Remembering the Mark Hellinger Theatre (In Honor of Eliza Doolittle Day)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 2:09am

Starting life as a movie palace (opening in 1930), this legendary Broadway house went on to house the original production of MY FAIR LADY, as well as a plethora of flops such as RAGS, DEAR WORLD, ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE and LEGS DIAMOND.

The Times Square Church bought it in 1991 and continue to use it for services today. They have done an exceptional job preserving the space, and while it is unlikely they will ever sell it back for legitimate use it remains intact on 51st Street in Manhattan. I was fortunate enough to pop inside on a recent trip and captured these photos in the grand lobby and auditorium:





















 

Anyone have any favorite memories from when it was still in legitimate use?

[NoName3]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 2:35am

Mr. Nowack, I have nothing to add except, as usual, thanks so very much for posting this.

Like everyone I am so sorry this beautiful space is no longer used as a legitimate theater but it helps to see how well the church has maintained it.

Updated On: 5/20/17 at 02:35 AM

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 3:12am

Interesting article about Cameron Mackintosh wanting the original Miss Saigon to go into the Mark Hellinger. If that had happened, it may very well still be a legit theater today.  The church probably would have looked elsewhere. Of they may have taken over another theater instead. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/10/theater/miss-saigon-weighs-postponing-opening-as-it-seeks-a-theater.html?pagewanted=all

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 4:20am

Thank you so much for that article, interesting read indeed. The crunch for theatres is definitely not a new problem!

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 10:12am

Thank you for this post.  The Mark Hellinger theatre was always my favorite Broadway musical theatre.  Not only is it gorgeous, there's not a bad seat in the house.  I still haven't forgiven the Nederland's for stupidly selling off this theatre.  

[JayG 2]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 10:34am

What a beautiful space. Too bad it's gone. Fond memories of seeing Coco, Illya Darling, Grind, A Doll's Life, Sarava, Platinum, Ari, JC Superstar, Legs Diamond and Fade Out Fade In there, (Well, maybe not all were fond memories.)

 

 

Updated On: 5/20/17 at 10:34 AM

[Huss417]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 10:43am

I think the last show I saw there was possibly Legs Diamond. It might not have been a "fond memory" but to this day my friends and I still laugh about it. :) Will always miss seeing another musical in the Hellinger.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 11:02am

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 3:58pm

I loved this theatre. Too bad it's being wasted by being another disgusting, happy clap church.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 4:11pm

tomwsjr said: "Thank you for this post.  The Mark Hellinger theatre was always my favorite Broadway musical theatre.  Not only is it gorgeous, there's not a bad seat in the house.  I still haven't forgiven the Nederland's for stupidly selling off this theatre."

 

What type of condition was it in when it was sold off? It's clear that the church has done a great job in maintaining and preserving it, but did they have to do a lot of renovation and restoration when they bought it, or had it been slowly deteriorating like so many other theatres were during the 70s and 80s?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 4:47pm

I was last in it for Grind, but at that time there was some water damage to the ceiling, and cracked and peeling paint in a few spots. The church has maintained it better than Nederlander ever did, but as a single balcony, 1500 seat house, it would have been in huge demand had the Nederlander Organization just held on a little longer. Even in 1991, when they sold it, the theatre district was starting to turn around. It was zero foresight on their part. 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 5:02pm

Something close to 6 months of my life was spent backstage at the Mark Hellinger in the Fall/ Winter of 1988/89 trying in vain to get the scenery on Legs Diamond to move like it was supposed to.

The brilliant set designer David Mitchell was nearing the end of his great run on Broadway when he designed all the floor scenery in Legs Diamond to move into place using 2 turntables set into a larger full-stage turntable (similar to the scheme at Groundhog Day). Choreography was planned with the turntables, numbers were built around those turntables. Everyone loved the turntables.

Fatal error #1: When the bids came in, Marvin Krauss, legendary producer extraordinaire, required budget cuts, so what went out? The turntable floor, of course. In its place, we assistants in David's design office (also the first floor of his brownstone) hatched with Showtech's engineers a plan to build a cheaper show deck with winches to carry smaller rotating wagons all over the stage on great semi-circular tracks to mimic the old turntable scheme. But science is science and physics doesn't care about budget cuts: there was simply no way airplane cable could pull those mighty set pieces around and around the stage as intended without fouling up at nearly every performance.

Fatal error #2: The show never had the capitalization to go out of town to debug the set (never mind the dreadful script and score for which it was designed). We loaded straight into the vast upstage space of the Hellinger (uniquely vast among all the old theaters on Broadway) in early September of '88. Tech rehearsals got under way. And like clockwork, with every single set change depending on a winch to move the wagon unit, the rehearsal would crash to a halt. Local One guys would march out onstage, pull the pins tagging the wagons to their winch dogs, and manually drag the thing offstage.

This went on for days, for weeks, even as the show around us cut song numbers, fired lead actresses, eliminated whole settings like a giant Lower East Side tenement set all done in shades of grey that had originally opened the show. The first preview was delayed, and delayed again, finally allowing paying customers into that gorgeous lobby on October 25th according to IBDB. During the ensuing two full months of previews (unheard of back then), things actually calmed down. Routines were simplified, set moves were axed, set pieces were lightened and the winches were beefed up (an army of them filled the crossover space below the stage). My recollection is that this was one of the first shows to computerize the winch cues all from an operator at a console up on the fly floor, so that acceleration and deceleration could soften the movement of those scenic beasts as they lumbered on and off stage, all of which helped the show to finally move closer and closer to its original intent. 

