Second Stage to Leave Its Off Broadway Theater

[Feidlimid]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:15am

Second Stage to Leave Its Rem Koolhaas-Designed Off Broadway Theater

 

Oof. 

Last year, Second Stage gave up the lease on its Off Off Broadway space. Now it is also relinquishing the Kiser Theater, a 296-seat theater space where it has been presenting plays and musicals since 1999. The Broadway house has been unaffected by the changes. The company said it was committed to continuing to produce work Off Broadway, and was searching for a new place in which to do so.

The company said that it was leaving its space in a former bank in Times Square after 25 years because the rent was too high and the lease had unfavorable terms.

Trans World Equities has accumulated several holdings along Eighth Avenue, which, the publication said, “could indicate Trans World’s plans to assemble a large development parcel.”

Updated On: 2/23/24 at 10:15 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:27am

This is really shocking news. Landlords and private equity firms strike again.

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:30am

Wow. This is a HUGE loss.

[DiscoCrows]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:33am

This is a shame, I love the Kiser.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:36am

Nooooooo

[Melissa25]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 10:57am

So sad. I have so many great memories at the Kiser from Jar the Floor to Birdie Blue to Everyday Rapture to Dogfight to Evan to Superhero… I loved walking by that vault door. 

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:01am

Feidlimid said: "Second Stage to Leave Its Rem Koolhaas-Designed Off Broadway Theater



Oof.

Last year, Second Stage gave up the lease on its Off Off Broadway space. Now it is also relinquishing the Kiser Theater, a 296-seat theater space where it has been presenting plays and musicals since 1999. The Broadway house has been unaffected by the changes. The company said it was committed to continuing to produce work Off Broadway, and was searching for a new place in which to do so.

The company said that it was leaving its space in a former bank in Times Square after 25 years because the rent was too high and the lease had unfavorable terms.

Trans World Equities has accumulated several holdings along Eighth Avenue, which, the publication said, “could indicate Trans World’s plans to assemble a large development parcel.”"

This is awful. Even if "Trans World Equities" wants to develop this into a hotel/casino/condo there needs to be a campaign to keep the art deco facade and the excellent Rem Koolhaas designed theater which is I believe the first space that the architect created for his beloved city. 

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:15am

A loss. I’ve always been critical of Second Stage’s move to Broadway. Their productions of Torch Song and Take Me Out have really been the only things of substance (I’m seeing Appropriate next week). Wish they just stayed off Broadway where their track record was better. 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:16am

Wouldn’t be surprised if it turns into a fast food joint as that has been the trend in that area recently.  Chick fil a, McDonald’s, smash burger, shake shack. It was so nice coming out of port authority (which is about to get a big renovation) and popping into the Tony Kiser.  This area is so seedy at night, I’m sure they will find somewhere better, maybe further west by playwrights, signature, little shubert, theatre 555, mcc. 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:23am

I thought the thanksgiving play was pretty good.  Looking forward to mother play. But yes, whoever runs second stage, I don’t usually care for the plays they do.  Their taste in theatre seems to be pretty mushy and sappy.  I LOVE playwrights horizons their shows are wild!! usually abstract surrealist and campy.  

[Theater3232]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:29am

As of when?  Unfortunately the article is under a paywall so I can't open it.  People just don't want to pay to see what they're putting on.  Given what the Signature is programming and their severe lack of sales, I wouldn't be surprised if they are next.

 

Updated On: 2/23/24 at 11:29 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 11:36am

From the article:

The Second Stage board had agreed to an 8-year lease renewal for the West 43rd Street building in 2021, but decided late last year to exercise a one-time option that allowed it out of the lease at the end of this year.

Lisa Lawer Post, the company’s executive director, cited financial concerns in explaining the decision by the organization’s board to terminate the lease for the West 43rd Street building, which is where the company presented early productions of shows including “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Next to Normal” and “Between Riverside and Crazy.”

She said the building’s infrastructure was aging, and under the lease terms, the occupant was responsible for repairs and maintenance, which would be difficult to finance given the relatively short term of the lease. She said that the company had concluded that its rent was about twice the market rate, and that there were concerns because the landlord had an option to terminate the lease at any time with 18 months notice.

“It was a very precarious situation, so the board made the decision to terminate, and we’re actively in conversations to find a more permanent home for the theater,” Post said.

Asked about the company’s overall financial health, Post said, “I would say we’re in a strong position given that we are just out of Covid, and we’ve been fortunate to have a very strong season that certainly has helped us.”

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 1:33pm

Wow. Is that a typical lease term? 8 years, you're responsible for upkeep, and they can kick you out with little notice?

Explains a lot about the city's current lack of commercial tenants.

[raddersons]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 2:20pm

Sounds like this was purely a lease & real estate issue. The question now is, will they look for another off-broadway house? I can't imagine they don't.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 3:07pm

everythingtaboo said: "Wow. Is that a typical lease term? 8 years, you're responsible for upkeep, and they can kick you out with little notice?

