Symphony Space Reopening to Live Audience With a ‘Quintessential’ Show

By Carol Tannenhauser

“The good die young but not always. The wicked prevail but not consistently. I am confused by life, and I feel safe within the confines of the theatre.” ~Helen Hayes

On Wednesday, October 6th, Symphony Space, the Upper West Side’s “neighborhood” performing arts and cultural organization, will welcome a live audience back into its theater on the corner of Broadway and West 95th Street, a spokesperson emailed West Side Rag.

The institution’s first in-person presentation since March 2020 will be a quintessential Symphony Space production: a stellar event in its renowned literature-in-performance series, Selected Shorts, which engages celebrated actors to read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. What distinguishes Symphony Space is that they produce events that happen one night only—and only at Symphony Space.

Selected Shorts returns to the Symphony Space stage with a joyful night of short fiction about the triumphs and heartbreaks of life in the theater with a cast of characters including married, sparring divas, and a cuckolded drummer. It is hosted by Tony Award-winning actor Santino Fontana (Tootsie), with performances by Krystina Alabado (Mean Girls), Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair), Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), Claire Danes(Homeland), and Peter Francis James (Godfather of Harlem.)

Ticket are $29 for members, $32 for non-members, and $17 for people under 30. Click here to purchase. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., and runs 105 minutes. It will take place at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street (not to be confused with a theater of the same name at the UWS’s other performing arts venue, Lincoln Center.)

Everyone who attends the Symphony Space event is required to present proof of vaccination, and masks must be worn while on the premises, (except for the actors). For information about the renovations and modifications made to the theater to maximize safety, and the complete COVID policy, click here.