Soho's Ohio Theatre to Close at End of August

After a brush with death in 2008, The Ohio Theatre, an indispensable nerve center of NYC's theater scene for 29 years, will be dispensed with on August 31st. The new landlord has issued an official notice and no further negotiations are scheduled. If you're one of those people who cares about theater as art, you know what a loss this is. As artistic Director Robert Lyons puts it, the Ohio "is where Tony Kushner produced his first play out of college, where Philip Seymour Hoffman made his professional acting debut, where Eve Ensler performed Dicks in the Desert, a decade before writing The Vagina Monologues. The Ohio Theatre has been an incubator and platform for New York’s most exciting and innovative theatre artists for almost 30 years. Its closing emphatically punctuates the end of an era in Soho."

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By John Del Signore in Arts & Entertainment on February 23, 2010 4:16 PM

Comments [rss]

mingusahum

Yeah go back to Ohio you midwestern dolt!

mdow

That just sucks. Make room for a Hot Topic, or maybe a pop-up storefront, and we can all be proud of the city for its fucking intelligent, progressive, arts-loving residents.

Murgus

Troy you obviously have no clue about the support that The Gothamist has given the arts.

Elderta

Does that really matter, Matukonyc? Really?

matukonyc

"Indispensable nerve center?" A tad hyberbolic, methinks....

thewildpansy

What the fuck is "methinks"? Learn how to write like an adult.

John Del Signore

Well, you omitted the not unimportant article "an," as in "an indispensable nerve center of NYC's theater scene," one of several. So, no, speaking as someone who sees on average two plays per week, methinks it's a fair assessment.

Elderta

Thank you, John.

Elderta

I heard about this this morning. I did a few shows there back in the 1990s. Bob is one of the most dedicated theater people out there. Sometimes, I hate you, New York.

nomnomnom

Gothamist Commenters to Ohio Theater: "Go back to Ohio!"

schizofriendly

This is very sad.

Polite New Yorker

Years ago I saw Lipstick Traces there with James Urbaniak playing the roles of Guy Debord and Steve Jones.

Troy

Thank you new nyers, thank you Bloomberg, thank you ohh so much, and thnk you Gothamist for allowing such to happen as you worry about where you are going to eat next...at least the next Tenant will be paing rent..(in like 7 years this recession aint started yet!)

this ist is gonna have to start more reciepe postings then eatery reviews, less they become passe..