DOTTY 2024 Awardee Angelina Fiordellisi: Off-Broadway titan Steps Back from Cherry Lane Theatre

Angelina Fiordellisi has long been venerated in the world of off-Broadway theater–especially by those whose stars rose thanks in part to the help she gave them early in their careers. Even if you are not a stage afficionado, you likely have heard of the Cherry Lane Theatre, the downtown theater she took over 28 years ago and shepherded through many ups and downs over the decades.

Today it is billed as the oldest continuously operating off-Broadway theater in the city, tracing its roots back 100 years. “She saved the Cherry Lane and has mentored many new playwrights,” said two-time Tony Award winning actress and theatrical director Judith Ivey. “I treasure all I got to do because of Angelina,” she said.

Ivey is not alone in praising a mentor who extended a helping hand as she was launching her career. “Angelina Fiordellisi’s decades-long career will not only live through her art, but through the impact she’s made on the lives of countless artists, patrons, and community members because of her compassion,” said Tony-nominated actor Arian Moayed.

Before she put her energy into staging shows, Fiordellisi was a young star in her own right, winning awards at the age of four, albeit in tap and dance classes. “My parents were not into the arts,” she said, “but they knew I loved to dance.” She grew up in Michigan, but eventually made her way to New York, as an actress first.

“I met a casting director when I first moved here,” she recalled, “and the next thing I knew, I was in a national tour of ‘Annie.’ I loved those tours. I got to see the country, go to museums and vintage stores.”

Fiordellisi went on to perform in the award-winning “Zorba,” and continued to act in more than 50 plays with touring companies, as well as on and off-Broadway productions.

In 1996, she and a friend discovered a small building on Commerce Street, used by poet-playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Provincetown Players who formed the Cherry Lane Playhouse in the West Village. She bought it for $1.7 million, and pumped in $3 million in renovations. She then teamed up with artistic director Susann Brinkley and started renting its space. “That was enough to pay for staff, start programs, and eventually, add an adjacent 60-seat Black Box space,” she said. which provided an outlet for smaller, experimental productions that might not fill the 179 seat main stage.

Now, after the sale of the theater for $10 million in March 2023 to A24, the powerhouse indie film and TV production company–after an earlier deal fell through–Fiordellisi is retiring completely.

In stepping away post-pandemic, “I think theatre is still rebuilding,” she said. “But I do have hope, knowing all the young innovative people who are doing things.”

She knows of confidence and tenacity. “After 9/11, don’t forget, Mayor Giuliani told people: ‘Don’t go below 14th Street’” she recalled. Yet she and other venues downtown found ways to get folks back in the seats. “Restaurants, theatres, we all supported each other,” she said. “Buy a ticket, you can get a free beer, and so on.”

Keeping busy is not a concern. Fiordellisi is a devoted wife to TV writer-producer Matt Williams, a mother of two, and now a grandmother. She remains involved with mentoring new playwrights, particularly women.

Still, her legacy remains. “It’s amazing how everyone has a Cherry Lane story,” she said. “Many people tell me they had their first date, or something important, happen to them there.” Not to mention performers—like Barbra Streisand—who managed to get a step up there.

“Angelina’s humanity and artistry will leave an indelible mark,” added Moayed. “As she enters a well-deserved retirement, we celebrate her as a true titan of the theater world.”