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Latin Theatre in New York City

New York Latin Culture Magazine

Latin Theatre in New York City is on Broadway, but mostly Off-Broadway where great theater begins. Off-Off-Broadway theaters play important roles in their communities.

“Hamilton” by New York Puerto Rican Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Broadway hit of our generation. 🇵🇷

Teatro SEA Takes Ricitos & the 3 Bears on Tour to Hostos Center

HOSTOS CENTER, Mott Haven, The Bronx
Ricitos y Los 3 Ositos (Ricitos and the 3 Bears), a bilingual Goldilocks 🇵🇷

PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATER, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
Las Locaventuras de Don Qujote (The Crazy Adventures of Don Quixote) 🇵🇷

CLEMENTE CENTER, Lower East Side, Manhattan (touring in 2024)

Teatro Fest NYC is a Festival of Hispanic Theatre

IATI THEATER, East Village, Manhattan 🇻🇪
INTAR Theatre, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan 🇨🇺
PREGONES/PRTT, Mott Haven, The Bronx and Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan 🇵🇷
REPERTORIO ESPAÑOL, Kips Bay, Manhattan 🇨🇺
TEATRO CIRCULO, East Village, Manhattan 🇵🇷
TEATRO LATEA, Lower East Side, Manhattan 🇵🇷
TEATRO SEA, Lower East Side, Manhattan 🇵🇷
THALIA SPANISH THEATER, Sunnyside, Queens 🇪🇸

NYC Off-Broadway Week Winter 2024 Offers 2-for-1 Tickets

REPERTORIO ESPAÑOL, Kips Bay, Manhattan ~ “La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Oscar Wao,” “Eva Luna,” “La Golondrina,” “Radojka” 🇨🇱 🇩🇴 🇵🇷 🇺🇾
NEW YORK CITY CENTER, Midtown, Manhattan ~ “Brooklyn Laundry” 🇦🇷 🇵🇷

More Latin Theatre

Latin Theatre Sponsors

Thanks for sponsoring Latin Theatre.

Latin Theatre News

Pregones/PRTT is Two Puerto Rican Community Theaters In One

PRTT ~ Nuyorican Poets Cafe Monthly Grand Slam 🇵🇷
PRTT ~ “The Desire of the Astronaut” Puerto Rican science fiction play 🇵🇷
PRTT ~ Teatro SEA’s “The Crazy Adventures of Don Quixote” (Las locaventures de Don Quijote) puppet theatre 🇵🇷

CONCOURSE, The Bronx (Pregones)
HELL’S KITCHEN, Manhattan (PRTT)

Repertorio Español’s Spanish-Language Theatre is Some of New York’s Most Successful Off-Broadway

“En el tiempo de las mariposas,” from Julia Álvarez 🇩🇴
“Eva Luna,” from Isabel Allende 🇨🇱
“La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao” from Juno Díaz 🇩🇴
“La dama boba,” from Lope de Vega 🇪🇸
“La golondrina” by Guillem Clua 🇪🇸
“Radojka by Schmidt and Ibarzabal 🇺🇾

APRIL
“El Quijote” from Cervantes 🇪🇸
“La llamada” musical comedy by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo 🇪🇸

KIPS BAY, Manhattan

Latin Broadway Shows

Broadway shows play in Broadway theaters with 500 or more seats.

Chicago’s good bad-girl and bad good-girl lead characters were defined by Chita Rivera and Liza Minelli. Broadway’s longest-running show now cycles stars of stage and screen through its roles. 🇵🇷 🇮🇹

“Hamilton” is the Broadway hit of our generation. New York Puerto Rican Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Miranda family are special. 🇵🇷

The Lion King tells stories of Mother Africa. lionking.com

Moulin Rouge! The Musical is set in the Paris red-light district. 🇫🇷

New York Theatre

All New York Theatre used to be called Broadway because that’s where many theaters are. Off-Broadway got going in the 1950s. Off-Off-Broadway got going in the 1960s.

Broadway Theaters

All Broadway theaters are in the Times Square Theater District, except for the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center.

  1. Al Hirschfeld Theatre is a Jujamycn theater. “Moulin Rouge!” is in open run. 🇫🇷
  2. Ambassador Theatre is a Shubert theater. “Chicago” is in open run. Latin stars regularly rotate into roles.
  3. August Wilson Theatre is a Jujamycn theater.
  4. Belasco Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  5. Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  6. Booth Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  7. Broadhurst Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  8. Broadway Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  9. Circle in the Square is an independent theater.
  10. Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  11. Eugene O’Neil Theatre is a Jujamycn theater.
  12. Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  13. Gershwin Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  14. Hayes Theater is a Second Stage theater.
  15. Hudson Theater is an Ambassador theater.
  16. Imperial Theater is a Shubert theater.
  17. James Earl Jones Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  18. John Golden Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  19. Lena Horne Theatre is a Nederlander theater. Broadway musical “Six” has a Puerto Rican actress. 🇵🇷
  20. Longacre Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  21. Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  22. Lyceum Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  23. Lyric Theatre is an Ambassador theater.
  24. Majestic Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  25. Marquis Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  26. Minskoff Theatre is a Nederlander theater. “The Lion King” is in open run.
  27. Music Box Theatre is a Shubert theater.
  28. Nederlander Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  29. Neil Simon Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  30. New Amsterdam Theatre is a Disney theater. “Aladdin” is in open run.
  31. Palace Theatre is a Nederlander theater.
  32. Richard Rodgers Theatre is a Nederlander theater. “Hamilton,” the Broadway hit of our generation, is in open run. 🇵🇷
  33. Samuel J. Friedman Theatre is a Manhattan Theatre Club theater.
  34. Shubert Theatre is a well, Shubert theater.
  35. Stephen Sondheim Theatre is a Roundabout theater.
  36. St. James Theatre is a Jujamcyn theater.
  37. Studio 54 is a Roundabout theater.
  38. Tod Haimes Theatre is a Roundabout theater.
  39. Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Lincoln Center theater.
  40. Walter Kerr Theatre is a Jujamcyn theater.
  41. Winter Garden Theatre is a Shubert theater.

