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Just a year ago, the theater at Union Square East and 17th Street was a musty vacant space thought to have little commercial viability.
This week, it opens with all the sheen of a newly polished gem--and is one of the venues that Neil Simon is eyeing for his first off-Broadway venture.
But Mr. Simon will have to wait. The newly renovated 499-seat Union Square Threatre will first host Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins starring in Vita & Virginia, Ms. Atkins' adaptation of the letters of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, which has a $423,000 advance, a record for off-Broadway.
These are days of miracle and wonder for off-Broadway. For the first time in years, all of the large off-Broadway theaters are booked. While many Broadway houses are dark, there's a production logjam off-Broadway and many producers--like Emanuel Azenberg, Mr. Simon's producer--are shut out of theaters and scrambling to find large commercial venues for their shows.
Off-Broadway also is blessed with some hits, including Edward Albee's Three Tall Women and Terrence McNally's Love! Valor! Compassion! And it's getting new works this season from major names like Craig Lucas.
Some of those will come from off-Broadway's non-profit theaters, which are demonstrating new signs of life. Having weathered the recession that caused a shakeout as many neighborhood theaters closed, some of the surviving nonprofits--including Circle Repertory Co. and the Second Stage Theatre--are moving into new spaces, adding stages and looking for larger homes.
Meanwhile, following Mr. Simon's headline-making decision to declare war on the Broadway establishment by moving downtown, producers who had...