Mercer Arts Center

Theatre Information
Address: 673 Broadway, New York, NY 10013
Productions
  Production First Performance
at this Theatre		 Last Performance
at this Theatre
1 Owners 05/14/1973 05/15/1973
2 El Grande de Coca-Cola1 02/13/1973 08/03/1973
3 F.O.B. 11/24/1972 11/26/1972
4 Doctor Selavy's Magic Theatre 11/23/1972 03/25/1973
5 Aesop's Fables 08/17/1972 09/19/1972
6 Speed Gets the Poppies 07/25/1972 07/30/1972
7 And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers 04/21/1972 05/05/1972
8 Dylan 02/07/1972 03/19/1972
9 Love Me, Love My Children 11/03/1971 04/23/1972
10 The Proposition2 04/28/1971 08/03/1973
11 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest3 03/23/1971 08/03/1973
12 Candaules Commissioner 05/28/1970 05/31/1970
13 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds 04/07/1970 05/14/1972
14 Dark of the Moon 04/03/1970 06/14/1970
15 Exchange 02/08/1970 02/08/1970
16 Love and Maple Syrup 01/07/1970 01/18/1970
1Original closing date, 04/13/1975, however run ended due to collapse of Mercer Arts Center. The show was transferred Off-Off Broadway to Plaza 9 in the Plaza Hotel.
2Run ended due to collapse of Mercer Arts Center.
3This production played at the Mercer- Hansberry Theatre at the Mercer Arts Center. The collapse of a nearby hotel on August 3, 1973 forced the production to relocate to the Eastside Playhouse on Tuesday, August 14, 1973. There it stayed throughout the remainder of the run.
History
"The Mercer Arts Center which Gene Frankel founded in conjunction with Viveca Lindfors, Rip Torn, Steina and Woedy Vasulka and others fell upon itself on Aug. 4, 1973. This was the day Frankel's production of Peter Swet's "The Interview" was supposed to open. The Mercer Arts Center, heralded as "the Lincoln Center of Off-Broadway " housed six theatres, two acting workshops and a rock club, all of which were designed to nurture budding talent. The Center's structural collapse ended the 1,OOO- performance run of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Both that show and "The Interview" found new venues, but the Mercer Arts Center was never restored and its like has not been seen since." - Peter Shaughnessy "Fifty Years For Frankel"