The number of seats puts it at the low end of the Off-Broadway scale (100-499 seats) but the space will play host to a variety of entertainment, including cabaret, comedy, burlesque, dance, and the club's signature jazz concerts.

The new Birdland Theater is scheduled to open in spring 2016 in the lower level of the club at 315 West 44th Street in Manhattan.

The new space will allow the club to expand its popular “Broadway @ Birdland” programming, which often features Broadway stars singing jazz. The new theatre will also be used for limited-run Off-Broadway productions.

The upstairs jazz club with several hundred seats will continue to operate as it has for the past two decades.

Birdland owner Gianni Valenti issued the following statement: "We are thrilled to be one of the top jazz venues in the world. But when we welcomed Jim Caruso's Cast Party and Broadway @ Birdland series in 2004, we began to realize the tremendous potential for bringing different types of music and performers under our banner. The Birdland Theater is the embodiment of that potential. It will be a venue where any type of entertainment can and will happen. Sharing an address with Birdland and occupying our lower level--not to mention sharing a kitchen, management, and staff--ensures that we will be able to provide the same quality ambiance and service our loyal customers have come to expect." The original Birdland club, named for Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, opened in 1949 eight blocks north on 52nd Street. That club closed in 1965. A new club dubbed Birdland opened on the Upper West Side in 1986 and operated there until 1996, when it moved to its current location in midtown.

For information, visit Birdlandjazz.com.