Westside Theatre — Off-Broadway Venue Guide
A practical guide to one of Midtown’s most useful Off-Broadway venues: what the two rooms are like, what’s currently playing, accessibility realities, and how to plan the night.
The Westside Theatre at 407 West 43rd Street is one of the most consistently useful Off-Broadway venues in New York — not because it is the most famous, but because it does something genuinely useful well. It sits on Theater Row in Hell’s Kitchen, three blocks west of the main Broadway Theater District, it has two distinct auditoriums running separate productions simultaneously, and it has an unbroken history of housing long-running, commercially proven Off-Broadway shows that reward a smaller room. Its current Upstairs production, Little Shop of Horrors, has been running since October 2019.
This page covers what the venue is like, the meaningful differences between the Upstairs and Downstairs rooms, what is currently playing, the accessibility picture in full (which matters more here than at most venues), and how to plan the complete evening around it. If you are deciding whether Westside is the right venue for your night, this is the guide to start with.
What the Westside Theatre Is
Westside Theatre occupies a Romanesque Revival building designed by architect Henry F. Kilburn in 1890 as the Second German Baptist Church. The building sat on West 43rd Street for eight decades — as a church, then briefly as a nightclub — before a theatrical group converted it in 1973. It reopened in its current form in March 1991 under the management of Reno Productions and has run continuously since as a two-stage Off-Broadway venue. It is one of the more physically distinctive buildings in the Theater Row stretch: a church-turned-theater that still carries some architectural presence from its original construction, particularly in the building’s exterior massing.
What makes Westside genuinely useful as an Off-Broadway venue — rather than just interesting — is its track record. It has housed a succession of long-running commercial Off-Broadway productions, including a 12-year run of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The model is dependable rather than experimental: productions that have commercial staying power, rooms that are comfortable and functional, a Hell’s Kitchen location that is easy to reach and easy to build an evening around.
Westside is one of the better bridging venues between Broadway and Off-Broadway for visitors who have not done much Off-Broadway. The rooms are small enough to feel genuinely intimate — you will be closer to the performers than in almost any Broadway house — but the productions that tend to play here are commercially proven and accessible rather than experimental or challenging. It is a softer entry point into Off-Broadway than, say, The Public Theater or a small new-work house, while still delivering the intimacy that Off-Broadway does better than Broadway.
Upstairs vs. Downstairs — Two Different Rooms
Westside Theatre is two distinct venues in one building, and the difference matters. Your show’s room affects the experience significantly — the stage configuration, the seating geometry, and the physical experience of being in the space are different enough that it is worth knowing which one you are in before you arrive.
The thrust stage in the Downstairs room is worth understanding if your show is playing there. In a proscenium theater, the audience looks at the stage from one direction, as if through a frame. A thrust stage extends forward into the audience on three sides — you sit around the stage, which means the performers are frequently turning toward you regardless of where you sit, and the spatial relationship between audience and action is considerably more immediate. For the right play, it is a very different and often more visceral experience than a standard proscenium room. For the wrong one, it can feel exposing in ways that do not serve the production. Check which room your specific show is in before you buy.
What’s Currently Playing at Westside Theatre
Little Shop of Horrors has been the resident Upstairs production since October 2019, making it the venue’s most significant current anchor by duration and audience reach. The show is directed by Michael Mayer and has cycled through an extensive roster of lead performers, with current billed stars Nikki M. James as Audrey, Jordan Fisher as Seymour, and Andy Karl as Orin. It has won the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical Revival.
Little Shop of Horrors
Seven years into its Off-Broadway run, with a rotating cast of name performers and strong reviews. The Upstairs room is the right scale for this show.
Full Show GuideProgramming at Westside can run simultaneously in both rooms. What is playing in the Downstairs room changes over time — check the venue site for current listings. Always verify the current production and performance schedule directly before booking, as the Westside does not always maintain a consistent live page with advance programming.
Who Westside Theatre Suits Best
What to Know Before You Go
The Westside Theatre Upstairs is not wheelchair accessible. There is no elevator or escalator in the building. Reaching the Upstairs Theatre requires climbing 21 steps from street level, with handrails on both sides. Once inside the seating area, there are nine additional steps to reach rows F and G, and two steps in the aisle at every row throughout the house. A wheelchair-accessible unisex restroom is available at the lobby level (ground floor). If your show is in the Downstairs Theatre, contact the venue directly to verify accessibility before purchasing tickets.
Arrive with time for the neighborhood
Hell’s Kitchen begins immediately outside the front door. Ninth Avenue north from 43rd Street has one of the best pre-theater restaurant corridors in Midtown, and the walk from dinner back to the Westside takes minutes. The neighborhood rewards arriving 45 to 60 minutes before curtain rather than cutting it close — dinner options are better when you have time to choose rather than settle for what is closest.
Which room is your show in?
