The Arclight Theatre

This is a great venue run by Michael Griffith, a man with an explosive temper who is completely out of control. There is a reason renting this space is so inexpensive, and I should have realized it before I leased the venue. Griffith curses people out for no reason, kicks staff out of the theater in the middle of strike, misrepresents the number of seats in the venue — there are 97, not 99, and took several months to tell my designers about the power available to them for lighting and sound. Not to mention, he almost never stocks public bathrooms.
He was so contentious that I had to hire a baby sitter to interface between he and my creatives during tech and previews. Seriously. I paid someone $ 750 to babysit the manager of this theater.
If I had the opportunity to work at that space for free, I would decline. Avoid like the plague.

The atmosphere is unique, really ny feel, but the practice of letting some people in and adding the rest to waiting list is rediculous, it makes us feel like a bunch of zoo animals.
Very distasteful, I will not return.

Decent little theater to see a production inside. There is no handicap entrance that I could see. The entrance is down one flight of steep stairs with a handrail.
The nice thing about this theater is that the seats are all wonderful, and there truly isn’t a bad seat in the house.
The theater is a short walk from the 72^nd Street Metro (1,2 and 3 trains).
I saw ‘Bedbugs the Musical’ and loved the location and the play.
I would go back to this theater and suggest it to friends Producing a play who might be on a budget.

Saw Bedbugs!!! here last night and I found the theater to be charming. There were no bad seats, the acoustic was great, and you felt apart of the play being so close. They had signage posted everywhere to find the bathrooms, which are a walk back into the old church, but simple enough to find. I didn’t find the Jesus painting on the ceiling disturbing or obnoxious like some of the other reviewers. Overall, I think the musical made this place because it was awesome, but I was pleased with the whole experience.

Ironically, this place is less than half a block from Broadway but on the upper west side. Therefore, this is WAY Off Broadway! So what did you expect? Have fun and enjoy life!
OK. The venue seats less than 100 people but my gosh, you are here to experience the arts! The acoustics are perfect and you are very close to the stage! Where else can you come to a otherwise abandoned spot like this, hidden deep in a church basement, and see a wonderful live performance?
So, the bathroom is a bit of a maze journey away through cluttered hallways. There are faded religious murals on the walls and ceilings. Some areas were last dusted at the turn of the previous century. There is an ancient basketball court within the labyrinth. There are old rooms full of broken down furniture, lumber, and dusty books.
In the theater itself, the seats are definitely not as comfy as a barcalounger. Who cares? Frankly, I’d be happy if they handed me a milk crate to sit on. This is the arts people! Every play has to start somewhere!

We were just here recently to see Bedbugs!!! The Musical.
Yes, we actually saw a musical about Bedbugs, don’t laugh. It was actually an epic performance! I wish I could say that about the actual venue.
It’s small. I mean tiny in a cramped way. Only about 100 seats so the view of the stage is pretty good no matter where you sit. The seat in front of me was wedged up against my knees. If you are a bigger/​taller person you are screwed unless you get first row to stretch out a bit.
No real AC to speak of so be prepared to be a bit warm on a hot day. Yay! Swamp ass!
It’s in the basement of a church and looks like an old bomb shelter. Finding the bathrooms is like being trapped in a maze. The paintings of Jesus and saints on the ceiling overlook the audience. Kind of a weird spot, but hey, it is off Broadway and the price can’t be beat if it’s a good show.
The seats are horribly uncomfortable. Thank goodness for an intermission to get up and walk around a bit. After two hours I felt like I was being tortured. My ass was killing me!
I do have to say that the acoustics here are pretty good, as was the lighting and stage effects. It’s definitely an intimate spot to see a performance. Just be prepared to rough it a bit as compared to seeing a show in a more upscale venue.

We have produced several shows at the Arclight and found it to be a great space to work in. The ambiance is perfect for our style of theater and I have recommended it to others. Recent upgrades to the dressing room area have made it even nicer. Gotham Radio Theatre is happy to call the Arclight home and look forward to producing many future shows there. Take a look for yourself at their new website

The place looks intriguing from the street: an archway, a stone staircase leading into a basement space, Christmas lights. Be aware that on a hot/​humid day, you will be hot and uncomfortable. There is no air circulation inside. Small space; really hard chairs (sorry, it’s the truth; thank God I come with my own padding but even that was not sufficient).

Do not rent this venue for your theater production while Michael G. is in charge. He is horrible to work with, enforcing arbitrary rules to bully his customers, sabotaging performances, verbally attacking people, the list goes on. The venue is nice but it’s not worth the misery.

@Diana– the Arclight is simply a venue and to my knowledge does not produce its own work. The quality of the performances depends entirely on the company coming in.
The space is an intimate environment with lovely acoustics and that is about where the benefits of the venue end. The roach problem is disgusting. We came in to find cigarettes and ash mashed into painted floor of our set. People had been backstage and touched personal belongings. Alcohol that had been stored there for concessions or given between the cast as gifts was drank while we were gone. The seats and carpet appear to never have been cleaned and even though we fabreezed them frequently the smell of urine inevitably returned. The electrics are also very shady, and possibly unsafe. We lost power backstage twice and both times the venue owner was nowhere to be found to help us remedy the issue.
I agree with the people below when they say that by far the worst part of working in this venue is the owner. He is temper-​mental at best. He is verbally abusive, was very nearly physically abusive, and rather than speak to us about minor issues turned off all electricity to the stage and threatened to force us to cancel performance less than an hour before it was meant to begin. And when I say minor issues, I mean issues like one person drinking coffee in the house.
Please don’t put yourselves through the pain and frustration of working in this environment. It does not deserve your patronage.

The venue is poorly maintained. The theater is full of roaches, even my audience members complained that there were roaches in the restrooms. When the radiator goes off, its sounds like a garbage truck is inside the theater. The place smells of urine, especially in the owner’s office where you need to go in to switch on the house lights.
Lastly, as everyone mentioned, the owner is absolutely horrendous. He’s not in theater during show times so if you have an emergency, you’re shit out of luck. There have been other awful experiences which I do not care to bring up. But I will never again showcase my productions at this theater.

What are performances like?!