Explains a lot about the city's current lack of commercial tenants."

Those terms are not at all standard in comm RE, though often tenants are responsible for non-structural upkeep, which makes sense. This sounds like a lease written by a landlord hoping a major development opportunity would come its way down the line, and they might now be jacking up the rent to force the theater's hand. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 8:15pm

Per the NYT: "The company said it was committed to continuing to produce work Off Broadway, and was searching for a new place in which to do so."

Using this list of theaters as a jumping off point, there are barely any options around midtown in the 299-seat range.

• If they want to set up a longterm residency somewhere, Theater 555 (formerly the Pearl) is only 160 seats but it is in midtown and is probably open to a prestigious, longterm tenant.
• Outside of midtown, The Orpheum (pending a reno) could be a longterm option, or The Lortel could be a short-term option. But that area is an extremely different beast than midtown and may cause them to lose some clientele.
• If they just want to rent out a theatre 3x a year and be itinerant... Playhouse 46 at St. Luke's? The big theater at 59E59? Stage 42 (200 more seats than the Kiser)? New World Stages? They lose a percentage of box office haul to the landlord in situations like this, but that could be more favorable than a residency and a place where they need to clean/maintain/staff it.

My pie-in-the-sky pipedream has been for someone to turn the old Lincoln Plaza Cinemas into a live theatre space. Or the former Best Buy or Bed Bath & Beyond. But I'm deeply aware that there may be insurmountable headaches or cost inefficiencies.

[Fordham2015]

Posted: 2/23/24 at 8:17pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Per the NYT:"The company said it was committed to continuing to produce work Off Broadway, and was searching for a new place in which to do so."

Using this list of theaters as a jumping off point, there are barely any options around midtown in the 299-seat range.

• If they want to set up a longterm residency somewhere,Theater 555 (formerly the Pearl) is only 160 seats but it is in midtown and is probably open to a prestigious, longterm tenant.
• Outside of midtown,The Orpheum (pending a reno) could be a longterm option,orThe Lortelcould bea short-term option. But that area is an extremely different beast than midtown and may cause them to losesome clientele.
• If they just want to rent out a theatre 3x a year and be itinerant...Playhouse 46 at St. Luke's? The big theater at 59E59?Stage 42 (200 more seats than the Kiser)? New World Stages? They lose a percentage of box office haul to thelandlord in situations like this, but that could be more favorable than a residency and a place where they need to clean/maintain/staff it.

My pie-in-the-sky pipedream has been for someone to turn the old Lincoln Plaza Cinemas into a live theatre space. Or the former Best Buy or Bed Bath & Beyond. But I'm deeply aware that there may be insurmountable headaches or cost inefficiencies."

Ah, the Lincoln Plaza. I miss that place, saw so many great movies there

[Melissa25]

Posted: 12/3/24 at 8:19am

The Tony Kiser Theater (1999 - 2024) documentary:
https://youtu.be/BXm3QnRawbg?si=hrLdl2_5sKAWHfe8

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/3/24 at 8:49am

Have heard a rumor that this space will remain a theatre for live stage productions (not owned/operated by 2nd Stage)

[Melissa25]

Posted: 12/3/24 at 9:20am

I pray that the rumor is true. We don’t need another skyscraper.

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 12/3/24 at 1:33pm

If you look at their website, they are now using Signature's Pershing Square theaters for their off-Broadway productions in lieu of the Kiser. I have nothing against the Kiser; I've probably seen 7 or 8 shows there but Pershing Square is a more modern, comfortable facility so I'm actually calling this a win for as long as they are able to stay there..

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 7:14pm

SIGNATURE AUDITOR RAISES ‘SUBSTANTIAL DOUBT’ ABOUT NONPROFIT’S SURVIVAL

January 7, 2025 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: Signature Theatre Co. — which raised the bar off-Broadway by devoting entire seasons to the work of major dramatists while offering $25 tickets across the board — is struggling to stay afloat.

Lutz and Carr, the company’s auditor, said it has “substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern.” The accountant’s alarm accompanies financial statements completed in August 2024 that were posted on the New York Attorney General’s charities registry during Christmas week.

“It doesn’t mean the organization will definitely cease operations,” Thad D. Calabrese, professor of public and nonprofit financial management at New York University, said about the accountant’s warning.  “But it raises the red flag that it is a distinct possibility.”

Lutz and Carr cited Signature’s net asset drop of $6.6 million, or 17 percent, in 2022-23. Most of its remaining $33 million of net assets were related to its theater complex on West 42nd Street. Another “significant” but undisclosed net asset drop followed last season.

The audit also flagged real estate loans that Signature stopped paying interest on in March 2020. As of June 30, 2023, the principal and interest due on the defaulted debt totaled $19.8 million.

