Playing (With) The Palace

 

On 31 January 2020, I posted “Moving the Empire,” a report on the 1998 relocation of the Empire Theatre on 42nd Street from halfway down the block from 7th Avenue to the 8th Avenue end.  Engineers actually lifted the theater, opened in 1912, a few inches, set it on wheels, moved it out into the roadway, and rolled it westward to make it the façade and lobby of the AMC cineplex.

Well, someone’s done it again.  This time it was the Palace Theatre on Times Square, one of Broadway’s oldest, and it was raised up 30 feet to make room for commercial space at street level beneath the extant theater as part of the TSX Broadway project. 

The Palace Theatre, at 1564 Broadway (at W. 47th Street just east across 7th Avenue from Father Duffy Square, the northern end of Times Square, and the TKTS discount-ticket booth), is the famed vaudeville house featured in the ubiquitous phrase, “playing the Palace.”  (A punning allusion even made it into the lyrics of “Very Soft Shoes” from Broadway’s Once Upon a Mattress, 1959, which is set in 1428: “In the days when my dear father played the palace / Back in 1392.”) 

Opened in 1913, the legendary house hosted major headliners until 1932, when it converted to movies.  In 1936, the producers at the 1743-seat Palace began presenting live shows with the films, an attempt to revive vaudeville that lasted until 1957.  The shows, headlined by star artists like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, were successes, but vaudeville was beyond resuscitation and the Palace reverted to movies‑only again. 

The Nederlander Organization, second-largest owners of Broadway houses, bought the theater in 1965 and it opened the following year as a legitimate theater, still showing movies between bookings.  From 1987 to 1991, a 45-story hotel, the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel, was built above the Palace.  The hotel building and dozens of billboards obscured all of the historic theater’s façade except the marquee. 

The theater closed again for major renovations in September 2018 for TSX Broadway, and wasn’t expected to reopen until 2021.  The last show to play the Palace was SpongeBob SquarePants, the musical based on Nickelodeon’s animated children’s cable-TV series, which opened on 4 December 2017 and closed on 16 September 2018 to accommodate the project.

(I think the first show I saw at the Palace was Sweet Charity (1966-67), with Gwen Verdon, the theater’s first production as a legit playhouse.  After a long break, mostly due to army service, I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company’s London Assurance there in January 1975 with Donald Sinden, one of a short list of great individual performances I saw.  Woman of the Year with Lauren Bacall and Harry Guardino and the wonderful Marilyn Cooper came in July of ’81.

(I didn’t get to Broadway much for a while, so my next visit to the Palace was in July 2015 when I saw the stage adaptation of the 1951 movie musical An American in Paris, reported on ROT on 2 August 2015.  The last production I saw at the famous theater was the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s movical Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close reprising her role as silent-movie star Norma Desmond in April 2017, the Palace’s second-to-last show before the construction shut-down (see my report on 8 May 2017.)

The renovation work was delayed due to precautions to protect a neighboring building from potential damage.  The project won’t be completed now until early 2023, but it reached a milestone that culminated the first week of this month with the Great Hoist.

Talk of TSX Broadway started showing up in the media coverage in the worlds of entertainment, business, real estate, architecture, and hotels in 2018.  The development is so named because of the building’s location on Times Square, the “Crossroads of the World”; as far as I’ve been able to determine, neither the enterprise nor any of the partners are associated with another TSX, the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In the view of Mancini Duffy, one of the two architectural firms that designed TSX Broadway (the other is Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, known in the business as PBDW):

Located at the busiest corner of the most heavily trafficked public space in the world, the building at 1568 Broadway is currently being transformed into an unprecedented, entertainment-driven project set to reimagine how people engage Times Square.

The project was approved by New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2015 despite preservationists’ concerns (the theater’s interior, by Milwaukee architects Kirchoff & Rose, was landmarked in 1987).  This was followed by the Nederlander Organization and Maefield Development, one of the developing partners, announcing the latest renovation.  Then architect’s renderings were released in 2017.  

