Tuesday, October 28, 2025

'Ginger Twinsies' ends its run at the Orpheum Theatre

Photo by Steven 

Crews yesterday began removing equipment from the Orpheum Theatre at 126 Second Ave., between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place... this after the completion of the nearly four-month run of the "Parent Trap" parody "Ginger Twinsies" over the weekend. 

This was the first of the last four productions here to make it through its scheduled time, as "The Jonathan Larson Project," "The Empire Strips Back" and "The Big Gay Jamboree" experienced sluggish sales.

No word yet on the next production. (And will we see another "Stomp" at 29 years?

And some history of the space, though this is from a different source ("Tinkle Tankle"?): 
The Orpheum began its artistic life at the turn of the twentieth-century, as a beer garden and music hall catering primarily to Eastern European immigrants; it’s raucous environment led to it being lovingly dubbed "Tinkle Tankle" by its patrons, a moniker lovingly adopted as well in a rave Times review that popularized the venue. 

By 1913, the Orpheum was a dedicated movie house, and it changed hands many times and went through numerous renovations(including spending a period as a Yiddish theater during the "Jewish Rialto" era of Second Avenue) until opening as a venue for straight plays and musicals in 1958.

2 comments:

hywel dda said...

Hubby and I saw many things there in the distant past, most memorably Bloolips.

Scuba Diva said...

"Straight plays" as opposed to gay plays?