowned for groundbreaking – and often career-making – performances. Meanwhile, a collection of smaller theaters and troupes, including Elm City Shakespeare and Yale Cabaret, offer both traditional and cutting-edge performances throughout the year.
New Haven is home to a thriving theater scene with three world-renowned theaters--the Shubert, Long Wharf and Yale Repertory--as well as a collection of smaller theaters and troupes, including the Yale Cabaret and Elm City Shakespeare.
The Shubert Theater is the Elm City's oldest running playhouse and holds a special place in many New Havener's hearts. Known as "The Birthplace of the Nation's Greatest Hits," the Shubert boasts many world-premieres, particularly the Rogers and Hammerstein classics OKALAHOMA!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. Tennessee Williams's haunting play, A Streetcar Named Desire , premiered at the Shubert in 1947.
Long Wharf Theater is recognized as a leader in American theater, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. Long Wharf has seen more than twenty productions transferred virtually intact to Broadway or off-Broadway, including Wit (1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Down the Garden Paths, Red, Mystery School, Hughie, Broken Glass, American Buffalo, Requiem for a Heavyweight and Quartermaine’s Terms. Michael Christofer’s The Shadow Box premiered at Long Wharf and earned its author a Pulitzer, and D.L. Coburn was awarded the Prize after his play, The Gin Game, transferred from Long Wharf to Broadway and won multiple Tony Awards.
The Yale Repertory Theater was the 1991 recipient of the Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and has mounted over 90 world premieres, including four Pulitzer Prize winners. Ten Yale Rep productions have moved to Broadway, earning an additional nine Tony® Awards and 37 Tony® Award nominations. The Rep's unique relationship to Yale School of Drama, the nation’s leading professional theatre training program, allows some of the most tallented drama students in the country to rehearse and perform with nationally- and internationally-prominent artists. This convergence of talented students and leading professionals in meaningful collaboration quickly led to a national reputation as one of the first distinguished regional theatres, with an emphasis on the production of new plays and classics of world theatre in vivid and inventive interpretations.
The Yale Cabaret, the "little basement theatre" has been New Haven's mainstay for intimate, infinitely varied, and often outrageous performances since 1968. From pared-down classics to exuberant musical spectaculars to new works and edgy performance art pieces, you never know what you'll see on the Cabaret's stage. But one thing you can count on is an evening of entertainment that's certain to engage your mind and spark your sense of fun.
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More Theaters in the Area
The New Theater
1156 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510
Yale University Theater University Theater is a sector of the Yale School of Drama and features the talents of Yale's candidates for MFAs in drama. Both original productions and restagings of the classics are performed.
222 York Street, New Haven, CT 06520
(203) 432-1234
For more information, please contact: sylvia.traeger@yale.edu or visit http://www.yale.edu/drama/
Little Theater
Lincoln Street, New Haven, CT 06510.
(203) 782-3677
Off Broadway Theater at Yale
(through The Yale Bookstore archway) 41 Broadway, New Haven.
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For Movie Lovers...
The Criterion Cinema - 86 Temple Street
The centerpiece of Temple Square, New Haven’s first luxury residential and five-screen art cinema complex, Criterion Cinemas blends luxurious surroundings, state-of the-art film presentation, a dazzling glass marquee, spectacular lobby and comfortable theater seating for a new level of film enjoyment. Notable features of the Cinemas include a classic sidewalk box office, a beer and wine bar and a magnificent 23-foot lobby mural adorned with many famous faces in Bow Tie Partners’ entertainment history, including Humphrey Bogart, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Located in the former United Illuminating Company headquarters on the corner of Temple and George Streets and built 1938, the neoclassical landmark features a distinctive clock tower, meticulously refurbished and magnificently lit at night. Cinema-goers will also find plenty of convenient parking at
the Temple Street Garage.
Criterion will soon expand its luxurious five-theater facility by adding two more auditoriums. The work is already underway, with a grand opening scheduled for later this year. The addition gives the Criterion more than 900 seats. That means film buffs will have even more room to relax and enjoy their Movies and Mimosas on a Sunday morning, stay up for late night cult classics on Friday and Saturday nights or just pop in any old time and see the latest hits.