The New York City Council approved the plan in June 2018, and L&L Holding Company, Maefield, and Fortress Investment Group, the developers of TSX Broadway along with Nederlander, revealed the plans for the project.  In March 2019, the builders of TSX Broadway broke ground, and on 7 January 2022, the Palace Theatre began its ascent.  The entire reconstruction project was budgeted at $2.5 billion.  

The 43-story, 460-suite DoubleTree Hotel that had replaced the original Palace Theatre exterior was to be demolished and itself replaced with a 669-room hotel, reusing the existing tower.  The new hotel’s operator has not been selected.

Some of the rooms will look out on Duffy Square’s iconic Red Steps at the rear of the TKTS booth and others will overlook the site of the famous New Year’s Eve Ball Drop.  The developers anticipate that for that event, some suites would go for as much as $15,000 a night.

The theater was raised 30 feet above grade, with excavation below ground-level to accommodate approximately 75,000 square feet of retail space beneath the theater.  The same structural team that moved the Empire Theater in 1998 has overseen the Palace Theatre’s move.

Ten floors of retail space will be built around the theater and the hotel will be built above the retail floors.  To anchor the development, L&L Holding is pitching a casino, the city’s first, according to Infobae, a news website out of Buenos Aires.  L&L hasn’t formally proposed the casino to New York State officials, but the state can issue three new casino licenses beginning next year.  Nonetheless, a proposal for a casino in the heart of Manhattan would likely experience considerable political opposition.

In addition to the 75,000 square feet of additional retail space, the building will have 30,000 square feet of dining and drinking space.  Part of that will be the largest outdoor terrace in Times Square at 10,000 square feet.

The 46-story, 550-foot, mixed-use building’s design also includes a 4,000-square-foot stage that hangs 30 feet above Times Square.  TSX Broadway would the first building in the Theatre District to feature a permanent outdoor stage and concert arena, perfect for New Year’s Eve events.  The stage will have broadcast and streaming capabilities “for performances, global product launches, and memorable events,” says Mancini Duffy.

Behind this will be a 9-story main screen that’ll wrap around the skyscraper at the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 47th Street, giving the impression that the entertainers are performing from inside the video wall.  At 22,350 square feet of LED canvas and 28 million pixels, TSX Broadway will have the highest-resolution display system in Times Square, as well as the largest commercial screen in the area.

On 4 May, the developers announced the completion of the Great Hoist of the Palace Theatre.  The engineering feat was overseen by Urban Foundation and Engineering and used a system of 34 hydraulic jacks to hoist the 14-million-pound theater at a speed of about a quarter of an inch per hour over four months.

The whole theater building was disconnected from its foundation and placed upon a platform for the lift.  When the theater rose to what would be about the building’s third floor, it was secured with what are known as “super-columns” and poured-concrete slabs to connect the old building to the new structure.

During the lift, Urban Foundation installed a cushion of a 5-foot-thick layer of concrete on the bottom of the theater enclosure.  The original columns supporting the theater’s auditorium were replaced and after the theater had been raised 17 feet, the lifting process was temporarily paused while a structural frame was installed around the edges of the theater.

Now work will commence on restoring the landmarked interior of the historic theater, all that’s left of the original Palace.  This will be the job of PBDW and will cost $50 million. 

The Palace’s 1913 Beaux-Arts interiors, including historic paintings, plaster balcony fasciae, gold-leaf gilding, ornate plasterwork, the sumptuous dome, and chandeliers, will be restored “to the glory it originally had,” asserts David Orowitz, managing director at L&L Holding.

The renovated Palace will have a new entrance on West 47th Street, around the corner from its former entrance on 7th Avenue, with a new, 80-foot-long marquee.  The new interior will have a larger lobby, twice as many bathrooms, additional space in the wings, new and larger dressing rooms, a larger green room (a space in a theater that serves as a waiting area and lounge for performers before, during, and after a show when they’re not engaged on stage), wider staircases, elevators, and a building completely accessible to theater goers of various abilities.

