“There are eight million people in New York City, and three million of them are drunk,” said Ben Maters, 24, an actor and bartender at Fat Baby, a multilevel bar on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side.

This wasn’t a wizened mixologist’s quip but a scripted line, declaimed while standing atop the bar as his character, Caleb, kicked off a two-hour marathon of 25 one-act plays called “Play/Date” set in the bar’s banquettes and on the bar stools on a recent Wednesday night.

Inspired by the continuing success of “Sleep No More,” the interactive theater experience based loosely on “Macbeth,” a growing cadre of the city’s bars and nightclubs has started hosting theatrical shows as a way of drumming up foot traffic during off-hours. For upstart theater professionals with limited resources, these bars also provide that most precious of assets: affordable New York real estate.

“It’s a huge opportunity for theater people because so often the venue is a challenge,” said Michael Counts, 34, the director of “Play/Date.”