Cherry Lane Theatre Bought By A24 Film Studio

The Cherry Lane Theatre, the oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theatre in New York City, has been bought by the film studio A24.

Curbed reports that A24 paid $10 million for the property, located in New York City's Greenwich Village, through a corporation titled Cherry Lane Venue, which is listed at A24's New York office.

Netflix has similarly purchased historic New York City venues, including the Paris Movie Theater on 58th St., where they premiere most of their films.

Angelina Fiordellisi purchased Cherry Lane Theatre in 1996 and oversaw a $3 million renovation of its 179-seat Mainstage and converted a former storage space into the 60-seat Studio Theatre, along with having modernized the lobby and public spaces. With its comfort and understated elegance, Cherry Lane has become widely-known, rightfully, as the Jewel of Off-Broadway.

Under Ms. Fiordellisi's leadership, Cherry Lane has served a wide variety of artistic interests in its Mainstage productions and with its award-winning Mentor Project, which for 20 years has paired emerging writers with established playwrights in the development, rehearsal and fully-staged production of their work.

Writers who have been mentored at Cherry Lane include Katori Hall, Sheila Callaghan, Rajiv Joseph, Anne Washburn, Jocelyn Bioh, Nathan Yungerberg, Ren Dara Santiago, Jiehae Park and Antoinette Nwandu, whose play PASS OVER was produced by Mentor Project in 2016. Mentors have included Lynn Nottage, Taylor Mac, Craig Lucas, Lucy Thurber, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Kwame Kwei Armah and Diana Oh.

A24 is the company behind the film adaptation of The Whale, as well as the critically-acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once. Other A24 films include The Humans, Hereditary, Zola, The Florida Project, Lady Bird, Moonlight, Uncut Gems, Eighth Grade, Aftersun, and more.

A24 TV productions include the Emmy-winning series Euphoria, Golden Globe-winning Hulu series "Ramy" from Ramy Youssef, which returned for a second season starring Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali, and the Showtime comedy series "Moonbase 8" starring Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker, and John C. Reilly.