Commercial Off-Broadway continued to thrive through the 1980s and I think at least for a while in 1990s. Nonprofit Off-Broadway goes back to the 1960s. The only reason why I don't say 1950s is because I think the Phoenix and Circle in the Square, while producing the kinds of shows in the kinds of ways that were later thought of as nonprofit, were not. I think this is because the rules for being a nonprofit theatre were likely different back then. But for many though not all intents and purposes, the Phoenix and Circle in the Square behaved in many ways like nonprofits.
But in the 1960s and 1970s, the Public, the American Place, Circle Rep, and Manhattan Theatre Club a bit later, and others all either thrived or managed to survive while commercial Off-Broadway also thrived to what now seems an almost unimaginable degree. And when Playwrights Horizons became a force in the 1980s (it had been around for a while without achieving great success), it did not kill off commercial Off-Broadway. Instead, it provided commercial Off-Broadway with several successes.
In addition, there were companies that were officially Off-Off (La Mama most famously, but also CSC, Theatre for a New City and others) that were also going strong. |
