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The Cherry Lane Theatre, an intimate space tucked in Manhattan’s West Village—which has also been a brewery, a silo, a box factory and a gay bar—will reopen this September under the leadership of indie film studio A24. Though it will officially reopen on Monday, September 8, the first announced event will be held on the following Sunday, September 14, with the first installment of a new screening series called Sundays with Sofia, hosted by New York-born filmmaker Sofia Coppola.
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The writer-director, an Oscar winner for the seminal 2003 film Lost in Translation, will present and discuss some of the movies most important to her, beginning with Adrian Lyne’s Foxes. (The cult 1980 coming-of-age drama, starring Jodie Foster, focuses on a group of teenage girls in Los Angeles, familiar territory for fans of Coppola’s gorgeous variations on this theme.) The 167-venue will then empty out onto the precious Commerce Street for a block party after the screening.
Coppola’s last two films, On the Rocks (2020) and Priscilla (2023), were made by A24, and though the company did not produce The Bling Ring (2013), it was the fourth movie it ever distributed. The indie wunderkind is expected to loop in many of its returning talents to Cherry Lane’s programming.
A24 purchased the historic space in 2023, and it has remained shut since. But the company has announced that it will present theatrical productions, stand-up comedy, staged readings, film screenings and other special events. They’ve also outfitted it with a new bar and restaurant (from the Frenchette team) and concessions booth with merchandise and snacks. A special message recorded by Barbra Streisand, who had a backstage job there in the 1950s, will welcome audiences.
The building first went up as a farm silo in 1817, before a group of people (including famed candle-burner Edna St. Vincent Millay) turned it into a playhouse. It is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York and is often credited with making off-Broadway a thing. Edward Albee debuted a number of works there, with works by dramatic heavyweights like Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry and Sam Shephard also playing at the small venue. Titans from other disciplines also tried their hand at theater there, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso and Gertude Stein, and Bob Dylan performed concerts there.