Off-B'way's Variety Arts Closes as Legit House
by Broadway Staff • Oct 19, 2004
The 499-seat Variety Arts Theatre, which has been vacant since The Joys of Sex closed on June 13, will soon be no more. The 110 Third Avenue Corporation, which owns the establishment, is in the process of selling the space, and after the sale is completed, the venue will no longer be a legit theater, according to Variety.
The Variety Arts was a movie house until 1991, when Ben Sprecher leased the venue. It opened as a legitimate theater that same year with Return to the Forbidden Planet. In recent years, the Variety Arts has housed Summer of '42, Adult Entertainment, Reefer Madness, Omnium Gatherum and The Joys of Sex. The last full-fledged success at the venue was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, which closed on May 27, 2001.
The Variety Arts was a movie house until 1991, when Ben Sprecher leased the venue. It opened as a legitimate theater that same year with Return to the Forbidden Planet. In recent years, the Variety Arts has housed Summer of '42, Adult Entertainment, Reefer Madness, Omnium Gatherum and The Joys of Sex. The last full-fledged success at the venue was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, which closed on May 27, 2001.
The off-Broadway musical The Immigrant was announced to open at the Variety Arts but instead chose to play at the new Dodger Stages complex.