Why isn’t The Town Hall a Broadway House?

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 11/30/23 at 9:59pm

It’s the perfect size. Has anyone tried to buy it?

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/30/23 at 10:56pm

Have you ever been there?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 11/30/23 at 11:14pm

I have been, I saw Kathy Griffin before she was on Bravo and became super famous. I wondered the same thing, it's the perfect location and the right amount of seats if my memory serves. I have thought the same about NY City Center too, although I feel it may be too big.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/30/23 at 11:40pm

It was originally built for "the league of political education" so if I had to take a guess, there is no backstage space hence why it's only used for concerts and stuff. It was never a legit theater. 

[raddersons]

Posted: 12/1/23 at 12:28am

It’s about 1500 seats. They could be if they wanted to. Backstage space is probably an issue, I know that’s a big thing about The Beacon. By this point they are booking gigs pretty far in advance and probably make plenty off of one night or two night touring acts. Why bother?

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/1/23 at 1:01am

It would require a massive investment to the stage and backstage to make that happen, and I don’t even know if it would even be feasible to overhaul it. The stage is very wide, but also very shallow, only reaching 20' deep at center and 16' at the sides. What little offstage space there is on either side is accessed through double doors, and is also so limited that there is little that can be stored there and still comply with fire codes. There is no fly system, everything is dead hung. 

So basically if someone was crazy enough to buy it from its current owners to try to turn it in to a Broadway house they would find themselves holding on to what would instantly become the least desirable house that only the most desperate and foolish of producers would rent. 

[raddersons]

Posted: 12/1/23 at 7:22am

I suppose not every show needs a ton of backstage space. They could do limited runs of certain shows if they wanted, especially of one-man shows like Mike Birbiglia’s, the recent Alex Edelman one, or SeaWall / A Life from 2019. But those are never huge crowd draws so a 1500 seat theater isn’t a good match for house size. There also isn’t a guarantee of there being even one of those shows every season, I see no reason for them to plan around it. Again it just seems like a question of “Why bother?”