Stamford”™s Palace Theatre is engaged in three capital improvement projects.
A new roof over the auditorium portion of the 61 Atlantic St. theater, which cost $225,000 and was funded by the city of Stamford and the state, wraps up soon.
The exterior of the 1927 building”™s north wall requires work. Testing is ongoing to determine the repairs and expenses required.
The third project is the marquee act: a $550,000 replacement of 798 current chairs on the main floor with 810 chairs, funded by the state Department of Economic and Community Development with additional input from the theater. The 776 seats in the balcony remain the same.
The new chairs will follow a modern seating design that for the first time will find the Palace without a center aisle. That space will have seats. Aisles will move toward the sides, a design now familiar in many big theaters.
Singer Amy Grant plays the last show with the old seating design Sept. 12. Then the seat replacements begin in earnest. Preliminary work began Aug 19.
“When Michael Feinstein opens Oct. 12, some lucky folks will be seated in the best seats the Palace has never had,” said BT McNicholl, the theater”™s producing artistic director.
McNicholl likens the space acoustically to the best in the world. He is the current associate director of the “Cabaret” revival at Studio 54 in New York City, with Alan Cumming reprising his Tony-winning emcee role. He has directed shows at Radio City Music Hall and at Folies Bergère in Paris.
“I”™ve worked in 12 different Broadway theaters and this is a first-class Broadway theater in the middle of Stamford,” McNicholl said. The sound system is by Stamford-based Harman Kardon, complementing what McNicholl termed “world-class acoustics” that are built into the architecture. “It”™s unusual to have about half the seats in the balcony and half below, which the Palace has. There is not a bad seat in the house.”
“And here”™s the punch line,” he said. “The seats are removable.”
That idea was in-house, but McNicholl praised government stakeholders for their willingness to essentially make two theaters in one. “This is a new idea, not seen 10 or 15 years ago,” he said. “It was one thing to have that idea. But you have to have wise and generous supporters to make it happen.”
The seats themselves are deep, vivid red. When not in use ”” likely during youth-themed concerts in the summer months ”” they will be stored in tractor-trailers. The chairs are being installed by Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Irwin Seating Co.
McNicholl said those in their 20s and 30s have little interest in sit-down concerts and the open floor is a concerted effort to attract a new generation to the theater. Port Chester, N.Y.”™s remade Capitol Theater offers an open ground-floor layout and has attracted A-list performers and sellout crowds.
McNicholl, theater Executive Director Michael Moran and, since March, Director of Business Development Mia Schipani in turn praised the theater. Moran said, “This is a jewel.”
Schipani completed a theater tour with a prospective Fortune 100 corporate client. The tour went well, she said.
“I find there”™s a real demand for unique meeting spaces, especially those that can handle more than 1,000 people,” she said.
Schipani pointed to floor-to-ceiling windows that face onto bustling Atlantic Street, calling them “a big draw” for corporate gatherings and an improvement on more staid business-meeting settings. “You don”™t get this view with a ballroom; it”™s a big draw. We have a real streetscape here.”
There is also a catering preparation area. “And, the theater is available for rent,” she said.
That effort ramps up Sept. 8 with a rollout of what she called “uniquely themed and packaged events.”
“There”™s a lot happening here,” McNicholl said. “All this is part of a large idea to make the Palace a more useable, more relevant part of the community.”
