The Town Hall Theatre

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/26/12 at 2:29pm

Was it ever considered a "Broadway" house? Who owns it?

[WOSQ]

Posted: 9/26/12 at 2:38pm

To my knowledge Town Hall has always been a concert venue. There may have been limited runs of specialty shows (like Yiddish language productions and children's theatre productions), but they were not "Tony eligible" for instance.

I believe it is its own nonprofit which means that it owns itself.

In the late 70s there was a plan to divide the space into two 499 seat legit theatres. Thank God that fell through.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 1:42am

How would that even work? To split it? That seems stupid.

It's a pretty nice space. It doesn't seem like there's a ton of room though. The balcony is kind of weird, and the stage is not deep. It doesn't seem designed like a typical theater.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:42pm

Having taken a number of show there now in the past few years I will say that it is an extremely difficult space to work in. Loading in is not easy, as they don't have a proper loading dock and you have to unload with your vehicles parked right on 43rd street. The stage is very wide, but not deep at all, only 19' at center stage and it narrows as it heads into the wings, which are accessed through a standard sized door, so pray that you don't have anything that needs to move offstage during your show that is taller than that.

That being said, I've found it a fairly easy space to mix the show in. The acoustics, at least in the orchestra section, seem to be pretty good. It works best as a concert venue but is very difficult to present an actual show in that space.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 4:22pm

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing Linda Eder there in a couple weeks!