Broadway’s Cabaret

54 Below is Broadway’s cabaret. Broadway stars regularly perform there. It’s in the notorious Studio 54 basement. 54below.org

Off-Broadway Theaters

Off-Broadway theaters have 100-499 seats.

54 Below is a cabaret where Broadway stars regularly perform, in Studio 54’s notorious basement. 54below.com

Atlantic Theater Company is a Tony, Pulitzer, Grammy, and HOLA Award-Winning producer and educator.

Delacorte Theater is the home of Free Shakespeare in the Park, produced by the Public Theater.

National Black Theatre is growing.

New York City Center is the home of the Manhattan Theatre Club, and a major producer of Broadway revivals in Encores!

NYU Skirball Center produces adventurous international theatre at New York University.

Pregones/PRTT is two Puerto Rican community theatres in one: Pregones Theater in Concourse, The Bronx; and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.

Public Theater is New York’s most important Off-Broadway theatre. This Broadway incubator is producing great artists of color.

Repertorio Español, founded by Cubans, is one of New York’s most successful Off-Broadway theaters. 🇨🇺

Signature Theater is a playwrights theater. It regularly develops artists of color.

Teatro SEA, New York’s bilingual Latin children’s theatre and puppetry studio, is one of our favorite New York theatre companies. 🇵🇷

Off-Off Broadway Theatres

Off-Off Broadway theaters have under 100 seats. This is community theatre, where great theatre begins.

Flea Theater is an experimental house for Black, Brown and Queer theatre in Tribeca. theflea.org

IATI Theater is a bilingual Latinx experimental theatre in the Bowery section of the East Village. @iatitheater

ID Studio Theater is a Colombian community theater in Mott Haven, The Bronx.

Intar Theatre, in Hell’s Kitchen, is one of the oldest Latin theatre companies in the United States. Since 1966. intartheatre.org

La MaMa is an experimental theatre for emerging playwrights in the Lower East Side.

Producers Club is a small playhouse with five stages or screening rooms, and a bar lounge, in the Times Square Theater District.

Teatro Circulo is a Latin bilingual theatre and rehearsal space in Manhattan’s East Village.

Teatro LATEA is an experimental Latin community theatre at The Clemente in the Lower East Side.

Thalia Spanish Theatre is led by a Spanish director who has been producing bilingual theatre in Sunnyside, Queens for over 30 years.

New York Theatre Festivals

NYC Broadway Week is a popular 2-for-1 ticket promotion in January/February and September.

NYC Off-Broadway Week is a popular 2-for-1 ticket promotion in February and September/October.

Teatro Fest NYC is New York’s festival of Hispanic theatre. 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇻🇪

Under the Radar theatre festival presents experimental theatre during the JanArtsNYC showcases.

About Theatre

Latin Theatre in New York City (Jordi Mora/Adobe)

Most human culture begins as religious ritual at home and in our communities. Theatre steps away from religion, but still seeks to inspire some kind of transformation in the audience.

All the world’s civilizations have their own unique theatre traditions. In Mother Africa, ancient Egyptian passion plays go back as far as 2,000 BC. Native Americans, including the Maya, Aztec and Inca cultures, had their own theatre traditions. India, China, and Southeast Asia have rich theatre traditions too.

European Theatre

European theatre traditions begin with Aeschylus “The Persians” at the Greek Theatre of Dionysus in 472 BC. During the Middle Ages in Europe, religious theatre was used as a preliterate teaching tool, until it got rather unreligious and was banned. Those religious theatre traditions live on today in holiday traditions across the Latin world.

Italian Commedia dell’arte, which we now call slapstick physical comedy (or TikTok or YouTube), became popular in the 1500s-1700s.

Latin Theatre

Latin theatre builds on Spanish Golden Age traditions (1590-1681) when all levels of society, from royals to street people, went to the theatre.

New York Theatre

It begins with Thomas Kean and Walter Murray’s Shakespearian and operatic theatre in the old Financial District in 1750. The first successful African American theatre was the African Grove Theatre which started at 38 Thomas St in Civic Center in 1821.

The first national American theatre was the short form comedy of minstrel shows from around 1850-1870. That racist nonsense still troubles us. In New York City, short form comedy evolved into vaudeville, radio, movies, television, and MTV. YouTube and Tik Tok are contemporary forms.

“Direct from Broadway” became a theatre marketing slogan when productions began national tours after the U.S. Civil War (1861-65). At the time all New York theatre was called Broadway theatre.

Latin theatre in New York City builds from Teatro Puerto Rico (1948-1994) which thrived with the Puerto Rican Great Migration of the 1950s.

Native American theatre traditions become part of Chicano theatre in the 1960s-70s.

Harlem Renaissance 3.0

Today what we call the Harlem Renaissance 3.0, is creating unprecedented opportunities for the “other” New York ~ artists of color. We are the 69%, and together, we are all New York City.

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