Westside can be running two separate productions simultaneously — one Upstairs, one Downstairs. Confirm which room your show is in before you arrive. The entrances, the stairs, the concessions, and the experience are different. Your ticket will indicate the room, and the box office can confirm if you are unsure.
Sightlines in the Upstairs room
At 270 seats, the Upstairs is small enough that every seat is reasonably close to the stage. Multiple audience members note that the room size means there is no real bad seat — even positions toward the rear or sides are closer to the performers than mid-orchestra at a Broadway house. The proscenium configuration means sightlines are most direct from center seats, but the scale keeps even the sides workable.
A Building with Some History
The building at 407 West 43rd Street has an unusual timeline for a theater — it was not built as one and did not become one until more than 80 years after it was constructed.
Plan the Night Around Westside Theatre
Getting there
The A, C, or E train to 42nd Street–Port Authority is the most direct connection — exit onto 42nd Street and walk west to 43rd Street, then half a block further west to the theater. The 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R trains at 42nd Street–Times Square are also nearby — exit onto 42nd Street and walk west about five minutes. For visitors driving, the parking near Broadway guide covers garage options in this part of the Theater District. The full guide to getting to a Broadway show covers subway routing in detail for the Theater Row / Hell’s Kitchen area.
Dinner before the show
The Westside’s position in Hell’s Kitchen is a genuine advantage for pre-show planning. Ninth Avenue north from 42nd Street is one of the strongest pre-theater dining corridors in Midtown — varied cuisines, practical pricing, and restaurants that understand theater-crowd timing. You can finish dinner and walk back to the Westside in five minutes. The restaurants near Broadway guide covers specific picks in the Hell’s Kitchen area. For timing strategy around a two-hour show, the pre-show dining guide is the right reference.
Hotels and overnight stays
Theater Row is walking distance from the Times Square and Midtown hotel clusters, which means most visitors staying for a Broadway trip can fold a Westside show into their existing plans without relocating. The hotels near Broadway guide covers the best-positioned options near this part of the district.
Frequently Asked Questions
Westside Theatre is at 407 West 43rd Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan — between Ninth and Tenth Avenues on Theater Row. The nearest subway is the A, C, or E train to 42nd Street–Port Authority; exit onto 42nd Street and walk west to 43rd Street. The Times Square subway hub (1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R) is also within a 5-minute walk.
Off-Broadway. Westside Theatre is an Off-Broadway venue with two auditoriums — the Upstairs (270 seats) and the Downstairs (249 seats) — both well within the Off-Broadway seat-count definition of 100–499 seats. It is not part of the Broadway theater cluster, though it sits only a few blocks west of it on Theater Row.
Little Shop of Horrors is the current Upstairs production and has been running since October 2019. For full show details — cast, runtime, age guidance, and how to plan the night around it — see the Little Shop of Horrors show guide. Check the venue site for current Downstairs programming, which changes over time.
Two different rooms, two different stage configurations, and two different physical experiences. The Upstairs (270 seats) is a proscenium-style theater on the second floor — audience faces the stage through a framed arch, traditional end-stage setup. The Downstairs (249 seats) has a thrust stage that extends into the audience on three sides, creating a more enveloping, three-directional relationship between performers and audience. Different shows play each room, and the rooms can run simultaneously. Check your ticket to confirm which room you are in.
The Westside Theatre Upstairs is not wheelchair accessible. Reaching it from street level requires 21 steps with handrails on both sides; there are additional steps within the seating area and two steps at every aisle row throughout the house. There is no elevator. A wheelchair-accessible restroom is available at lobby level (ground floor). If your show is in the Downstairs room, contact the venue directly at the box office before purchasing to verify current access provisions. Always verify accessibility details directly with the venue for any show.
Yes — it is one of the more approachable Off-Broadway choices for visitors who are new to the format. The venue is easy to reach from Midtown hotels, the rooms are comfortable and well-maintained, the productions that tend to play here are commercially accessible rather than experimental, and the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood makes it easy to build a complete evening around. For a first taste of what Off-Broadway can feel like at its most intimate and dependable, Westside delivers that well.
Westside Theatre in Brief
Westside Theatre is one of the easiest Off-Broadway venues to recommend for visitors who want a polished, intimate theater night without the scale, price ceiling, or logistical weight of a Broadway production. Its two rooms — a 270-seat proscenium Upstairs and a 249-seat thrust-stage Downstairs — offer genuinely different theatrical experiences in the same building. Its Hell’s Kitchen location on Theater Row makes it accessible from any Midtown hotel and gives it one of the better pre-show dining neighborhoods of any Off-Broadway venue.
The main qualification: the Upstairs Theatre is not wheelchair accessible, and the stair requirement is significant enough to rule it out entirely for visitors with mobility limitations. Know that before you book. For everyone else, Westside is a strong and consistent answer to the question of where to find a good Off-Broadway night near Times Square.