The new entrance will lead theatergoers to a pair of large escalators that’ll take them to the new structure’s third floor, where they’ll find the new lobby.  “We’re going to have architecture that takes into consideration what the theater box looks like,” explains Orowitz, “and introduces a modern interpretation of that.”

Altogether, TSX Broadway will have 550,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space.  In all the publicity and press coverage of the enterprise, the retail spaces are labeled “immersive,” “experiential,” or “lifestyle.”  These are terms (and a marketing concept) aimed at millennial consumers, so they’re new to me.  (I’m a “semicentennial” because I was born in the middle of the last century.)

In Real Estate Forum, Betsy Kim defines “experiential hotel”:

There has been a trend among hotels—indeed among almost all real estate asset classes—in recent years to move away from commoditization and to providing experiences.  This has resulted in the flourishing of hotels in niche markets such as Queens and Brooklyn, which now have become destinations unto themselves.

On UWIRE, Estelle Saad explains, “Experiential retail refers to purchasing an experience, such as air travel, rather than a good or service.”  With reference specifically to TSX Broadway, the New York Times says, “The project is part of a trend of offering experiences, like meditation sessions and salt rooms, to lure shoppers to stores.” 

In the Times, C. J. Hughes, a freelance real estate writer whose work appears in many papers, explains the strategy:

TSX is trying to sign a lease in a punishing climate for brick-and-mortar stores that has led to vacancies across New York, even in busy Times Square.  But the development team behind the project, led by the real estate developer L&L Holding, is betting that if a store offers enough fun and games, it can beat back the encroachment of online retailers.

Though experiential retail can be a “risky endeavor” because of “hefty upfront costs,” says Hughes, and “L&L is taking a gamble on TSX Broadway,” L&L executives, reports the Times writer, say that “the extra oomph that TSX will deliver will be irresistible to passers-by.”  The reason, adds Hughes, is that “online retail can’t duplicate it.”

Without revealing TSX Broadway’s rents, the speculation is that it will be significantly higher than average (for the “the latest bells and whistles”) for Times Square, which run around $2,000 per square foot.  

According to Crain’s New York Business, “Amazon, Disney, Facebook, YouTube, Samsung, Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba, and even Walmart have expressed interest in the site.”

[In August 2020, I posted a four-part post on theater superstitions and ghosts.  In the fourth installment, I wrote about the ghosts inhabiting the Palace Theatre (see “Ghosts, Curses, & Charms: Theater Superstitions – Part 4,” 23 August 2020).  Reputedly the Palace is the most haunted Broadway house.  One count is that there are over 100 ghosts haunting the Palace. 

[The Palace Theatre is reputed to be home to more ghosts than any other Broadway house.  “Among them,” lists Playbill, “is a mysterious figure who passes open doorways late at night, a child ghost who plays peekaboo in the mezzanine, a musician dressed in white who appears in the orchestra pit and a tight-rope walker (presumably from the theatre’s vaudeville days) whose appearance is said to foretell the viewer’s death.”

[Judy Garland’s spirit is said still to haunt the great, old theater (which has mounted exhibits in its lobbies of Garland memorabilia and old photographs), especially on the “the Judy Garland Staircase.”  Garland would post herself on this hidden staircase at the house-left rear of the orchestra and smoke a cigarette or two before entering the stage.

[The tight-rope walker is said to be Louis Borsalino (or Bossalina) who fell to his death during a performance when he was working without a safety net.  According to the New York Post, “Stagehands say that when the theater is empty, the ghost of [the vaudeville acrobat] can be seen swinging from the rafters.  He lets out a blood-curdling scream, then re-enacts his nose dive.”  Other sources have seen him walking a tight-rope from the house-left box up to the mezzanine.  Either way, as a harbinger of death, this is not a ghost you should want to meet.

