Summary
The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre opened in 1967 as part of the Charles Center renewal zone to bring more people into the city. It closed more than 30 years later when the larger France-Merrick Performing Arts Center reopened. The theater was sold in 2005 for $6 million to One West Baltimore Street Associates, who want to convert the property into a mixed-use center containing shops, offices, residences and possibly a hotel. Baltimore's preservation commission has voted to add the building to the city's landmark list, which could limit how the structure is developed. Theater owner and real estate investor Morris Mechanic built the 1,614-seat modern theater on Hopkins Plaza, and Baltimore became known as a "tr...
The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre opened in 1967 as part of the Charles Center renewal zone to bring more people into the city. It closed more than 30 years later when the larger France-Merrick Performing Arts Center reopened. The theater was sold in 2005 for $6 million to One West Baltimore Street Associates, who want to convert the property into a mixed-use center containing shops, offices, residences and possibly a hotel. Baltimore's preservation commission has voted to add the building to the city's landmark list, which could limit how the structure is developed. Theater owner and real estate investor Morris Mechanic built the 1,614-seat modern theater on Hopkins Plaza, and Baltimore became known as a "tryout town," where shows worked out their kinks in front of an audience before opening in New York. Its first production was "Hello, Dolly!" and the Mechanic went on to host Broadway touring shows such as "Hairspray," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Graduate." In 1976, the city formed the nonprofit Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts to rescue the theater. A review deemed the Mechanic Theatre too small and outdated for the larger productions that have come out in the '80s and '90s, such as "Miss Saigon" and "Phantom of the Opera," spurring operators Clear Channel and the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts to redevelop the Hippodrome.
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9 items on Morris A. Mechanic Theatre
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Future of Mechanic hinges on its design
sun architecture criticOf all the arguments for designating Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre a city landmark, one of the strongest comes from the owner itself. Others have reasoned that the 1967 building is a laudable symbol of its times, an inspired work of modern...Tags: Architecture, Culture
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Should the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre be added to the city's landmark list?
Following are excerpts from some of the letters on file with Baltimore's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation about the proposal to add the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre to the city's landmark list. "The Mechanic Theater in Baltimore...Tags: Colleges and Universities, Academic Progress, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Richard Meier, Culture
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Panel acts to protect the Mechanic
Sun architecture criticBaltimore's preservation commission took action yesterday to protect the substantially gutted Morris A. Mechanic Theatre from demolition or further alteration by voting unanimously to add it to a "special list" that gives the panel legal authority to...Tags: Government, Architecture, Roland Park, Photography, National Government
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Save Mechanic, architect urges
Sun architecture criticJohn M. Johansen has painful memories of a time when TV personalities Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas paid $6.8 million to purchase a house he designed in Connecticut, only to tear it down. "It was like a death in the family," he laments. Now the...Tags: Building Material, Colleges and Universities, Metal and Mineral, Ayn Rand, Richard Meier
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Visionaries bask in Hippodrome glow
Baltimoresun.com StaffFirst of two parts The curtain goes up Tuesday night at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in downtown Baltimore. While the 2,286 guests on hand for the opening night gala premiere of the mega-Tony Award-winning...Tags: Benny Goodman, William Donald Schaefer, Ronald Reagan, Culture, Connie Francis
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Arena Players ready for next act
Special to SunSpotIn 1953, nine African-Americans gathered in a Northwest Baltimore living room to discuss offering quality theater to the community. Their goal seemed simple. "We just wanted to do plays," said Ed Terry, the company's associate artistic director who...Tags: Colleges and Universities, Finance, Crossroads, Financial Planning, Minority Groups
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'Hairspray' yields many happy returns
SunSpot Staff"Hairspray" will go down in theater history as the quintessential Broadway success story. The production, based on Baltimorean John Waters' 1988 cult movie, focuses on a tubby teenager who wins her way onto a local TV show in 1962 and integrates the...Tags: Music Industry, Film Festivals, Academic Progress, Culture, Cults and Sects
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Arena Players, Center Stage deserve to take bows
Sun Theater CriticThe new theater season marks milestone anniversaries for two Baltimore theaters. Center Stage turns 40, and Arena Players, billed as "the nation's oldest continuously operating African-American theater," turns 50. The fare at both is eclectic, and,...Tags: Condos and Houses, Ronald Harwood, Minority Groups, National or Ethnic Minorities, Charles Busch
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The Collage Artist
Sun Theater CriticNEW YORK -- August Wilson sits in a scruffy, linoleum-floored eatery in the heart of the theater district holding a sheaf of discount coupons for "Miss Saigon." He's not planning on seeing the show, but he's put the coupons to good use. Neat black...Tags: Music Industry, Country Music, Tony Kushner, Minority Groups, August Wilson
Aug 13, 2007
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