By Jaimie Julia Winters
For decades, Midland Avenue was home to one of Kearny’s most distinctive cultural institutions: the Halfpenny Playhouse, a small theater that brought professional actors, Broadway productions, children’s theater, and the arts to the heart of town.
Now, as Kearny looks toward a new chapter for Midland Avenue, that history could provide a foundation for an emerging arts renaissance.
The Halfpenny Playhouse opened its doors at 155 Midland Ave. in 1965, taking over the second floor of what had once been a Hudson County courthouse. The theater had begun two years earlier as the Producing Actors Company at the Theatre Shack in North Arlington, but the company quickly outgrew its 74-seat home.
A new company was formed of three people — Jack Johnston, President; Charles Robinson, Vice President; and Ruth Warren, Secretary-Treasurer. The move to Kearny gave the group a permanent home and a new identity: the Halfpenny Playhouse.
Its first production at the Midland Avenue location was “Gaslight,” which opened July 9, 1965. The theater went on to present plays and musicals several nights a week, along with children’s theater on weekends and an acting school.
For nearly two decades, the Halfpenny was a fixture on Midland Avenue.
Stars were launched here
Its impact extended well beyond Kearny. The theater provided an early professional opportunity for actors who went on to successful careers, including Nathan Lane and Ken Jennings. Both grew up in Jersey City but got their first theater jobs in Kearny.
In a Broadway podcast interview, Lane said the Halfpenny House was more of a dinner theater model. Although the stage was “the size of a coffee table” it was a vital launchpad for him. Through this company, he cut his teeth on several classic theatrical and musical roles, he said.
Jennings later recalled getting his first union job at the Halfpenny Playhouse in Kearny in an interview with Sondheim.com. “I got my first union job out in Halfpenny Playhouse in Kearny, New Jersey. There’s a company out there. This guy was running this Equity children’s theatre,” he said. “He saw me out there and asked me to join them. And then I just began to do stock things after that.”
The theater also became a center for original work and arts programming. With support from the state, Halfpenny leaders commissioned original musical productions celebrating New Jersey history. “JERZ,” followed by “JERZ II,” toured throughout the state. Other productions included “They Knew Brunswick,” created for New Brunswick’s 300th anniversary, and “Tar Heel,” about North Carolina.
The organization’s influence also reached into the visual arts. It helped establish a statewide art show at River Park in Kearny that continued for approximately a decade and attracted artists from multiple states.
A 1973 New York Times article described the Halfpenny as a theater that presented Broadway hits “in miniature and on a shoestring,” supported by a revolving company of approximately 50 actors. The theater’s anniversary celebration even included its own version of the Oscars at Lyles Restaurant. The ceramic Oscar statuettes were fashioned in the shape of a furry black cat named Oscar, the theater’s mascot. Oscar was well-loved and a bit of a local celebrity, and when he wound up in the hospital after being hit by a car in 1971, he received 19 get-well cards from fans.
But maintaining a theater was not easy. Rising rent and overhead eventually forced the Halfpenny to leave its Kearny home. In 1973, the company began performing elsewhere before establishing a relationship with Upsala College in East Orange, where it became the college’s theater-in-residence.
The Halfpenny ultimately closed in 1983 following the deaths of founders Jack Johnston and Charles Robinson.
Theater’s legacy remains tied to Midland Avenue
A glass-front bookcase at the Kearny Museum honors the memory of Johnston and Robinson, bearing an inscription honoring the founders. Midland Avenue was not just a commercial corridor, but a place where residents could experience theater, music, art, and community life.
That history could become increasingly relevant as Kearny looks toward the future of Midland Avenue.
The corridor has an arts heritage that predates today’s conversations about creating a stronger cultural presence in the area. The Halfpenny’s nearly 20-year run demonstrates that there was once a community for arts programming along Midland Avenue.
For Kearny, a renewed emphasis on arts and culture could provide an opportunity to reconnect Midland Avenue with a part of its history that has largely disappeared from the public consciousness. The town, along with Kearny Urban Enterprize Zone, is planning a redux of the street and desinatiing it an arts district.
“Midland Avenue has a rich arts heritage, shaped in large part by the historic Freeman Building. In recognition of that legacy, the Midland Avenue Streetscape project will rename the corridor the Midland Avenue Arts District.,” Linda Kraus D’Isa, Kearny Urban Enterprise Zone Coordinator, said. “Fully funded by the KUEZ and scheduled to begin in the coming weeks, this major initiative will deliver meaningful, visible improvements to this important Kearny business corridor while also celebrating Midland Avenue’s distinctive artistic character”
As Midland Avenue enters what could be a new era, the theater’s legacy may serve as a reminder of when a former courthouse became a theater, local performers became professionals, and a stretch of Midland Avenue became an unlikely home for the arts.