[The New York Times of 28 August 1935, reported the accident involving the 31-year-old Borsalino; however, and the report listed him as “in a serious condition” with “a fracture of the pelvis, possible internal injuries and lacerations of the left arm.”  The acrobat survived, though, and after a lifetime of performing, Borsalino died in 1963 in Pennsylvania.

[Old ghosts seem not to stick around new structures that replace old theaters.  In some cases, though, spirits linger in playhouses built on sites of older buildings. 

[The Palace’s spooks have apparently been quiescent in recent years.  Reports of apparitions and inexplicable happenings have been few lately—though some of that may be attributable to the theater having closed in September 2018 for the TSX Broadway project and isn’t expected to reopen until 2023.  We’ll have to wait and see what happens after the “new” Palace Theatre opens next year.]

Civilian

 

The new hotel that opened in Hell’s Kitchen on 24 November 2021 is special in many ways (as you’ll shortly see).  Nothing about this enterprise, owned by hotelier Jason Pomeranc (b. 1971), designed by Gene Kaufman (b. 1958), with architect and award-winning Broadway set designer David Rockwell (b. 1956) as the interior designer, is more peculiar than its name: Civilian. 

First, I haven’t been able to learn why it’s called Civilian.  Pomeranc is designated “Creator of the CIVILIAN brand,” but I don’t know what that means.  Are there more Civilian hotels around?  Will there be?  And, still, why “Civilian”?

When I first came to New York City, I took classes at HB Studio.  One of my teachers there was director Aaron Frankel (1921-2018), who used to call non-theater people “civilians”—sort of like “muggles” . . . but somehow I doubt that Pomeranc or Rockwell picked up on that.

The closest I can come to some kind of invocation of a point to the inn’s name is the statement on its website that “CIVILIAN gives outsiders the chance to mingle with the who’s who of Manhattan’s creative scene.”  It’s not all that revelatory, but I suppose it’s a clue.

(There are also a couple of references such as one to a bar in the hotel as “a place for ‘civilians’ to mingle,” but I still don’t know what Pomeranc might mean by the word in his context.)

Even leaving the connotation of the name aside—and I don’t really want to because it’s too curious a choice—what to call the hotel is apparently in doubt.  Among the various write-ups I read, some call it “the Civilian” (or even “The Civilian”); others call it “Hotel Civilian,” “Civilian Hotel,” or “Civilian NYC.” 

(Pomeranc did promise, “We’re actively working on sites in several major U.S. cities.  We believe this concept is the new frontier of hospitality from an industry and guest perspective.”  He didn’t indicate, however, that any new hotel based on the same model will also be named Civilian.)

The source of the decisive answer to what to call this new hostelry should be its own website (www.civilianhotel.com); I believe in letting people, countries, communities, and companies decide for themselves what others should call them.  Civilianhotel.com chooses “Civilian”—no “the,” no “hotel,” no “NYC,” just plain “Civilian.” 

I find that a little awkward, at least while it’s new—but that’s the little dear’s decision.  Anyway, if the hotel works out and becomes a popular spot to stay, eat, or just hang out, it can call itself whatever it wants, and no one will carp (much).  So, let’s wait and see.

Civilian is the undertaking of Pomeranc’s Sixty Collective and the Rockwell Group.  Located at 305 W. 48th Street (west of 8th Avenue), it has 27 stories and 203 rooms.  Civilian’s main entrance on the north side of 48th is a black canopy protruding over the sidewalk from the red brick façade, emblazoned with the name of the hotel.

The 303-foot tower above the brick façade is clad in a mixture of floor-to-ceiling glass and opaque, dark gray paneling covering up the blank concrete walls.  The lower part of the structure, which, constructed of reclaimed bricks to look like a restored older building, is five stories, with the four upper floors pierced by four tall, slim, open arches. 

