Classic theater’s
space-lift
By BARBARA HOFFMAN
Posted: 3:02 AM,
October 24, 2011
The neo-Moorish auditorium on
West 55th Street was built by the Shriners in 1923 and dedicated 20 years
later, by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, as “the people’s theater” -- home to
first-rate dance and theater, rotten sightlines and worse-than-economy-class
seating.
But that was so $56.6 million
ago.
Tomorrow night, Mayor Bloomberg will bring the baton down on the gala opening of a newly
renovated jewel. Not only have the hall’s best features been restored and
repainted, but even audience members in the balcony will finally be able to sit
back and see the stage.
CHAIR-ITABLE MAKEOVER: A
renovation has given City Center on West 55th Street fewer -- but wider --
seats and better sightlines.
“One of the things we wanted to
accomplish with this renovation was to create a physical space that’s on par
with the level of artistry you see on our stage, and I believe we’ve succeeded
in that,” said Arlene Shuler, City Center’s president and CEO.
“Now, not only can you see the
best in dance and musical theater at City Center, but you can do so in comfort
-- in a beautiful theater with 21st-century amenities.”
On West 55th Street, midway
between Sixth and Seventh avenues, City Center wasn’t easy to find. It had no
marquee, and, given the building’s landmark status, didn’t seem likely to get
one. Finally, the firm renovating the building discovered a loophole: a tiny
notation in the 1923 structure’s blueprint citing “anchors for a future
marquise [sic].”
“We assumed they weren’t
planning to hang French nobility,” quipped Duncan Hazard, a partner at Ennead
Architects. The new marquee goes up today.
But the most dramatic
improvement, as those who’ve suffered through the otherwise glorious “Encores!”
series and “Fall for Dance Festival” will tell you, is the seats: There are now
500 fewer of them -- but the new ones are up to 5 inches wider than the ones
they’ve replaced.
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