Coconut Grove Playhouse
| The Coconut Grove Playhouse | |
|---|---|
Coconut Grove Playhouse
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| General information | |
| Type | Theatre |
| Location |
Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida |
| Coordinates | 25°43′32″N 80°14′41″W / 25.7255°N 80.244731°WCoordinates: 25°43′32″N 80°14′41″W / 25.7255°N 80.244731°W |
| Inaugurated | 3 January 1927 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architecture firm | Kiehnel and Elliott |
| Main contractor | Albert Peacock |
The Coconut Grove Playhouse was a theatre in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. The building was originally constructed as a movie theater called the Player's State Theater. It opened on January 3, 1927, as a part of the Paramount chain. The movie house was designed by the architect Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott. It was built by local realtors Irving J. Thomas and Fin L. Pierce. Albert Peacock was the contractor.
The theater was renowned as the second movie theatre on the east coast of Florida to be air conditioned and having the largest Wurlitzer organ in the United States. It was used for a variety of shows until closing in 2006. It has not been used since.
In the 1950s George Engle, an oilman, bought it and spent over $1 million in renovations having the architect Alfred Browning Parker convert it to a live theatre. It reopened on January 3, 1956 with the US premiere of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, starring Bert Lahr and Tom Ewell.
In the fifty years that have followed, the Playhouse has played host to many of theater’s most renowned performers, including Maureen Stapleton, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Eve Arden, Tallulah Bankhead, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli, Linda Lavin, Bea Arthur, George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, and Ethel Merman.
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