Above the ground floor, the structure’s façade sits several feet in front of the actual front wall of the brick building, which is set back from the street outside for a feeling of retreat.  On the other hand, the front wall of the first-floor restaurant and lounge has a huge, multi-paned window that encourages street-scene watching and opens onto a sidewalk terrace furnished with potted trees, dining tables, and lighting fixtures.

“I look at the hotel’s design very cinematically,” emphasizes Pomeranc; “I like to create vignettes and little reveals behind each corner.”

According to several architectural reports, the Civilian building covers over 73,000 square feet of area, with more than 59,000 square feet devoted to guest rooms.  (That leaves about 14,000 square feet for mechanicals and service areas as well as guest amenities.)

I don’t know how that stacks up against other New York City hostelries, but Pomeranc has asserted that “the rooms are more petite than what we’ve done in the past.”  That seems to mean 150 square feet for what Civilian designates a “Cozy” (“small yet luxurious,” furnished with a queen-sized bed or two twins) and 260 square feet for a “Spacious” (with a king, queen, or two doubles).

Several reviewers of the new inn have called it a “boutique” hotel, but I’m not sure what that signifies.  I gather the definition is flexible.  Wikipedia defines one as “a small hotel which typically has between 10 and 100 rooms in settings with upscale accommodations and individualized unique selling points (USPs).”  Civilian, of course, is over twice that maximum capacity, but fits the other criteria.  (We’ll see about the USP‘s momentarily; I’m saving them for later in the post.)

The website Les Boutique Hotels, which admonishes, “There is no strict definition when it comes to describing boutique hotels,” says a boutique hotel is “a small, stylish hotel, usually located in a fashionable location in the city’s urban district.”  That fits more-or-less . . . if you accept Hell’s Kitchen as a “fashionable location.”  Wiktionary, however, just says one’s a “small hotel in settings with upscale accommodations and individualized unique selling points,” which covers Civilian.

The interior of the brick structure features exposed, used red brick, like the exterior, and wood paneling.  In general, the look is that of the backstage areas of an older theater—a mainstay of the decorative theme for Civilian that I’ll get to shortly.

Next to the entrance on the ground floor is a lounge and bar and outside in the rear is a “secret” garden.  (The press report says the garden’s “accessed only from a concealed entry point”—but didn’t say from whom it’s concealed.) 

Above the lounge is a second-floor terrace and the Rosevale Restaurant & Cocktail Room, specializing in comfort food.  It’s a modern interpretation of a classic Theatre District diner, featuring a curved, ribbed leather ceiling with mirror panels, red leather banquettes, and brass accents.

There’s also a roof-top deck with a second, enclosed bar and lounge on the 27th floor of the tower with panoramic views of Hell’s Kitchen and New York City’s West Side all the way to the Hudson River down to Hudson Yards at 41st Street and the West Side Highway.  It’s inspired by “the whimsical rooftop gardens of historic Broadway theatres where summer shows were held.”

(Roof-top garden theaters became common at the turn-of-the-century Gilded Age in New York City, meant to replicate the garden theaters of Europe.  There was no space for garden theaters in Manhattan, however, so theater-owners decided to move them up to the theater’s rooves.  Thus was born the roof-top garden where entertainment seekers could find acrobats, Russian swans, monkeys, and cows appearing amidst grottoes, waterfalls, duck ponds, vine-wrapped arches, and pagodas.

(They started with the Casino Theatre, built by Rudolph Aronson at 39th and Broadway, which opened in 1883 and went on to include Stanford White’s Madison Square Garden on 23rd Street, opened in 1892, and Oscar Hammerstein I’s Olympia Theatre, an entire city block at 44th and Broadway, which opened in 1896, and his Paradise Roof Garden, 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, which opened in 1901.)

The hotel’s room sizes notwithstanding, Pomeranc declares, “CIVILIAN is about bringing affordable luxury to the next generation of business and leisure travelers.”  The hotelier insists, “The quality level should not diminish because of the room size.”  The inn’s website touts: “At CIVILIAN, we believe luxury design should be for everyone.”

