For those of you too young to have ever seen a show there, and for the rest of us that miss it as a Broadway theatre, I found this wonderful online photo album of shots taken in January, 2006 of the interior (as well as some wonderful historical photos, including a shot of the Broadway entrance when the theatre was a movie house known as the Hollywood).
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird
I agree, RentBoy. This theater needs to be a Broadway house again. Some of my all time favorite shows played there (and I haven't even seen them!). I really want to attend a Broadway performance at the Mark Hellinger before I die.
Yes, WAT, it was a fabulous tour. It's too bad that Sugar Babies was the only show I saw at that theatre. I absolutely love the staircase to the mezzanine area.
Hey Dottie!
Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany
I think at various times, Michael Bennett, Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jujamcyn had wanted to buy the house. But the Nederlander Organization sold it outright to the Times Square Church. And thankfully, the Church has kept it in beautiful condition - much better than when it was still a theatre, and bits of plaster were falling off the ceiling. Still, one hopes to see it back as a legit house in our lifetimes.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
That needs to be a theatre again...I'm too young to have seen a show there, but looking at those photos I can almost feel the atmosphere...it looks incredible...
Time Square Church...SELL IT BACK, PLEASE! (And not to the Nederlanders...they wouldn't take good care of it!)
How to properly use its/it's:
Its is the possessive. It's is the contraction for it is...
I saw SugarBabies there. It was a wonderful experience and almost completely makes up for the bad experience I had with the star of the show in person.
That lobby is SO amazing for New York. Only Radio City rivals it. Can you imagine what The Ziegfeld (the real one) was like in its' heyday with that amazing Joseph Urban design?
vintage Mickey Rooney big little book in mint condition. ask for autograph. enraged star throws book against wall and says **** that. I was never paid a cent for that.
Wow, and I thought the story was going to be about Ann Miller. I got Mickey Rooney's autograph, too, and he was very nice to me. But I had him sign the Playbill though.
Hey Dottie!
Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany
If memory serves me correctly, it was originally a movie theater and was sporadically used in the 30's and 40's for live productions and never had a real hit until My Fair Lady (but what a hit). So the dressingrooms were probably built in later on after its completion (I could be wrong) and perhaps the church has removed them or uses the space for some other function...?
The original lobby, under the Novotel, was demolished years ago.The side entrance is now the main entrance. It was designed by Thomas Lamb in French Baroque
Great photos of a beautiful theater. This was one of Lambs minor theaters. In Times Square he also did the following:
Mark Strand - Demolished Rivoli - Demolished Capitol - Demolished Embassy - Now Visitors & Convention Bureau Loews State - Demolished
It was an old vaudeville theater & as such would have had dressing rooms when originally built. All big old theaters like this had them
The Mark Hellinger was also home to that zany, crazy, madcap musical comedy of 1955, ANKLES AWEIGH, which starred Betty and Jean Kean as two American sisters searching for love with the U.S. Navy stationed in Italy.
It would just make sense to build their own. Sure, with a classic theatre you get great decor, but the stage house are SO small. Disney needs barn-sized stages (well, they do hav plenty of animal-themed shows...)