Part of the Gay New York City Guide — bars, events & things to do.
New York City, New York
West Village drag bar and dance venue with Off-Broadway roots.
Playhouse Bar occupies the basement of a West Village address that spent four decades as the Actors Playhouse, the Off-Broadway theater that premiered Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy and Naked Boys Singing — history the room leans into rather than buries. From the team behind Hardware and Pieces, it sits just south of Sheridan Square, putting it at the literal center of gay New York. Descend the stairwell past a mural by Anthony Pugh that nods to 1980s subway art, and you reach a proper stage and dance floor. Drag runs all week here, free, with weekend dance parties that push later than most of the neighborhood. It reads younger and more performance-driven than the West Village's older lounges — a place to catch a show and stay to dance rather than nurse a quiet pint. For travelers it's an easy anchor for a West Village night, steps from the Stonewall National Monument and Christopher Street.
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