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| Address | 1626 Broadway |
|---|---|
| Location | New York City, New York |
| Coordinates | 40°45′40″N73°59′02″W / 40.7610°N 73.9840°W |
| Owner | Caroline Hirsch |
| Type | Comedy nightclub |
| Capacity | 280 |
| Opened | 1981 |
| Closed | 2022 |
| Website | |
| carolines | |
Carolines on Broadway was a venue for stand-up comedy situated at 750 Seventh Avenue, on Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The club operated from 1981 to 2022.
Caroline Hirsch opened Carolines as a cabaret in the Chelsea neighborhood in 1981 with two friends. Hirsch advocated to make it a comedy club and booked Jay Leno as its first performer. In 1983, Paul Reubens performed at the club, helping the club grow in popularity. [1] In 1987, Carolines moved to South Street Seaport where it became established as the country's top comedy venue. It also served as home to the A&E series, Caroline's Comedy Hour, which ran for six years and won a CableACE award for "Best Stand-Up Comedy Series". [2] In 1992, the club moved to its ultimately final location on Broadway [1] inside 750 Seventh Avenue. [3]
Carolines celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2003 with a gala comedy concert at Carnegie Hall that featured performances by many comedians who previously performed at the club. Attendees include Richard Belzer, Lewis Black, Mario Cantone, Judy Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, David Alan Grier, Denis Leary, Kevin Meaney, Paul Mooney, Colin Quinn, Caroline Rhea, Jeffrey Ross, Rich Vos, and, in a surprise appearance, Jon Stewart.[ citation needed ]
The club closed temporarily in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Supported by federal aid for live performance venues, it reopened in May 2021. [4] On December 6, 2022, the club's owner announced that due to an imminent substantial rent increase by its landlord, the Kuwait Investment Authority, the club would be closing at the end of the year with December 31st as the last show. [5] [6]
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped plaza five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets.
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100.
A comedy club is a venue where a variety of comedic acts perform to a live audience. Although the term usually refers to establishments that feature stand-up comedians, it can also feature other forms of comedy such as improvisational comedians, impersonators, impressionists, magicians and ventriloquists.
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its northern boundary variously described as near the upper 20s or 34th Street, the next major crosstown street to the north. To the northwest of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, as well as Hudson Yards; to the northeast are the Garment District and the remainder of Midtown South; to the east are NoMad and the Flatiron District; to the southwest is the Meatpacking District; and to the south and southeast are the West Village and the remainder of Greenwich Village. Chelsea was named for an estate in the area, which in turn was named for the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.
Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West Side is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen to the south, Columbus Circle to the southeast, and Morningside Heights to the north.
Judd Seymore Hirsch is an American actor. He is known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–2010). He is also well known for his career in theatre and for his roles in films such as Ordinary People (1980), Running on Empty (1988), Independence Day (1996), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), Uncut Gems (2019), and The Fabelmans (2022).
52nd Street is a 1.9-mile-long (3.1 km) one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s.
Manhattan Valley is a neighborhood in the northern part of the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by West 110th Street to the north, Central Park West to the east, West 96th Street to the south, and Broadway to the west.
The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment and is co-owned and co-operated by Knitting Factory Entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States.
1585 Broadway, also called the Morgan Stanley Building, is a 42-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and Emery Roth & Sons and was developed by David and Jean Solomon. 1585 Broadway occupies a site on the west side of Broadway between 47th and 48th Streets. The building has served as the headquarters of financial-services company Morgan Stanley since 1995.
The Liberty Theatre is a former Broadway theater at 234 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1904, the theater was designed by Herts & Tallant and built for Klaw and Erlanger, the partnership of theatrical producers Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. The theater has been used as an event venue since 2011 and is part of an entertainment and retail complex developed by Forest City Ratner. The theater is owned by the city and state governments of New York and leased to New 42nd Street. Brookfield Asset Management, which acquired Forest City in 2018, subleases the venue from New 42nd Street.
750 Seventh Avenue is a 36-story office building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed by Kevin Roche of Roche-Dinkeloo and developed by David and Jean Solomon. 750 Seventh Avenue occupies a site on the north side of 49th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Since 1994, the building has mostly been occupied by the offices of financial services company Morgan Stanley. The building contains a black glass facade with large signs as well as etched-glass panels. On the upper stories, the exterior has setbacks in a spiral pattern, which terminate in an offset glass pinnacle. When the building opened, several critics compared its design to a smokestack and to a glass pyramid.
The Triad Theater, formerly known as Palsson's Supper Club, Steve McGraw's, and Stage 72, is a cabaret-style performing arts venue located on West 72nd Street on New York's Upper West Side. The theatre has been the original home to some of the longest running Off-Broadway shows including Forever Plaid, Forbidden Broadway, Spamilton, and Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know.
Harrison Greenbaum is an American stand-up comedian and comedy writer.
Caroline Hirsch is the founder and owner of the New York comedy club Carolines on Broadway and the New York Comedy Festival. She is recognized for her ability to spot rising comedic talent including Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reubens.
Christopher Paul Anthony Distefano is an American comedian. Primarily a stand-up comedian, Distefano began his career in entertainment on MTV and MTV2's shows Guy Code and Girl Code. Distefano's first hour-long standup special, Chris Distefano: Size 38 Waist, was released in 2019 by Comedy Central. His second special, Speshy Weshy, premiered on Netflix in May 2022. Distefano co-hosts Hey Babe! podcast with Sal Vulcano from Impractical Jokers and hosts his own podcast, Chrissy Chaos.
The Tank is a nonprofit off-off-Broadway performance venue and producer in Manhattan, New York. The organization was founded in May 2003 by a group of young artists and has since moved several times, residing on 36th Street as of 2017. The Tank presents art across several disciplines, produced at no fee for use of the venue to the presenting artists.
Club Cumming is a gay bar and nightclub in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It frequently hosts cabaret events, Broadway-style shows, dance parties and drag performances. Celebrities, especially Broadway actors, often make pop-up appearances there. The club opened in 2017 and is co-owned by actor Alan Cumming and promoter Daniel Nardicio, who founded it with the owners of the space's previous establishment. The bar was ordered to temporarily halt its shows in 2018, when it was discovered that its liquor license did not include a provision for live entertainment. The matter was resolved swiftly and with community support. The club was shuttered in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continued to host cabaret and comedy shows via live stream for most of the year. The venue reintroduced on-site outdoor events in December 2020 and reopened at full indoor capacity in May 2021. Club Cumming has generally been well received by critics, who cite its eclectic entertainment repertoire, its inclusivity and the spontaneity of its atmosphere.
