With a Beloved Cafe Threatened, Broadway Stars Put on a Present

Broderick, the star of “The Producers” and “Ferris Bueller’s Working day Off” and a cafe typical, mentioned he was unhappy to see one more New York Town company with a abundant heritage on the verge of closing for good.

“There are total swaths of places that have shut due to the fact March, not just in Hell’s Kitchen area or Occasions Sq., but just about everywhere,” claimed Broderick. “It’s terrifying. These spots are what make New York New York.”

Broadway stars such as André De Shields and Nathan Lane have collected at the cafe to celebrate Tony Award wins and commiserate over losses, and Bruce Willis, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller all dined there.

The cafe’s 100-seat basement theater, which opened in 1983, a handful of several years just after the restaurant, has had its have unforgettable moments: Warren Leight’s Tony Award-profitable perform “Side Man” experienced its debut there, Lewis Black spent extra than 10 a long time as its playwright in residence, and it staged early Aaron Sorkin performs and occasional drag demonstrates.

Olsen, 66, has put in his overall grownup daily life managing the cafe, which he opened in 1978 in a Hell’s Kitchen area neighborhood that was continue to significantly grittier, and far more perilous, than it is today. “This place was viewed as Siberia,” Olsen stated. “42nd Road and Ninth Avenue was as much west as any individual was keen to undertaking.”

Customers of an Irish gang, the Westies, were being amongst the fledgling restaurant’s clientele. He resisted stress to employ the service of a single of their adult males as a bartender, and to carry in their feminine close friends as waitresses. “Everyone reported it was for the reason that I was courageous,” he said, laughing. “But I just did not know. I was in my early 20s. I was immortal.”