Off-Broadway's Promenade Theatre to Close June 11

The Promenade Theatre, the uptown Off-Broadway venue that is currently playing host to Tryst, will shutter on Sunday, June 11th, according to Variety.

Co-owner Ben Sprecher said that the 399-seat theatre will be converted for alternate use, "adding that there is indeed truth to the whispers that the venue will make way for a branch of the cosmetics chain Sephora," according to the article.

Before Tryst, Karoline Leach's drama about an Edwardian love affair, the Promenade housed such shows as Almost Heaven: The Songs of John Denver, Woman Before a Glass, The Thing About Men and The Shape of Things.  Other shows to have played the theatre include In Trousers, The Lisbon Traviata, Hurlyburly and Three Tall Women.

Sprecher stated that the "economics of a 399-seat Off Broadway do not work. Period. Categorically."  He now plans to devote his efforts to the Little Shubert Theatre, which he runs, as well as the possibly Broadway-bound diva showcase Legends and the upcoming A Moon for the Misbegotten, starring Kevin Spacey, at the Old Vic in London.  He is involved with both plays as a producer.

The closing of the Promenade Theatre follows a number of other closings of Off-Broadway theatres.  It was recently announced that the Lamb's Theatre Company will be evicted from their home building, and Playhouse 91 closed at the end of May, as well.  Variety speculates that "the current spate of venue closings follows a building boom that saw the creation of a handful of Off Broadway multiplexes such as New World Stages and 37 Arts. Many legiters see the shutterings as the equalization of a tough market that does not have enough product to fill all its open venues."

The Promenade Theatre is located at 2162 Broadway, just north of 76th Street.