Ford Center gets a new name

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Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 8:30am

According to today's NY Times, the Ford Center will be renamed the Hilton Theatre (thankfully, not in honor of Paris). It will be effective by the time Chitty Chitty Bang Bang begins performances. The option on the name remains in place for 10 years.

While all the corporate naming of theatres is generally soulless, at least the Hilton Theatre rolls off the tongue easier than the Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
Ford Center renamed

Updated On: 11/17/04 at 08:30 AM

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 10:15am

This is so stupid!
What next.....

The Tampax Theater for Performing Arts?
Viagra Theater in the Round?
LeapFrog Center for Childrens Theater?

Come on People!

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 11:31am

The first thing I thought of when I started to read that was "oh God... they are NOT naming a theatre for Paris." Thankfully, my thought process is the mass-media induced one of an American teenager, and this isn't the case, though it's just as weird.

Hm...

A work of art is an invitation to love.

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 11:33am

"The Tampax Theater for Performing Arts?"

I JUST said that same thing to someone last week!

"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 11:39am

Here we go again:

Brooks Brothers Atkinson Theatre
Imperial Margarine Theatre
P C Richard Rodgers Theatre
Virginia Is For Lovers Theatre
Cadillac Winter Garden Theatre...oh, wait a minute....

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 11:43am

Henry Miller Lite Theatre?

"Gif me the cobra jool!"

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 1:58pm

Chrysler Plymouth Theatre?

"The applause of all but very good men is no more than the precise measure of their possible hostility."

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 2:30pm

Winterfresh Garden Theater

Winter Home & Garden TV Theater

Happy Happy Joy Joy

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 2:34pm

I think this whole thing is very upsetting.

"There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who wonder what happened." ANONYMOUS

#10

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 4:51pm

St. James could be the Monopoly Theater

The Minskoff Theatre could be the MiniSkirt Theater

and such

#11

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/17/04 at 6:49pm

That name is even worse than the current name of that theatre. I think corporation names plastered onto broadway theatres takes away the integrity of the place.

"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D

#12

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 1:35am

I actually like the new name...I'm not a fan of THE FORD CENTER...it's so bland. Did the Hilton's buy the space?

"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson

#13

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 8:55am

What a stupid question! This really proves you are a BXX idiot! lol

#14

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 9:30am

The Depends Center for matinee musicals.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#15

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 10:31am

Then again, "Ford's" as a name does have a bad luck reputation. Just look a five dollar bill....

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

#16

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 10:50am

A name change from Ford to Hilton is really just a lateral move. Questions of "better" or "worse" are really irrelevant, I think.

Interesting that we have theatres named for real estate magnates, corporations, theatre owners, WIVES of theatre owners, and two theatre critics, but when it comes down to names of the actors, writers, directors of musicals, only ten Broadway theatres out of nearly 40 bear the name of those who CREATED theatre (Neil Simon, Eugene O'Neill, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Helen Hayes, Edwin Booth, George and Ira Gershwin, John Golden, David Belasco, Richard Rodgers, George Broadhurst).

Again, where it the Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim, Ethel Merman... et al.

"Gif me the cobra jool!"

#17

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 10:55am

Well just think if we could name them there would be the

ILUVWCKD Theater
Millie Fovever Playhouse
Cheyenne Center for the Performing Arts (oh maybe that is one....)

#18

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 5:17pm

ugh....corporate theatre......

add another nail to the coffin.

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, "I will try again tomorrow."

#19

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 5:24pm

Will audiences be forced to take late check-out?

'Try not to have a good time...this is supposed to be educational.' - Lucy Van Pelt

#20

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/18/04 at 10:11pm

Speaking of theater names, the old movie theaters of the 20's had names you could sink your teeth into. For example:

1. Paramount
2. Alhambra
3. Majestic
4. Granada
5. Paradise
6. Valencia
7. Roxy
8. Capitol
9. Hollywood
10.Criterion

Poster Emeritus

Updated On: 11/18/04 at 10:11 PM

#21

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:38am

This is such a good thing. The more commercial we can make Broadway the better if you think practically and economically rather than artistically.

#22

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:22pm

I think this is so tacky.

"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL

#23

re: Ford Center gets a new name

Posted: 11/19/04 at 1:40pm

It makes sense to me. Frankly, the Hilton name, though recently tarnished with Paris's video, has always been associated with prime real estate and success. I mean, The Ford Center? You guys honestly think that Ford having a theatre named after it is better than Hilton?
Ford = cars
Hilton = five-star hotels
It looks better to me this way.
But I DO think the possibility of companies that have nothing to do with entertainment or the arts encroaching on Broadway is a real one. Hell, FORD is a prime example.
On a side note, it is terribly unfortunate that the first show in the newly renamed Hilton Theatre has the last two words of its title: Bang Bang

*shudders*

Word. Word, indeed.

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