Soho Playhouse

Nice intimate theater with many experimental productions. Keep an eye out for their offerings. Lots of good nearby restaurants.

Saw Josie Long (UK comedian) perform her one woman show. Very good and a bit of blighty as she’s from Kent and had some air travel stories from Southend airport. She asked if anyone knew it had an airport !

This theater is down near canal st. Subways are right across the street. Small older theater some short run plays are here. They do a lot of festivals here. Seating Hondas farad views. Older so not as comfortable as newer theaters.

Just saw brinkman’s rap guide to religion at this venue. Brilliant

Just saw Baba Brinkman’s «Rap Guide to Religion» here. It’s a cozy, casual, non-​pretentious venue in a neighborhood which has become anything but. The staff is friendly and tells you there’s no need to rush with your drink from the downstairs bar… you’re welcome to finish it in the theater. If this show is any indication, SP offers substance over glitz and the opportunity to meet and chat with the artist on your way out. In the shadow of rampaging Trumpishness, it deserves to live long and prosper in it’s little Vandam St. niche.

Great little playhouse with a cluster of theaters inside. Fun atmosphere. The seating is tight and limited to around 100 per theater. I really enjoyed the comedy improv show.

AWESOME place! Very friendly and helpful staff. The play I saw there was” Bill W & Dr. Bob”…it was remarkable!!! I highly recommend going to see it! The only complaint I do have is that the seats are REALLY tight, and the bathroom is also. But it was ok because I was too busy paying attention to the show! What a talented cast!!! And if you don’t get a chance to see that play in particular, I still suggest checking this place out for something else…

I just viewed this interesting play and biography in Soho call «Bill W. and Dr. Bob» about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous and how it all began. Very impressed by the screenplay and acting. The theater is like an old school movie theater with a small stage. Very vintage and comfortable feel and the staff were pleasant. I would surely return for another show.

Small intimate theater. The production Drawer Boy was well acted and directed. Downstairs they have a cabaret style setting with a full bar. Not a bad seat in the house.

I went to Ted Greenberg’s show with my sisters and it was great. We were expecting more serious magic, but what we got was playful, creative improv with audience participation, gentle spoofs, and a little magic. Ted is hilarious.
As a bonus, I was the winner of the taxi raffle so I got to be driven home in a taxi by
Ted himself. I live far from the show but Ted was so cool about it and got me home without getting lost.
HIghly recommended!

I went here for the Burlesque-​A-​Pades not long ago and I liked the old school vibe that this Playhouse has and it gives you a very different feel than if you go to one of those bigger modern theaters. The place is small which makes the show very intimate and it allows the shows to interact much more with the audience which is a big plus in my book. But in some instances the place was lacking, I know that they were trying to stay true to its originality but it was simply to hard to find your seat, numbers were missing on chairs so you did not know where you were to sit and it created a lot of confusion. The «I guess it is a bar» downstairs, does have some ok choices but very limited as it is not really a bar but just a place where you can buy some alcohol. So I would go here again if another good show would come along but I would not hang out in the bar area.

Before I begin, let me offer some context:
A number of years ago, I really enjoyed Broadway shows. It helped I was under 35, and could make use of various promos and offers, and with a little care and planning we would never pay anything approaching «list» price. Since then, and since I lost access to those discounts, I’ve turned my eye to smaller runs, and the off-​off-​broadway scene.
I’ll pay $ 20 to see anything (except the movie theater, but that’s a whole other story). For my $ 20 I expect either a great show, or a great story, and so far I’ve not been disappointed.
Today was no exception. $ 18 got me a second-​row ticket to the FringeNYC Encore Series’ Pulp Shakespeare (Pulp Fiction rewritten in the style of Shakespeare).
The theater — as others have mentioned — is a bit compact. The line for the box office completely blocked the door and prevented ticketed patrons from entering. The seats are cramped (or maybe I’m just tall), and the elevation between them is such that I was guiltily glad to hear the couple arguing in the foyer afterwards about how they’d been told the wrong start time as very probably the only reason I had an unobstructed view was because of their absence.
I saw the bar downstairs, but aside from looking in en route to the bathrooms I didn’t take the time to enjoy it’s charms.
With a maximum capacity of 199 people, it’s small, it’s intimate, and the shows that’ll play here will, as I most enjoy, either give you a great show, or a great story.
Pulp Shakespeare falls solidly in the former.
I hope to be back soon.