“I don’t believe that the guest should have to sacrifice anything on a visual or textual experience, whether it’s the rich velvets from the fabrics or the tile in the bathroom or the quality of sheets and linens and pillows,” says Pomeranc.  

The guest rooms are decorated in “darker tones and tactile surfaces like lacquered woods and velvet to create a New York ambiance,” says Pomeranc.  They have “hand-painted details, four-poster beds, [and] upholstered benches.”  The bathrooms have glazed porcelain sinks and are equipped with heated floors.

Room prices at Civilian range from $160 a night up, depending on the date(s) booked and the amenities and extras a guest selects.  The new hotel offers what it dubs “Customization” for the guest’s stay: “Everything you want and nothing you don’t need.”  The “Basic,” “Essential,” and “Inclusive” tiers allow guests to choose their preferred way to stay, with the addition that they can always add extra amenities based on their needs.

(It may interest prospective guests that Civilian is also pet-friendly and offers several levels of pet accommodation.  Check the website for details: https://www.civilianhotel.com/faq.)

And, now those USP’s—the “unique selling points”:

This is what caught my attention—and why this article is posted on Rick On Theater—when I saw the news report on WCBS-TV (Channel 2 in New York City) at the end of its 5 p.m. broadcast on Wednesday, 2 March.  It was a segment on the CBS 2 News feature “Broadway and Beyond.” 

The anchor, Maurice DuBois, introduced the report:

When you think of Broadway, maybe you imagine taking in a great show and a dinner, with a stroll through Shubert Alley.

CBS2’s Dave Carlin has more on a new hotel where you can immerse yourself in theatricality.

Civilian, in fact, is inspired by the neighborhood in which it’s located: the Theatre District.  It’s steps from Times Square with the Theatre Development Fund’s TKTS discount booth (in Duffy Square, the triangle formed by W. 47th, Broadway, and 7th Avenue) and up 48th Street from the Walter Kerr Theatre (Hadestown – 2019 Best Musical) and the Longacre (Macbeth with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, directed by Sam Gold – previews start 29 March, opens 28 April).  The décor is thoroughly Broadway-themed.

Civilian, writes Rebecca King on northjersey.com, “is a celebration of old-time Broadway, dressed by Broadway insiders.”  I described the entry to the hotel as a canopy, but it’s really a miniature theater marquee.  The hotel’s name flashing from it is the “theater’s” designation.  The entrance resembles the stage door of a vintage theater.  King dubbed it “the most Broadway of Broadway hotels.”

Inside the stage-door entry is the hotel’s lobby, which looks like a classic theater’s back of house (except spiffier), a feeling that’s enhanced by the marquee-style lighting in the ceiling.  The lobby’s all dark-stained wood and there are even old-style wooden theater seats against the walls for guests waiting to register. 

A spiral iron staircase leads up to the second floor just like one back stage that might go up to the second level of dressing rooms.  The stairway is dramatically draped in a curtain that could have covered the proscenium opening of a Broadway house.

The guest rooms are reminiscent of dressing rooms in a theater—except better appointed.  (They are painted, for instance, in either deep blue or wine-maroon with hand-painted details—not features of most theater dressing rooms.)  

The pillows on the beds are covered in fabrics imprinted with abstract patterns by costume designers Jeff Mahshie (Tony-nominated for 2016’s She Loves Me) and David Zinn (Tony-nominated for 2018’s SpongeBob SquarePants, 2017’s A Doll's House, Part 2, 2015’s Airline Highway, 2015’s Fun Home, and 2010’s In the Next Room).  The walls are adorned with framed costume and set renderings.

The wallpaper in the elevators has also been created by costume designers such as Isabel and Ruben Toledo (After Midnight, 2014 Tony nominee) and William Ivey Long (Hairspray, 2003 Tony winner, and Beetlejuice, 2019 Tony nominee) from abstractions of their costume creations. 

