Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10011
175 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10011
7 people
favorited this theater
This former Chelsea movie house opened as the Elgin in 1942, designed by Simon Zelnik in elegant Art Moderne style with seating for 600. It was located on Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street. Later, the Elgin screened Spanish-language films, and still later, revival and cult films. The Elgin ended its movie house days as an adult theater. However, even as an adult theater, midnight movies, including “El Topo”, “Pink Flamingos”, and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, continued to be screened. Community pressure forced the Elgin to close in the 1978.
In 1982, architect Hugh Hardy was hired to convert the completely gutted interior of the Elgin into a 472-seat dance performance space, while preserving and restoring the beautiful Moderne facade and marquee of the theater.
The venue was renamed the Joyce, for the daughter of one of the main benefactors of the renovation of the theater. Today the Joyce is considered one of the city’s main dance performance spaces, and hosts audiences of over 140,000 each year.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 65 comments)
Those rear sections of seats in stadium type auditoriums were usually called mezzanines or loges, to differentiate from traditional balconies, which were a floor above the orchestra level. Larger theatres often had two or three balconies, not always designated as balconies. RCMH’s balconies, for example, were called first mezzanine, second mezzanine, third mezzanine.
A recent exterior view of the Joyce Theatre can be seen at the beginning of this article:
View link
Renewing link.
Here is a 2009 night photo.
This is a September 2009 photo.
Photo of the Joyce Theatre courtesy Nick’s Classic American theatres.
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This article reports that the Joyce’s current principal tenant may have to leave due to proposed rent increases though apparently the name of the theater would remain the same: View link
If the theater is vacated by the dance company I am sure the building will be torn down and a new apartment complex will take its place. It’s sad but given the value of the land it is no surprise. I have no inside knowlege and am merely making an assumption.
I would have to agree with you, Willburg145. Particularly since the interior was gutted and only the facade remains intact.
I am looking for a photo of the old Elgin Theater for a documentary. Might anyone have one? It would be hugely appreciated. Please let me know at: . Thanks!