The Loss of the Mark Hellinger Theater — Page 2

My jaw just hit the floor after watching that entrance. THAT is a DIVA!

Here's another clip of Eartha at the Mark Hellinger doing the number Rahadalakum! She brings down the house!

Oh and the clip of the commercial they have on You Tube is the edited :30 second version. I remember the :60 second version.
Eartha Kitt ~ Rahadalakum! ~ Timbuktu!

I saw A DOLL'S LIFE and the extremely unfortunate GRIND at the Hellinger. I hope the rumor about it going back to actual theatre (musicals and plays) as opposed to phony theatre (that whole church thing) is true.

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I knew it!
The failure of NICK AND NORA caused this,
we can blame it all on Arthur.

I saw many of the musicals mentioned above at the Hellinger,
The two fondest being ON A CLEAR DAY.... with that creature Barbara Harris and the opening night of LEGS DIAMOND, when I looked up that beautiful balcony in the Lobby and there was
Douglas Fairbanks Jr, in a tux! (Look him up kids, that was an Idol).

A lot of grumbling has been going on about the ROUNDABOUT lately,
but they have gobbled up some old and parts of old theatres and made them viable modern theatres, what they have been putting in them may be questionable, but they have turned Studio 54, American Airlines (God, I hate that name) and the Henry Miller (Love that name) around.

Let's all send out prayers and mantras that the TIMES SQUARE CHURCH grows and grows and gets too big for the space and the McDonalds on the corner and the Hellinger are ours again.

Read the article Smax, it implies that the Neederlander's might have bought the Hellinger if they hadn't such a loss on NICK AND NORA.
Not that I believe that, but using that show as an excuse,
says something about Arthur's rep.

Updated On: 10/18/09 at 10:02 PM

Actually the Hellinger became a cast off theater in the 80s. Sugar Babies ('79-'82) was the last successful musical that played there. During the 80s, they couldn't get a tenant to stay in the theater. It seems none of the British invasion shows (Evita, Cats, Phantom, Les Miz) wanted the space, despite it being one of the best equipped theaters on Broadway.

The church started renting the Hellinger in 1989 but obviously Nederlander felt it was a white elephant to sell it to them in 1991.

Rumor has it that Nederlander rejected an offer from Cameron Mackintosh. So it could have stayed a Broadway house if Nederlander chose art over profit and sold it to Mackintosh.

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I really think that the Nederlanders are pigs. Curtain Pull Downer correctly hypothesizes that had NICK & NORA not failed miserably, the Nederlanders might have kept the Mark Hellinger as a theatre instead of selling it as a house of worship. On the other hand, they deserved what they got with NICK & NORA, the absolutely worst musical I have seen in 59 years of theatregoing. Book writer Arthur Laurents simply didn't communicate with director Arthur Laurents.

Earlier than the Mark Hellinger saga, the Nederlanders, as owners of the New Amsterdam Theatre, started renovating that theatre only to give up, indicating that the job was just too big. They left the roof in a dilapidated state, allowing rain and snow to enter the theatre, ruining the wall murals and seating. God knows what would have happened if Disney hadn't entered the scene, restoring it to its original splendor.

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the guts of the New Amsterdam while the resoration was in progress. The construction foreman saw me looking up at the dressing rooms on W. 41st Street and asked me if I would like to take a look inside! He took me up to the fabled Roof Theatre where Ziegfeld presented his MIDNIGHT FROLICS following the FOLLIES in the main theatre. The Roof Theatre was gutted but the stage area was clearly visable. That space had been used in the past as rehearsal and audition venues. (The original production of GYPSY held its auditions there.) After that, the construction foreman proudly showed me the work that had been done on the balcony. He then invited me to go onto the stage by myself, as he had other matters to attend to. So there I was on the stage that had seen the likes of Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, and Ed Wynn. The stage area is huge.

I'm very glad that the Nederlanders no longer have any connections to the New Amsterdam. What effects Disney has had on the whole Times Square area is a matter of conjecture.

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Updated On: 10/19/09 at 04:11 PM

Every time i visit New York (3 or 4 times a year)I always try and pay a visit to see this absolute jewel of Broadway. Its open most days and you can just stroll in as you please.
It is stunning.
I pray along with everyone else that it will one day see live theatre again.

Only thing is that the sale of the Hellinger had quietly occurred in the fall of 1991 before Nick & Nora opened (although it may have been in its endless preview period at the time). The failure of Nick & Nora - as much fun as it would be to blame Arthur Laurents - can't really be cited as the sole reason for selling the Hellinger outright to the Times Square Church.

I agree though with the point that it was strictly about making a substantial profit on the sale, since the Nederlander Organization refused several offers from producers/theatre owners who would have kept it as a theatre. If you had Cameron Mackintosh wanting to put Miss Saigon in your theatre - which would have kept the Hellinger booked for 10 years - but would rather sell the building to a church, then it's about real estate, rather than keeping these grand old theatres thriving as legitimate theatres.

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Updated On: 10/22/09 at 08:45 AM