Charles Playhouse

Since its inception, the Charles Playhouse has had a lengthy and interesting history in Boston's Theatre District. Asher Benjamin, a renowned architect, originally created the space and had it constructed as the Fifth Universalist Church in 1839. It was the congregation Ohof abei Shalom's first synagogue in Boston when it opened in 1864. During Prohibition, it was converted into "The Lido Venice," a speakeasy. While the downstairs was altered with hot jazz by musicians like Fats Waller and Earl Fatha Hines, the upstairs (mainstage) was transformed into a fashionable nightclub, "Storyland," during the 1940s, the height of Boston's post-World War II nightlife.

The Charles Playhouse was the name given to the location in 1958 when The Actors Company, a group of Boston University alums who had Olympia Dukakis among its performers, made the facility their home. The Actors Company's first residence, the Charles Street Playhouse at 54 Charles Street, at the foot of Beacon Hill, gave rise to the moniker of the Charles Playhouse." " The venue's lengthy history, according to Boston theatre critic Elliot Norton, gave it "the necessary sinned-in atmosphere to become a great theater." The Charles Playhouse swiftly rose to the top of the country's regional theater movement, presenting world premieres of plays by Tennessee Williams, Brecht, O'Neill, Pirandello, and Jill Clayburgh, as well as many upcoming talents like Al Pacino and Jill Clayburgh. The Charles Playhouse has hosted the critically acclaimed Blue Man Group, which is currently celebrating 25 years in Boston, for nearly 40 years and was home to the longest play in American history, the hilarious whodunnit Shear Madness. Broadway In Boston is the owner and manager of the establishment.

Address: 74 Warrenton St., Boston, 02116
Cross street: Stuart St.
Website: www.charlesplayhouse.com

Phone: 617-426-6912
Transport: Boylston or NE Medical Center T .

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