Ivanhoe Theater (Chicago)
- Ivanhoe Theater
- 750 W. Wellington Ave.
- Chicago, IL |
Chicago lost one of its most historic off-Loop playhouses January 27, 2001 when the Ivanhoe Theater was shuttered to make way for expansion of the neighboring Binny’s liquor store. Built in 1966 as an adjunct to the once-famous Ivanhoe Restaurant (which opened as a speakeasy in the Roaring Twenties), the theater presented such notables as Sandy Dennis, Christopher Walken, James Broderick, Sylvia Sidney, Werner Klemperer, Eileen Herlie, Donald Moffat, Ellen Burstyn, Ethel Waters, and Bruce Boxleitner (who got his start there) among many others in the 1970s. Tennessee Williams’ Outcry received its world premiere at the Ivanhoe, starring Herlie and Moffat.
In the 1980s, the Ivanhoe offered productions by many local companies and producers, among them the Organic Theater Company, Next Theater Company, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Victory Gardens Theater, and Wisdom Bridge theaters with hits such as The Normal Heart, Prelude to a Kiss, In the Belly of the Beast, A Walk in the Woods, and The God of Isaac. More recently, the Ivanhoe housed long-run attractions Late Nite Catechism, the Free Associates, and Hell Cab. The first two shows moved to the Royal George Theater on Halsted Street, while Hell Cab moved to the Theater Building.
The Ivanhoe is now a Binny's liquor store.
Shows of Note
- the Ivanhoe Theater in Chicago hired Andrew Alexander,
- Welcome Home, an original play by Welcome Home, an original play by Edmund Hartmann with Frances Helm and Pernell Roberts in 1972
- Three Hotels (Rachel Silverman Productions, Ivanhoe Theater, Chicago) in 1995
World premiere production: Lookingglass Theatre Co., Chicago. It opened on October 25, 1998 at the Ivanhoe Theater.
- Metamorphoses (play) ↗ World premiere production (Lookingglass Theatre Co.) opened on October 25, 1998.
- The Circus of Miracles (2016) starring Misha Smirnov ↗
External links
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