Joe's Pub

40.729259°N 73.991772°W / 40.729259; -73.991772

Joe's Pub
Song of Return performing at Joe's Pub in 2012
Address425 Lafayette Street
New York City, NY 10003-7021
LocationEast Village, Lower Manhattan
OwnerThe Public Theater
Capacity184
Construction
OpenedOctober 16, 1998 (1998-10-16)
Construction cost$2.35 million
Website
www.joespub.com

Joe's Pub, one of the six performance spaces within The Public Theater, is a music venue and restaurant that hosts live performances across genres and arts, ranging from cabaret to modern dance to world music. It is located at 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in Manhattan, New York City. It is named after Joseph Papp, the theatrical producer who established the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater and the free Shakespeare in the Park program in Central Park.

The venue hosted Amy Winehouse and Adele made their U.S. headlining concert debuts.[1][2] In 2013, its 15th anniversary year, it was declared one of Rolling Stone Magazine's 10 Best Clubs in America.[3]

History

Joe's Pub opened on October 16, 1998, with an inaugural concert performed by Carl Hancock Rux.[4] Soon after, a reviewer for The New York Times wrote "You enter through the side door of the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Farther south on Lafayette Street, revolving doors admit patrons to the Public's various theatrical spaces, but here, on the outskirts, an iron-fenced portal offers entree to the theater's new nightclub."[5] He continued, "But Joe's Pub is a much less lofty enterprise, carved as it is from ground-floor back-office space at the theater." The $2.35 million club is the result, in part, of a construction and renovation grant to the Public from city capital funds that includes refurbishment of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. There were some doubters when the club opened in October who wondered whether the Public Theater could make a theater-night life alliance work. Six months later, according to George C. Wolfe, the then-producer of the Public, Joe's Pub "is actually doing better than I thought it would."[5] He continued to say, "The club's programming is idiosyncratic: from ethnic music ensembles to spoken-word artists to the most promising young musical-theater composers and performers on the contemporary scene, the changing roster has generated an after-hours theatricality all its own."[5]

The Pub is known as one of New York City's live showcase venues, catering to an eclectic mix of music genres.[6] This defining feature of Joe's Pub – its extraordinary variety – was the vision of Public Theater Associate Producer Bonnie Metzgar and principal booking agent Bill Bragin, an aficionado of music in all forms and a world-music DJ in his own right. Bragin established relationships with artists that have made Joe's Pub a home-base for local, domestic, and international acts. In 2007, when Bragin left Joe's Pub to work for Lincoln Center, Shanta Thake was unanimously given the head-booker position by the board of the Public Theater.[7][8] Thake served as the Director of Joe's Pub until 2018, when Alex Knowlton took over as Director who had been with Joe's Pub in various roles since 2009.

In 2011, the Pub, along with the rest of The Public's downtown building, received a top-to-bottom renovation, leading to improved sight lines, expanded seating capacity and a new food and beverage partnership with Chef Andrew Carmellini.

Venue

The venue is equipped with theater-quality lighting and sound. During its formative years, the sound was engineered by Kurt Wolf, former punk-rock guitarist for Pussy Galore. The club established a reputation as having extraordinary sound during this time. When Wolf moved on to other projects, Jon Shriver, a technician who has worked with John Legend and The Notorious B.I.G., began doing the audio engineering. The sound quality at Joe's Pub remains at the top of the "best in NYC" short list among critical reviewers.[9]

Joe's Pub also serves as a bar and restaurant during performance hours and is known as being a top romantic spot in New York City after opening.[10] When The Public reopened in 2012 after the renovation, the Pub's food and beverage partner Joe's Pub LLC - Kevin Abbott, Serge Becker, Josh Pickard and Paul Salmon - was joined by the Noho Hospitality Group, the restaurant group led by Andrew Carmellini and Luke Ostrom. The group also launched a full-service restaurant, The Library at The Public.[11]

The decor of Joe's Pub is the work of interior designer and Joe's Pub LLC partner Serge Becker, the man behind many New York City hotspots, including La Esquina on Delancey Street. Patrons often note an accordion encased along the east wall of the Pub: Becker intended the design of the interior to be modeled after the accordion, from the striped, bee-pollen bar, to the strip lighting, to the exposed sound-proofing. Along the south wall, photographs of Joe Papp and famous colleagues are on display. At one point, the photos featured a young Kevin Spacey, mustachioed in fur coat.[12] With the 2011 renovation, the photos were updated to include artists like Leonard Cohen, Adele, Allen Toussaint, Alan Cumming, Amy Winehouse and, of course, Joseph Papp.

Notable performers

References
  1. "Joe's Pub – Past, Present & Future". Pollstar. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  2. Chinen, Nate (March 19, 2008). "Another British Invader Arrives, Guitar in Hand". New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  3. "Joe's Pub in New York - The Best Clubs in America". Rolling Stone. March 28, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  4. "Rux and Hendryx to Open Joe's Pub Oct. 16 After McDonald Falls Sick". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  5. Singer, Barry (April 18, 1999). "THEATER; At Joe's Pub, a Hip Club, Velvet Rope, Cigarette Smoke". The New York Times.
  6. Ben Sisario (July 16, 2008). "Ten Years For Joe's Pub". The New York Times.
  7. "Best Downtown Classical-Music Venue". New York Magazine. March 3, 2008.
  8. Adam Hetrik (February 27, 2008). "Thake Named Director of Joe's Pub". The Playbill. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012.
  9. "Top Ten Music Venues in NYC". April 12, 2008. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008.
  10. "Best Bar to Get Romantic and Play Grown-up". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
  11. "The Library, a Carmellini/Ostrom/ Pickard/Oliver/Becker/Salmon/Abbott Joint, Opening in Noho TONIGHT". Eater NY. October 9, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  12. Andrew Jacobs (October 25, 1998). "Will Everybody Go to Joe's?". The New York Times.
  13. Schulman, Michael (November 13, 2009). "Lauren Ambrose's Jazz Habit". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  14. "Vincent D'Onofrio presents The George Gerkie Cowboy Experience featuring Laura Cantrell, Joe Vinciguerra & special guest Sam Bisbee at Joe's Pub". Gotham Jazz. Archived from the original on December 31, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  15. "The Gregory Brothers". The Public Theater. December 11, 2022. Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. Mastrandrea, Paige (January 20, 2020). "Q&A With Composer And Musician, Edward W. Hardy". hauteliving.com. Haute Living. Retrieved August 13, 2021. One of the shows I'm very excited about is "Valentine's Day in July." It will take place on July 30, 2020, at The Public Theater's: Joe's Pub and consist of a range of romantic pieces in different genres of music such as classical, Latin, rock & roll and Broadway.
  17. Hetrick, Adam (September 13, 2010). "'What is Your Damage?' Heathers: The Musical Gets Joe's Pub Concerts Sept. 13". Playbill.
  18. "Jill Sobule". The Public Theater. March 27, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
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