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The Bucks County Playhouse is located in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
When the Hope Mills burned in 1790, Benjamin Parry rebuilt the grist mills as the New Hope Mills. The town was renamed for the mills.
The building was saved from demolition in the 1930s. It was purchased and run by a group of people including playwrights Moss Hart and Kenyon Nicholson.[1] Renovations converting the building into a theater began in 1938. The first production at the new Bucks County Playhouse was Springtime for Henry featuring Edward Everett Horton. It opened on July 1, 1939.
The Bucks County Playhouse became a summer theater. It was the starting point for many actors and became a place where plays slated for Broadway were tried out. Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, starring Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley, had its premiere at the theater in 1963. Other notable actors who performed at the theater over the years include Bela Lugosi, Dick Van Dyke, Tyne Daly, Grace Kelly, Angela Lansbury, and Walter Matthau.[2][3]
The Bucks County Playhouse Conservancy, a public/private partnership, raised sufficient funds to regain the property following a 2010 foreclosure. Following an extensive renovation, the theater reopened on July 2, 2012.[3]
It is a member company of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.