Theatre Interiors/Architecture (BroadwayWorld.com)

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smodel11

Swing
joined:9/24/05

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 11/29/11 at 09:46am

Look at all the orbs in the pictures of the New Amsterdam-theatre ghosts hard at work :)

TheatreFan27

Profile

Chorus Member
joined:12/21/10

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 11/29/11 at 12:14pm

Having THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME play the New Amsterdam would pretty much make my life complete.

bwayphreak234

Profile

Broadway Legend
joined:7/4/10

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 12/7/11 at 02:05pm

Marquis Theatre
[IMG]

WOSQ

Broadway Legend
joined:7/18/03

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 12/7/11 at 04:39pm

The Harkness Theatre, Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets:

*I was the night doorman there for over a year. I had the keys full-time. I worked there during Sweet Bird (Irene Worth, Chris Walken), 174th Street (Robert Morse, George S. Irving), and a couple of shows that rehearsed, one with Carol Channing, the other with Kate Hepburn. There were other events from time to time.

*The theatre started life as a vaudeville/subway circuit house called the Colonial;

*It became a studio, presumably first for radio then TV. It was home to the original Price Is Right with Bill Cullen, and the old stagehands who worked the house had nothing but nice things to say about him;

*A few other TV shows taped there, game shows for ABC I think. This would have been the late 60s-early 70s;

*Rebekkah Harkness bought it and totally renovated it, renaming in conveniently after herself, and why not, it was her money. And there was a lot of money and she spent it.

Examples:
The bathrooms had black Italian marble stall dividers and had gold plated faucets. More than double the number of faucets had to be bought because the construction crews helped themselves.

Those baby blue velvet seats? That was her favorite color, and the walls were the same shade. The seats were also very flimsy since they had a wooden superstructure and at least one would break every performance. The house carpenter would go nuts on a daily basis.

Backstage there were an enormous number of dressing rooms and none were further than one flight from the stage whether down or up. All were carpeted.

Directly under the huge stage which had a permanenent dance-quality floor was a dance studio of equal size and equal quality flooring that could be used for rehearsals. In the basement was also a recording studio that I don't remember ever being used.

Then there was that mural, a painting actually, which is what killed the theatre. People did not want to compete with it. They knew that the slightest bit of light spill would take focus from the stage. I cannot stress the magnitude of this opus. It was about 10-12 feet wide at the sides of the arch and over the stage was maybe 6-8 feet wide. It was done in oils and worked the wall sconces into the painting and even had 3D hands made of plaster coming out of the 2D painting.

The title was "Homage to Terpsicore" and the goddess of dance was at the center of this huge painting directly over stage center. The dancers paying homage were all gorgeous male and female nudes with carefully draped private areas. Rebekkah herself appeared in the painting house left although fully gowned, thank you God.

The theatre was open about 3 years and was sporadically booked at best. It was built as a dance-specific theatre because Rebekkah was rich enough to fund her own company, The Harkness Ballet. [Harkness House, over in the East 70s, is all that remains of her dance empire.]

Somewhere in my stuff I have a booklet that was given out during the opening that has many photos and copy. I wish I knew where it was. I did not work there when it opened, but I found this booklet there.

The house had about 1200 seats with a mezz and balcony. The front row of the mezz was a dress circle kind of thing with armchairs instead of theatre seats. Yes, they were also in baby blue.

Rebekkah Harkness lost 5+ mil on this folly. That was real money then. When she died, her fortune was substantially depleted. She was a Standard Oil heiress right up there with Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton.

On the other hand, Mrs. Harkness did put her money where her mouth was and few other people have done that over the years.

And this is just an overview.

Huss417

Broadway Star
joined:5/15/03

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 12/7/11 at 05:19pm

That was quite interesting WOSQ. Thanks for sharing it. : )

jamiekennywicked

Profile

Broadway Legend
joined:1/25/09

Theatre Interiors/Architecture
Posted: 4/29/12 at 09:52am