Maries' Crisis cafe in Greenwich Village.

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Marie’s Crisis

West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

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Ageing Broadway queens, wide-eyed out-of-town youngsters, giggly tourists and various other fans of musical theater assemble around the piano here and take turns belting out campy show tunes, often joined by the entire crowd – and the occasional celebrity. It’s old-school fun, no matter how jaded you might be when you go in. Non-flash photography is allowed, but video is not.

It was at 59 Grove St that Thomas Paine, radical author of The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason and philosophical inspiration for the American Revolution, breathed his last.

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