Adding to the charm was the theater itself: small and shabby, and welcoming precisely for those reasons.

He felt a thrill the moment he got into the little, shabby, ill-lit theatre.

She left the shabby prewar theaters behind in favor of a new, glittering hall, the Lido, and filled it with the tallest, sleekest, most triumphantly blond Bluebells to date.

Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Scofield, Peggy Ashcroft, Alan Bates - performers, writers, directors, they all came to do some of their finest work in that shabby 400-seat theater with its little box-stage.

Sondheim and Robbins went to work that evening in a "shabby" theater on 42nd Street.

Who would have thought that a small, shabby theater in a downscale section of Islington could be so ambitious and productive?

Five years ago, ticket sales were sagging as viewers favored videocassettes at home over larger screens in shabby, outdated theaters.

His office looks decent compared with the shabby theater at the Dhahran air base that was his headquarters when he first landed.

One night I forced myself to make the long trek through the quiet streets to a shabby little theater called the Happy Hour near the waterfront slums.

She had a committed work ethic, and worked wherever the opportunity arose, although as she aged and tastes changed, she ended her stage days in shabby theaters with low ranked dance companies.