A safe haven for actresses that went out of fashion decades ago is undergoing a revival in the #MeToo era. The Rehearsal Club, a Midtown…
A safe haven for actresses that went out of fashion decades ago is undergoing a revival in the #MeToo era.
The Rehearsal Club, a Midtown meeting place set up in 1913 for young women who worked in the theater, also provided cheap housing and meals.
Men could visit, but they were not allowed beyond the first floor of the two brownstones on West 53rd Street that over the years became home to struggling actresses including Helen Hayes, Carol Burnett, Blythe Danner and Kim Cattrall.
“The Rehearsal Club saved our lives,” said Cynthia Darlow, 69, an actress who lived there when she arrived from Virginia in 1973 to look for work on Broadway.
At the club, women worked together to prepare for auditions and often the more established actresses donated their gowns for theatrical openings.
“It was a real sisterhood,” said Darlow, who currently appears in Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as Joel Maisel’s substitute secretary, Mrs. Moskowitz.
“In the era of #MeToo, we really need a place where young women in theater can feel safe again.” she told The Post.
Darlow and a group of other former residents are collaborating on a book and documentary about their experience and setting up a nonprofit to raise funds — some derived from profits from the book — for a similar women-only boarding house in the Theater District.
