The Laurie Beechman Theatre (formerly the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar) is a 90-seat[1] dinner theater in the basement of the West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street in the Manhattan Plaza apartment complex in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City.
The theater is named for Laurie Beechman, who was a Broadway singer/actor and cabaret performer.
History
The theater was opened in 1983 by the West Bank Cafe owner Steve Olsen. The cafe/theater is in Manhattan Plaza, which was specifically built to house people who are active in New York's theater scene. Bruce Willis was a bartender in the restaurant. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Sean Penn were regulars.[2] In the 1990s it was a favorite hangout of Austin Pendleton, John Heard and John Patrick Shanley.
Olsen experimented with the venue, offering it for jazz and cabaret. Lewis Black, Rand Foerster, and Rusty Magee proposed staging plays at what initially was called the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar.