One day it was the “New Space Theatre” and then it was “mothballed” and now “On Broadway” ,which was once around the corner in Shortmarket street has opened at 44 Long Street.
The New Space was planned to be a serious theatre building in the tradition of the Old Space Theatre from the ‘70s. Sadly it proved harder, is is common with performing arts ventures, to make the business model work and the venue did not bring in the audiences it needed to sustain it. It was a brilliant development, with two performance spaces, three hangout and eateries downstairs and a range of creatives above, but sadly parts of the project were not working.
On Broadway has been a successful endeavour from its early days in Greenpoint and had developed a strong audience base. As a form of supper theatre, it has consistently shown some of the best in music, comedy and more. Mark Lottering and many others are associated with the venue.
It re-established itself at 88 Shortmarket Street which had, for many years previously, been the venue for some great clubs like The Base and Scratch. This move to 88 Shortmarket proved to be a great change for the then sad building and the move reignited On Broadway’s already excellent programme. So it is brilliant that the owners of On Broadway have now moved this successful venture into the New Space and taken the downstairs restaurant as well. We look forward to great things from this exciting new partnership! It will be interesting now to see what moves into 88 Shortmarket!