Signature’s existential struggle coincides with what American Theatre magazine called an industrywide “crisis of contraction” since the pandemic. In response to anemic audience demand and escalating production costs, nonprofit theater companies throughout the U.S. have slashed programming and staff — when they’re not shutting down entirely.

This season, Signature is producing just three plays, down from eight a decade ago. On Monday, it announced that film and TV star Brendan Fraser (The Whale, The Mummy) dropped out of Samuel Hunter’s Grangeville for unspecified reasons. Fraser will be replaced by Paul Sparks, a six-time Drama Desk nominee who’s busy in movies and television but less of a marquee name.

Signature’s first show of 2024-25, Dominique Morrisseau’s Bad Kreyòl, was a co-production with Manhattan Theatre Club — an increasingly popular strategy by theater companies to pool resources.

Signature management attributes its precarious position “to the challenging environment of post-pandemic off-Broadway theatrical production and its audience,” according to the financial statements.  To stabilize its finances, the Signature board approved a balanced budget for 2024-25, which included cutting $500,000 in personnel costs and “outsourcing of production personnel.” For years, the company has rented out its three theaters when they’re idle, and it recently reached a long-term rental agreement with a nonprofit company it didn’t name.

The new tenant, a person familiar with the situation said, is Second Stage Theater, which relinquished its off-Broadway space, the Tony Kiser on West 43rd Street. (Second Stage continues to own a Broadway venue, the Helen Hayes.) On Feb. 12, the Second Stage production of D.A. Mindell’s On the Evolutionary Function of Shame is scheduled to begin previews at Signature’s largest venue, the 294-seat Irene Diamond Stage. Donald Margulies’ Lunar Eclipse, another Second Stage show,  is to play Signature’s Diamond Stage in May.

Signature’s rental income was a modest $1.4 million in 2022-23, although that exceeded membership fees and box office income from its own productions.

Inspired by working with playwright Romulus Linney, James Houghton, an actor at the time, started the company in 1991 to showcase playwrights by presenting multiple works by the same dramatist over one season or several seasons.  “You could walk through five rooms of Picasso and understand he had a Blue Period, and better understand those two Picassos that are already in your head,” Houghton told Ben Brantley in 2016. “We do that for music, we do it for fine arts, we do it for dance. We don’t do it for theater. And so I tripped my way into that idea.”

In 2012, Signature’s theater complex designed by Canadian-American superstar architect Frank Gehry opened, a project budgeted at $69 million. Even with $27 million in capital funding from New York City and tens of millions of dollars from other sources, Signature took out loans to finance it. The complex was named for hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation, thanks to its $25 million gift underwriting Signature’s accessible ticketing initiative. In 2014, Signature became the first New York City company to win a regional theater Tony Award.

The company’s leaders — Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon, Board President Douglas E. Chittenden and Chairman Edward Norton, the actor — declined to be interviewed for this story.

“It’s no secret that Signature, like so many non-profit theaters in New York and across the nation, is facing financial challenges,” McClimon said in a statement sent by spokesman Blake Zidell. “That said, we are genuinely optimistic about the future. We’re working to build partnerships that will enable us to thrive in the Pershing Square Signature Center, which is so meaningful to so many in the community, and remain steadfast in our commitment to our mission of being a home for storytellers and a place for all.”

Houghton, one of theater’s most revered leaders, died of stomach cancer in 2016, at 57, an incalculable loss. He was succeeded by Paige Evans, who stepped down in June 2024 after eight years. On Nov. 1, Emily Shooltz, a veteran of another highly regarded nonprofit company, Ars Nova, took over as artistic director.

Beginning in 2012, Signature offered every seat in the initial run of a show for $25. Now, Signature offers some tickets for $40 (or $20 for students) and others at market prices.

In December 2022, Signature reached a forbearance agreement for one of its defaulted loans; interest continued to accrue but the company temporarily wasn’t required to make payments. There were negotiations with lenders in 2024 about reducing the debt and eliminating some interest, according to the financial statements. Whatever the resolution, Signature will remain under pressure.

The company had $1.9 million in cash as of June 30, 2023, down from $5.6 million a year earlier. To fund operations over the past two seasons, the board drew down half of a $2.2 million reserve fund and most of a $526,000 endowment set up to support productions.

Financial statements are prepared under the assumption that an organization will carry on, NYU’s Calabrese said. “If the auditors believe there is a serious risk that the organization will not continue in business, it must be disclosed in the financial statements, as this one does.”

Houghton’s visionary concept was to present entire seasons of shows by playwrights such as Edward Albee, Sam Shepard and Lynn Nottage at affordable prices. Preserving that legacy hinges on how management is mitigating the crisis as well as Signature’s future financial performance.

https://broadwayjournal.com/signature-theatre-auditor-raises-substantial-doubt-about-nonprofits-survival/

Updated On: 1/7/25 at 07:14 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 7:42pm

It's a tough climate to be an off-Broadway landlord, especially when your rates are a little high and you're not open to an open-ended run. That space is beautiful but it comes with a ton of overhead.