And while our heads were all filled up with mechanics and engineering, did we ever realize what a turkey of a show we were laboring so mightily over? I don't think that fact really hit me till Opening night, the day after Christmas, 1988. What we thought was a great vintage throwback show in the mold of GUYS AND DOLLS or PAL JOEY actually turned out to be a vanity project for Peter Allen covered in flop sweat that asked the audience to believe he was romantically attached to brilliant but elderly jazz stylist Julie Wilson, a reach for any audience member. But hey, at least the scenery moved on and offstage correctly by then.

The show closed 64 performances later. It was the last musical to play the house. 

 

 

[And Peggy]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 9:54pm

^MORE (much more!) posts like this, please! Someone In A Tree2, thank you for that wonderful first-person account of your time and experiences in both the theater itself and a legendary flop musical. I loved reading this. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/20/17 at 10:45pm

I think it is criminal that THE most beautiful theatre on Broadway is used for some fundamentalist church.  I can't believe that, in this era of shows lasting forever, a perfect theatre is not usable.  I also remember the decay that was referenced; but if you looked beyond that, the bones were gorgeous.  How about switching this for the soulless Minskoff the Gershwin -- wait, they both have shows that are never gonna close, and therefore are essentially off the block for now.  Failing that, how about the August Wilson, which is an awful theatre.

[TNick926]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 1:22am

My best remembered show in the Hellenger was Sugar Babies. Seeing Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller (legendary old pros) sell the daylights out of intentionally hoary old burlesque tropes, but with glorious classic music --- And seeing dear old Annie cut loose tapping up a storm with those epic legs and that even more epic black helmet of hair...priceless! The theater's glamorous over the top opulence suited the show to a T! I'll never forget that great night at the theater...and the chorus boys and girls were old-time beautiful and thrilling! :)

Updated On: 5/21/17 at 01:22 AM

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 5:53am

Thanks as always, Mr. Nowak, for another wonderful trip down memory lane. I could've sworn I read an article a couple of years ago that the church has outgrown the Hellinger. It would be SO amazing if it could become a theatre again!

[Jesus_Freak]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 10:11am

South Fl Marc said: "I loved this theatre. Too bad it's being wasted by being another disgusting, happy clap church.

 

Repurposing the theater as a place of worship is not a bad thing. If you are angry the theater community lost a treasured theater then direct your "blame" and anger at the Nederlander Organization not at the Time Square Church.

 

 

 

 

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 1:51pm

Jesus_Freak said: "South Fl Marc said: "I loved this theatre. Too bad it's being wasted by being another disgusting, happy clap church.

 

Repurposing the theater as a place of worship is not a bad thing."

 

I think it is. Can't the Times Square Church find another place to fleece their congregation?

 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 2:57pm

Let's not let any of our own distaste of religion color our opinions please. I too wish it was a Broadway house and while it's not as if there isn't a need for it as a theatre anymore, at least it's not demolished like the original Helen Hayes, closed away to rot like the Times Square Theatre, or with most of its architectural detail obscured like the Hammerstein/Ed Sullivan. It is still a living breathing building, and who knows maybe the Times Square Church will find a bigger space. I love the idea of selling away the Marquis, the capacity is over 100 more. Even so though, the Times Square Church has also built specialised additions onto this building so it remains unlikely.

Thank you so much for all these beautiful memories. This is the reason why I make these incessant "remembering" threads, and why I love this Board despite its many failings. Connecting with people who were actually involved in the history, or at least there to see it happen.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 4:18pm

Mr.Nowack, I don't remember you ever doing one for Mame on its 50th anniversary.  Did I miss it?

The first time I saw Mame remains my favorite musical performance ever.  I am not saying that it is the best musical ever, just that all of the pieces came together beautifully for a wonderful, joyous evening in the theatre, with not one but three IMO legendary theatre performances by Lansbury, Arthur and Connell (I still can't believe she was not nominated for a Tony).  Obviously, not at the Hellinger, but it would have worked beautifully there.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 6:36pm

@Jarethan I did make a MAME thread! For some reason it got kind of swallowed up (perhaps in Tony buzz) and no one really saw it.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1093195#4809235

Angela's next show DEAR WORLD would of course play the Hellinger in 1969!

The young boy who took me on the brief tour kept saying HELLO DOLLY had played there but I didn't have the heart to correct him.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 7:01pm

Thanks Mr. Nowack! For all of the times I've walked by this church, I never connected it to its original purpose. I must've read about it previously, but just don't remember...

[MCfan2]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 7:25pm

So beautiful! Kudos to the Times Square Church for taking good care of it. Thanks for sharing your pics!

[markypoo]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 10:13pm

I was in the Hellinger on two incredibly memorable occasions:

1) in 1969 for Dear World (I was 13), and

2) in 1986 for Rags (I was 31).

Both in previews in their respective times.

Sigh...

 

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 5/22/17 at 9:41am

An absolutely beautiful theatre. The only time I ever attended a show there was to see Sugar Babies in 1982.  I still have my ticket stub.