Highlights
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...
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 A review deemed the Mechanic Theatre too small and outdated for the larger productions that have come out in the '80s and '90s, such as "Miss Saigon" and "Phantom of the Opera," spurring operators Clear Channel and the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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Marine's death matters more than Mechanic
With no disrespect to the reporters on these stories who have no control over their placement, I think it is a sad day when an article on the first page of The Baltimore Sun addresses the status of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre ("Landmark status ruling... -
Make the Mechanic a relic of memory
I've read with interest of the discussions about saving the Morris A. Mechanic Theater, a grotesque example of public-building-as-urban-fortress ("Saving the Mechanic," Sept. 28). Ugly when it was built, it served as a cold and unfriendly public space...Tags: Catonsville
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Saving the Mechanic
The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, which has drawn praise as one of downtown Baltimore's most significant works of 20th-century architecture, is known as a symbol of urban renewal and for the way its highly sculpted exterior reflected the spaces inside. The...Tags: Hotel and Accommodation Industry, Architecture, Hotels and Accommodations, Road Transportation, Transportation
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Landmark status ruling due for Mechanic Theatre
The shell of Baltimore's long-dormant Morris A. Mechanic Theatre would be partially preserved as part of a mixed-use complex containing a 30-story residential and hotel tower and commercial space, if its owners can obtain city approval and financing to...Tags: Architecture, Clear Channel Communications Inc., Hippodrome Theatre
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Mechanic Theatre not on landmark list
Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre will not be added to the city's landmark list, even though the city's preservation commission determined more than a year ago that it met the criteria for designation and recommended that it be listed. Baltimore's...Tags: Architecture
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Landmark status will protect theater
The controversy over the future of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre continues, and tomorrow, the Planning Commission will decide whether to support a landmark designation for the Mechanic. In its recent editorial "Landmark in all but name" (Aug. 17), The...Tags: Architecture
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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: Poetry, Music Theater, Lyric Opera of Baltimore, Medical Specialization, Tony Curtis
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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: M&T Bank Corporation, Richard Burton, Major League Baseball, Music Theater, Roy Rogers
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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: Clubs and Associations, Satellite and Cable Service, Finance, Music Theater, Lyric Opera of Baltimore
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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: Sales, Music Theater, CBS Corp., Clear Channel Communications Inc., Cults and Sects
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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 Theater, Tony Kushner, August Wilson, Broadway, National or Ethnic Minorities
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