The Soho Playhouse is a downtown gem with all the charms of a pre-​war apartment: great history and unique soul. It was reportedly home to NYC’s political machine at the start of the 20^th century and was a key launching pad for the work of American theater legends Edward Albee and Sam Shepard among others.
Now you can see Ted Greenberg’s The Complete Performer (comedy show by former Letterman writer with free cab ride home), Simon Lovell’s Strange and Unusual Hobbies (magic from a well known con man) and new to the roster: Tom DiMenna: Who Loves You, Baby? Baby Wants Candy, the musical improv show that packs them in, has also had residencies there. And I also saw Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister (hilarious). I’ve also seen many New York Fringe shows here — some absolutely weird and brilliant dramas and comedy performances.
The main theater is a little tight — seating wise — but it has an old world charm with great sight lines and intimacy. Downstairs is a full bar and cabaret space (The Huron Club). Everytime I visit the Soho Playhouse I feel like I’ve stepped into a space that bridges New York city’s cultural past and future.

Theater setup was kind of weird. They wouldn’t let anyone in if you had tickets so there was a bit of confusion prior to our show. Some people already had tickets were blocking the door preventing people from picking up tickets. The theater is pretty small with an upstairs and a downstairs. A full bar is located downstairs and some sort of weird screening room too. Careful walking down those stairs however as I nearly did a face plant tripping up on the awkward carpeting. Best part of the playhouse? Free glass of house red wine if you check in on Google+/Facebook/Twitter/whateverthehellsocialnetw­orkingcrapyouuse. The musical improv show was hilarious.

Small venue, with good acoustics and lighting. The main floor theater has stadium like seating (not as steep of course). It’s pretty tight but everyone gets a good view of the stage. The stage isn’t that big, and I think the dressing room may have been off to one side of it? Went to see the Rap Guide to Evolution and there were only two performers on stage and they had enough space up there. The ladies bathroom is tight as hell, but at least it was clean. Downstairs there is a bar and a smaller intimate room for performances. The minor missteps– their credit card machine wasn’t working that night and we took shots out plastic cups… whatever.

We attended a Rap Guide to Evolution performance here for free courtesy of
Goldstar. There are unique bathrooms in this two-​level joint, with a bar downstairs and the main stage & box office «upstairs» (ground level). The basement is more of a cellar with character, and the staff was friendly and efficient. The seats were comfortable and the rear-​projection screens worked well. 4 stars because it was absolutely stiflingly hot in there on a temperate day.

This is a smalI, no-​frills theater with interesting, non-​traditional productions. I have seen several shows at this theater: Mindgame, Made in Heaven, The Irish Curse, and The Rap Guide to Evolution (playing currently). The shows were quite different from one another, but were all creative and entertaining.
The lobby box office area is small with the 200-​seat main theater upstairs and a bar/​lounge with a small stage downstairs. The theater’s seats are about equivalent to what you would find in a movie theater and are split down the middle with 12 seats in a row on each side of the aisle. Because the theater is intimate, you could get a good view from most seats, but more elevation with each successive row would be better.

Tight tight seating, if you are tall you’ll need an aisle or your legs just won’t fit. Intimate place with easy on-​street parking close to good areas of the city.

I saw The Divine Sister and it was hilarious but sometimes cheesy. The actors/​actresses are incredible performers in this holy comedy. Mother Superior/​Charles Busch is especially funny with his dramatic facial expressions. Other actors/​actresses are Julie Halston, Alison Fraser, Amy Rutberg, Jennifer Van Dyck and Jonathan Walker. Good show but the plot is somewhat ridiculous which makes it funny. It can also be somewhat offensive to Catholic people. I wasn’t offended but they do mock the religion in many ways.
Also saw The Complete Performer here. Letterman-​Emmy-​winning writer and comic, Ted Greenberg, cracks all entertainment genres in just under 53 minutes. For the show-​stopping finale, he drives winning audience members home in a licensed yellow taxi. Outrageously funny and cleverly written. Audience participation and a mascot is involved and Ted Greenberg surprises the audience by exposing himself and his wee wee.
Also saw The Irish Curse here. It’s a hilarious play about five Irish men who thinks having a small penis is an Irish curse. Keeps you laughing from beginning to end. Different terms are used to describe a small penis like bottletop and others. Cleverly written and performed.
Good view up front but seats can be tight and uncomfortable.

I came here with eight out-​of-​town relatives to see the Improv show, «Flanagan’s Wake.»
Pros:
Hilarious performance;
A drink is included in the price of admission for each person (not the other way around where you’re forced to BUY a drink);
If you’re Irish or Catholic, you’re pretty much guaranteed to laugh at this stuff (it’s like the Irish equivalent of «Tony and Tina’s Wedding»);
Reasonable prices: I think we paid about $ 40 each, which allowed me to give everyone a NY show experience without big Broadway prices
Cons:
Small theatre. I didn’t think this was that bad because it made it more intimate, but you will certainly become friends with your neighbor by the end of the show if you aren’t already;
Uncomfortable Improv Factor: Again, this is only a negative if this kind of thing weirds you out, but be forewarned that you will without a doubt be interacting directly with the performers. If this makes you uncomfortable, this show isn’t your thing.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at the Soho Playhouse and would be happy to see another performance here!