The 5th Avenue Theatre history

These were difficult years -- in 1984, board members and other supporters subsidized the theater's operations to the tune of more than $1 million.

By 1985, The 5th virtually shut down its musical presentations and for the next several years was sustained only by off-season theater rentals.

The first such collaboration, Mame, starring Juliet Prowse, appeared at the 5th Avenue on October 17, 1989.

By 1993, The 5th had one of the largest subscription audiences in the country and had become a largely self-sustaining non-profit organization.

A 1995 production of the musical Jekyll and Hyde, produced with TUTS and Houston's Alley Theatre, later opened on Broadway, the first 5th Avenue Theatre co-production to do so.

In 1999, David Armstrong was directing The Secret Garden at The 5th when the organization launched its national search for an artistic director.

Thrilled with the warmth of the audience and the theater’s rich history, Armstrong threw his hat in the ring and in 2000, following a series of interviews, he found himself at the head of the largest creator of musical theater on the West Coast.

Fortunately, after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the building's owners had commissioned a seismic structural review, and this was of great value in determining how the marquee could be firmly anchored without damaging the building's facade.

Griffin was the very first staff member of the now-extensive development department, hired in 2002.

By the end of the musical's 2006 run, nearly 375,000 people had watched it performed on the stage of the 5th Avenue.

In 2007 Christabel Stevens Gough (b.

During the spring and into the summer of 2008, CREO representatives and theater personnel met several times to discuss just what could be accomplished with an anticipated budget of $300,000, all of which would come from Christabel Gough.

Letters for 5th Avenue Theatre marquee (Design: NBBJ, Fabrication: CREO Industrial Arts), Everett, 2009

In January 2010 Marilyn Sheldon retired from her post as managing director.

As The 5th became a more and more significant player in the national landscape, it took the natural next steps and launched a new works development program of its own in 2011.

In July of 2018, David Armstrong stepped down as the artistic head of the organization.