Therapy nyc gay club

When Tom Johnson and his co-owners acquired the 52nd Street location, it was home to a makeshift brothel that was running an illegal gambling operation in the basement. Until Therapy was shuttered last year as a result of the COVID pandemic, it spent 17 years proving the naysayers wrong.

Style Expand. If it's good, people will come and everyone makes money, and you did something artistically fulfilling. Menu Menu. Bi-level gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen with dance music and specialty acts. When Therapy first opened inthe idea of operating a popular gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen was considered heresy.

Entertainment Expand. Over its nearly two decades in operation, what distinguished the bar was not merely the fleeting novelty of its location but the caliber of entertainment it offered. Culture Expand. It hosted frequent drag shows, some of which featured performers who later rose to prominence on RuPaul's Drag Race.

It was crazy. Read more from the Queer Spaces Project here. Search Close. Although Johnson announced in July that the business would not be reopening due to the fallout from COVID, Therapy was still thriving up right up to the beginning of the pandemic.

Therapy was a two-story gay bar and nightclub in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Beauty Fashion All Style. Sign up for them. It does work both ways. [1] The venue was a favorite Monday-night stop for Broadway actors, who sometimes participated in the club's shows.

We literally had a number where we made it rain on stage and there were umbrellas and shit was flying everywhere. While clubs like Barrage, Posh, and Ninth Avenue Saloon had already enjoyed some success in the Broadway-adjacent midtown district, the hub of gay life in Manhattan was centered in Chelsea, so much so that the phrase “Chelsea boy” became pejorative slang for a “bronzed.

Search Search. Almost immediately, the bar was a hit, and soon after a rapid influx of gay bars opened along the 9th Avenue strip, including Flaming Saddles, Boxers, Atlas Social Club, and Industry.

NYC Gay Bar Therapy : Longtime Hell’s Kitchen gay bar Therapy — a popular establishment where many RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants and winners have performed over the years — is in danger of permanently closing

If any business was going to prove that queer crowds were willing to travel 20 blocks north to enjoy a cocktail with the latest Madonna remix, Therapy certainly was an unusual candidate. Art Read Me All Culture. But even before Grindr and gay dating apps further heightened the cynicism around physical gay spaces, Johnson knew the demand was there.

Community Expand. This story is part of a series at them. Courtesy of Therapy. The queer excellence on display at Therapy made the bar a major draw, not only for locals and tourists but also Broadway entertainers who would drop in after their shows.