There are theater photographs everywhere in Civilian, including in the lobby where are displayed the opening-night portraits of Little Fang (the professional name of Manchester, New Hampshire-based husband-and-wife photographers Lindsey and Adam Brisbine).

The art in the hallways of Civilian is grouped around a different theme on each floor.  On the fourth floor, for example, are rehearsal photos of Michael Bennett (1943-87) at Dreamgirls (1981-85; 6 Tonys and 7 other nominations, including Best Musical) and the cast of Miss Saigon (1991-2001; 3 Tonys and 8 additional nominations).

Elsewhere in Civilian, including the main bar, all the hallways, and each of the guest rooms, are other theater memorabilia and ephemera.  This is the Olio Collection, a curated display of works by theatrical artists that Rockwell assembled with Tony-winning Hamilton costume designer Paul Tazewell.  Contemporary artifacts come from shows like Hamilton (replica guns and a crown), Cabaret (a pink “shrug”), Wicked, and Kinky Boots (the iconic thigh-high red boots). 

(In addition to the 2016 award for Hamilton, Tazewell was nominated for Tonys for Ain’t Too Proud, 2019; A Streetcar Named Desire, 2012; Memphis, 2010; In the Heights, 2008; The Color Purple, 2006; and Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk, 1996.) 

The collection represents over 350 pieces of art, including sketches, models, photos, costume pieces, and props from a century of theater history, such as historic photographs of the Stage Door Canteen (1942-46) and posters for the Stage Women’s War Relief (founded in 1917, the predecessor of the American Theatre Wing).

In Rosevale are set models from shows such as Hadestown (scenic design by Rachel Hauck, 2019 Tony), Slave Play (scenic design by Clint Ramos, 2020 Tony nomination), Moulin Rouge! (scenic design by Derek McLane, 2020 Tony), and Chicken & Biscuits (scenic design by Lawrence E. Moten III).  Rockwell intends to work with emerging and established “makers” of theater, the design artists, costumers, photographers—the folks among whom he’s worked in productions—to create a rotating exhibit of theater artifacts with new displays being swapped out for previous ones.

Pomeranc even hired a Broadway press firm, Rick Miramontez’s DKC/O&M, to help build a connection to the theater industry.  (The current Broadway productions for which Miramontez’s company handles publicity and press relations are Plaza Suite, The Music Man, MJ The Musical, Company, Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, and To Kill a Mockingbird.)  “We know our Broadway colleagues will find [Civilian] a worthy and wonderful new clubhouse,” says Miramontez.

In the restaurant are featured 41 round wall sconces decorated with sketches of Broadway houses by set designers such as Derek McLane (Tonys for Moulin Rouge! and 33 Variations, 2009; Tony nominations for A Soldier's Play, 2020, Anything Goes, 2011, and Ragtime, 2010), Es Devlin (Tony nominations for American Psycho, 2016, and Machinal, 2014), Scott Pask (Tonys for The Book of Mormon, 2011, The Coast of Utopia, 2007. and The Pillowman, 2005; nominations for Pal Joey, 2009, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 2008), Tony Walton (Tonys for Guys and Dolls, 1992, The House of Blue Leaves, 1986, and Pippin, 1973, and nominations for Uncle Vanya, 2000, Steel Pier, 1997, She Loves Me, 1994, The Will Rogers Follies, 1991, Grand Hotel, 1990, Lend Me a Tenor, 1989, Anything Goes, 1988, The Front Page, 1987, The Real Thing, 1984, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, 1980, and Chicago, 1976), Mimi Lien (Tony for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, 2017), and Rockwell himself (Tony for She Loves Me, 2016, and nominations for On the Twentieth Century, 2015, You Can't Take It With You, 2015, Kinky Boots, 2014, Lucky Guy, 2013, and Hairspray, 2003).

