STAGE TUBE: All About the United Palace Theatre - Potential Tonys Home

The City Concealed: United Palace Theater from Thirteen.org on Vimeo.

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier today, the Tony Awards may take up residence at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights (175th and Broadway) for the 2011 ceremony, now that their 13 year occupation of Radio City Music Hall in midtown is complete. (Radio City will be occupied with a Cirque du Soliel production during Tony time next year). While the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, who present the Tonys, have not yet released an official statement on the move, published reports suggest that CBS, the Tonys broadcasting network, has confirmed the 3,400+ seat United Palace Theater as the new ceremony space. 

So what is the United Palace Theater?  In a city where there are theaters abound, it is one that has alluded mainstream New York theater life. The United Palace Theatre is a former movie palace was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and built as one of the Loew's Wonder Theatres for vaudeville and movies in 1930.  A near casualty of the end of the Movie Palace Era, in 1969, as most of the grand movie venues were closing down, the 175th St. Theatre was saved from demolition by the Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II and was used by him as the headquarters for his United Church Science of Living Institute.

Producer John Cohen has described the venue to PBS: "It's sort of Neo-Classical Cambodian, with influences of Hindu, Mayan, and Moorish architecture. Gilded and covered in red velvet" the venue continues to capture the energy of New York's Washington Heights.

The hall is currently used for concerts and has housed performances by such famous acts as Vampire Weekend, Eddie Vedder, Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan, The Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Sigur Rós, Jackson Browne, Björk, Iggy and the Stooges, Modest Mouse, The Black Crowes, and The Arcade Fire.  Melissa Etheridge takes the stage on July 14, 2010.

For more information on the United Palace Theater, visit unitedpalaceconcerts.com.

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