I have heard its a LOT more than a 'spruce'. For starters the theatre will be moved somewhere else on the site like the Empire was moved a few hundred feet down 42nd Street in the mid-90s. It also may be a case of saving the landmarked front wall and ditching the rest of the theatre. The office building surrounding the theatre won't be done until 2008.
Even in its heyday the Miller was not sought after because it had a small orchestra and a comparatively large second balcony. Those factors combined with its east of Bway and on 43rd St location made it less than desireable.
All of the East of Bway houses except the Lyceum have been something else since 1970 at one point or another: Hudson and Miller were used as porn movie houses, the Miller later became Xenon, a disco hence the flat orchestra floor, the Cort was a TV studio in the late 60s-early 70s when Merv Griffin had a CBS late night talk show, the Playhouse, Ziegfeld and 54th Street were torn down.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