(British-born Tony Walton, b. 1934, died earlier this month at 87.  In addition to his set designs, he also designed costumes—he was nominated for costume Tonys for Anything Goes in 1988 and The Apple Tree in 1967.  Married to actress Julie Andrews, his teenage sweetheart, from 1959 to 1968, he was nominated for a 1965 Academy Award for his costumes in the Andrews vehicle Mary Poppins.  He was nominated for several other costume or set-decoration Oscars and shared the award for set decoration in 1980 with three other artists for All That Jazz.  Walton also shared an Emmy for art direction with two others in 1986 for Death of a Salesman.)

The bulk of the Olio Collection (I don’t know where the name comes from) is displayed in large vitrines set in walls of the second-floor Library, also known as the Blue Room because of the royal-blue leather upholstery on the chairs and banquettes and the wall-covering of the same hue.  (The Blue Room is also available for business meetings for clients of Civilian.)

Says interior designer Rockwell,

The Olio Collection is a visual celebration of Broadway and the theatrical art form . . . .  I’ve been lucky enough to work with an incredible team of co-curators, all Broadway designers of different disciplines, to create this vast and ever-changing collection.  The Olio Collection was our way of ensuring that a layer of authentic theatricality was incorporated into the hotel’s DNA from a design perspective.  One of the things that makes the theater so special is how ephemeral it is.  A performance only exists for a single moment in time; once a show closes, it’s gone forever.  I really like the idea of giving all of this work a bit of permanence.

“Part of the intention is to bring in the theater community, the makers,” says Rockwell.  He’s talking about the artists and craftspeople who do the physical work of “making” the show, not the ones who perform in it.  “I knew that that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” recalls the designer-architect.  “I wanted to create places that brought people together,” he continues.  “I was more like the person who made the show.  I wasn’t as interested being . . . in the show . . . .”

“I’m always amazed when I work on a project and there’s a moment in the show when you realize 25 people touch that moment to make it work,” he explains.  He calls those people, the costume and set designers, prop-makers and wig-makers, the scores of professional fabricators, “makers.”  “So,” says Rockwell, “in some ways, this is a chance [for outsiders] to be exposed to all of those different people.”

(I want to note here that on ROT I’ve made a practice of spotlighting many of those same professionals—along with other theater pros who do jobs that few theatergoers know about or even see.  I’ve run articles on a wig-maker, costume designers, set designers, sound designers, lighting designers, and a theater photographer.  I won’t cross-reference them here, but readers can look them up with the blog’s search engine.)

Rockwell, who aside from accolades as a scenic designer is also responsible for the ambience of many restaurants, clubs, hotels, theaters, and other projects around the country, acknowledges, “This hotel links my two greatest passions, which is theater and hospitality.”  

Civilian’s interior designer “envisioned a new home and ad hoc clubhouse to serve the needs of New York’s creative corps of performers, designers, directors, producers, and writers,” promises the Rockwell Group’s website.  “It’s also a place where outsiders in the know can rub shoulders with those who inspire them, and immerse themselves in Broadway and all of its micro-worlds.”

Civilian plans to donate a portion of its revenues to the American Theatre Wing, the nonprofit organization that supports theater and, with the Broadway League, presents the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, to help in its mission of support for the creatives affected by COVID. 

The hotel is looking to forge a long-term partnership with ATW, which supplied many of the historic photos from its archives.  ATW President and CEO Heather Hitchens declares, “A place for theater people to gather that also showcases and celebrates the work of those who don’t always get the attention they deserve” is sorely needed.

With the guidance of Hitchens and Miramontez, Pomeranc is hoping to make Civilian a spot for members of the theater community to gather for photo shoots, interviews, and parties.  The hotelier wants theater folk to think of Civilian as their place, recommending it to other theater people when they come to New York City.  From this description, advisedly the product of DKC/O&M’s efforts, it sounds like Pomeranc and Rockwell have made a good start, but we’ll have to wait a while to see if they succeed.