NYU May Raze Provincetown Playhouse
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New York University may demolish the historic Provincetown Playhouse on Macdougal Street to construct a new building for its law school. The theater, now owned by NYU, is named for the Provincetown Players, the company it originally housed, which was founded on Cape Cod and took up residence in Greenwich Village in 1916. Over the decades, the playhouse has presented dramas by Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Edward Albee.
NYU wants to demolish four adjacent buildings, including the 170-seat theater, in order to replace them with a building that would have 4,000 additional square feet. The buildings are not protected by the city landmark designation. However, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, has written to NYU’s president, John Sexton, asking him to reconsider the plan. “The Provincetown Playhouse building is an incredibly important piece of the history of the Village, of New York City, and of the Off-Broadway Theater movement,” Mr. Berman said in his letter.
