Laurie Beechman Theatre

The Laurie Beechman Theatre sits directly beneath the West Bank Cafe and serves as a vital laboratory for performers testing new material. It is named after the Broadway star who gained fame for her role as Grizabella in Cats and her performance as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Before the space became a dedicated cabaret venue, it functioned as a rehearsal hall for experimental theater companies throughout the nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties. Laurie Beechman herself performed here often during the final years of her life, turning the intimate basement room into a premier destination for vocal artists who wanted to connect closely with an audience.