Adapted from the former Theaterama at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the theater was part of Philip Johnson's then $6 million construction project that also included observation towers and an open-air pavilion called the "Tent of Tomorrow". The theater was originally decorated with the artworks including those of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The site had also hosted the 1939 New York World's Fair. The theater is next to the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, an area that also includes Citi Field, the Queens Museum of Art, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Johnson and Richard Foster designed the original theater. The audience stood and viewed a travelog of New York State projected on screens lining the inside of the circular room. The showing of a cycloramic film about New York State was a tribute to the world fair's host city. The surround cinema was converted into a multipurpose "legitimate" theater in the 1970s, requiring the addition of a stage, public restrooms, lobby, dressing rooms, and stage house.
1972 - 1975
The Queens Playhouse as it was then known upon its opening in 1972, was founded by Joseph S. Kutrzeba in 1965 in a lumberyard in Bayside, Queens, was the first nonprofit professional resident theater in Queens. Their first production in the new theater was George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. The theatre suffered financial setbacks in 1974, Kutrzeba blaming a lack of support by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Queens Cultural Association. In November 1974, Kutrzeba left Queens Theatre to pursue a career as a Broadway producer with The Lieutenant, a musical based on the trials resulting from the Mỹ Lai Massacre. The production had started at the Queens Playhouse before it moved to Broadway where it was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical but closed after a short run.
1985–93 conversion
The circular theater closed in 1985. A $4 million project converted it into a 476-seat community theater, designed by architect Alfredo De Vido, opened in 1993. The conversion was a "wonderful success" according to Queens Borough PresidentClaire Shulman, who said she was an attendee at the 1939 World's Fair as a little girl. It became known as the Queens Theatre in the Park. The theater is now used for cabaret, concerts, Broadway revivals, new productions, and film festivals. The playhouse hosts various drama, dance, music, performance art, troupe, and comedy performances as well as children’s events. A 100-seat theater "for more experimental fare" is located downstairs of the main theater. The theater has been a venue for the Independent Film Showcase and is intended to meet the various interests of the diverse population of Queens. The work completed in 1993 improved acoustics and added a public elevator, additional lighting and rigging, "front-of-house catwalks", and reworked the facades. The original dome was strengthened and a second roof added, abating noise from nearby LaGuardia Airport. A 100-seat "flexible studio theater" was also added in the downstairs. The operators of the theater became an independent nonprofit in 1997. A member of the Cultural Institutions Group, it is funded in part from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and hosts approximately 300 events a year. During the 1996–97 season it had attendance of 90,000 people at more than 300 performances of theater, music, dance, children's shows and workshops, films and festivals. In an effort to reach Latinos, a Latin American festival was hosted. The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair New York State Pavilion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
2008–10 addition
A 2008-10 addition, designed by Caples Jefferson Architects with Lee/Timchula Architects, added a reception hall. A transparent circular pavilion, it is said to be "especially dramatic at twilight, when the sunset-colored, invert dome appears to hover and flow in the dark." A 600-person "nebula" reception space was part of a restoration project completed in 2010. Architects involved included Caples Jefferson Architects. In 2009 the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places as one of the 3 qualifying structures that make up the New York State Pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair.
