Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004 - 46

The "before" state of the landmarked corridor.
The architects had enough of the original
structure to work with to recreate the vault.

New York's Landmark Commission was concerned that the vaulted
ceiling in the corridor be rebuilt as authentically as possible.

with the theatre to increase the height of the residential tower
they planned to build next to it at the corner of 47th Street and
Broadway. If they wanted to add more stories to the building,
they were obligated to retain the theatre--or a reasonable facsimile thereof. The Biltmore's air rights added more than one
hundred thousand square feet to their building.
Coincidentally, in the early 1990s, the Manhattan Theatre
Club was looking for a playhouse in the theatre district so that
they could be have greater visibility and be eligible for the
Tony awards. Under the leadership of Lynne Meadow, the artistic director, and Barry Grove, the executive producer, MTC had
flourished into one of the three or four prestigious non-profit
theatre companies in New York. They had a loyal following of
subscribers, successes aplenty, many awards and a reputation
as a high-minded, innovative company that was willing to take
risks with new playwrights. (Being seasoned professionals albeit in the not-for-profit sector of the American theatre, Grove
and Meadow were in fact nothing like the youthful enthusiasts
in the play Fabulous Invalid.) Although MTC's first home was
a theatre carved out of three stories of a building on East 73rd
Street, they began a quest for better stages from the first years
of their existence. Whenever they had a major success, they
moved the show to other venues both on and off Broadway. In
1985, they took over the lower level of the City Center, eventually creating two theatre spaces which enlarged their ability to
present more new plays. Lynne Meadow has been MTC's artistic director since 1972; three years after her arrival, Barry
Grove came on board first as managing director, later receiving the expanded job of executive producer. The MeadowGrove partnership has endured to this day.
About ten years ago, Grove began dreaming of moving to
the Theatre District, not merely to qualify MTC's productions
for the Tony Awards but as a signal that the company was
growing, not standing still, and was seeking to expand their vision while also increasing their activities. Grove had the bless-

ings of his board of directors and began a serious search for a
theatre. He gathered together representatives from a number
of architectural firms, charging them to find a site suitable for
the company within the boundaries of the Times Square Theatre District. Michael Moody, MTC's director of operations, coordinated the search and visited all the possible sites they
suggested.
One of the firms, Polshek Partnership Architects, had
previously worked on the City Center theatres for MTC and was
familiar with the operations of the company. Indeed, one of
the Polshek architects, Duncan Hazard, had known Lynne
Meadow since their days at Yale. (Meadow was in the drama
program and Hazard was studying architecture. They met
when Meadow cast him in a play she was directing.)
Hazard scouted several old playhouses and the not-soold Circle in the Square on Broadway but concluded that none
of them was exactly right. Then fate stepped in. In 1999, when
Hazard was attending The Iceman Cometh at the Brooks
Atkinson, he walked outside during one of the intermissions
and noticed the old battered Biltmore Theatre across the
street. The following day, he called Michael Moody and asked
him whether they had considered the Biltmore as a possible
choice. They had--and rejected it. Hazard asked him for
whatever background material he had on the theatre which included a few of the original drawings by Herbert J. Krapp. The
drawings were sent to him.
The situation seemed made to order for the visionary
leaders of the Manhattan Theatre Club but the drama of the
Biltmore's reclamation was yet to unfold. After protracted and
complex negotiations, they obtained a lease on the theatre but
there were problems confronting them immediately.
In the fourteen years during which the Biltmore was
dark, it had descended into a derelict without passing through
the fictional Alexandria's movie and burlesque phases. The
not-for-profit Manhattan Theatre Club was getting a wreck and
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004