The Public Theater: Off-Broadway to Broadway, Again and Again

With the announcement yesterday that the Al Pacino-led production of The Merchant of Venice would have a limited run this fall/winter at the Broadhurst Theatre, and the announcement last week confirming that Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson would be transferring to the Jacobs Theatre for a commercial run, The Public Theater continues a long tradition of bringing its off-Broadway shows to Broadway.  From its downtown theater space to its outdoor Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, a wide variety of plays, musicals, one-man shows and important revivals have made the transfer to the Great White Way.

Top: The Public Theater

Bottom: The Delacorte Theatre

Legendary producer Joseph Papp began what is now known as the Public Theater back in 1955, when he began the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, offering free Shakespeare to New Yorkers for the first time.  Later, he created New York's first travelling theater.  Among the Public Theatre's many achievements, it was also among the very first professional theatres to employ "color blind casting," with no less than James Earl Jones appearing in The Cherry Orchard.  What today is common practice and rarely even noticed, was quite avante garde and controversial.  The Public Theater still operates the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, along with it's flagship space, the former Astor Public Library.

Coming This Season: The Merchant of Venice and

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Some facts:

• The Public Theater has been awarded 42 Tonys, 40 Drama Desks and 4 Pulitzer Prizes among many awards.
• It won the Special Tony Award 3 times: 1958, 1970 and 1984, when A Chorus Line became the longest-running show in Broadway history.
• The Drama Desk Awards presented the company a special achievement award in 2005, in honor of its 50th anniversary.

A book about the man who started it all:

Joseph Papp

23 of its plays, musicals, revivals and one-person shows were either nominated and/or won the Tony for Best in the Category.  The winners were:

• 1972: Best Play, Sticks and Bones
• 1972: Best Musical: Two Gentlemen of Verona
• 1973: Best Play, That Championship Season
• 1976: Best Musical, A Chorus Line

1976 

• 1981: Best Reproduction of a Musical: The Pirates of Penzance
• 1986: Best Musical: The Mystery of Edwin Drood
• 1993: Best Play: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 1994: Best Play: Angels in America: Perestroika
• 2002: Best Theatrical Event: Elaine Stritch: At Liberty!
• 2003: Best Play: Take Me Out
• 2009: Best Revival: Hair

1986

Some of its most notable productions also include: The Normal Heart, The Threepenny Opera (Raul Julia), The Colored Museum, Hamlet (Kevin Kline), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, Bring on 'Da Noise/Bring on 'Da Funk, The Wild Party, Runaways, Topdog/Underdog, and Caroline, or Change.

With these two new critically acclaimed shows, that award-winning tradition is bound to continue!

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Jeff