Biltmore gets a new name
Biltmore gets a new name
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#1Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:11pm
It will be renamed for Broadway and film press agent Samuel J. Friedman. The lobby will carry a plaque honoring his associates, longtime press agents Shirley Herz and Bob Ullman.
NY Times - Big News! Press Agent Gets Name in Lights
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#2re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:17pmThe Samuel J. Friedman Theatre just doesn't ring.
#2re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:19pm
Agreed.
"Come'on, I've got front row to see (insert show here) at the Freidman Friday night!" -- Doesn't fly wth me either.
Updated On: 6/18/08 at 06:19 PM
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#3re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:26pm
Bad as the Schonfield.
Where's the Merman?
The Porter?
Belleof14thStreet
Chorus Member Joined: 5/31/07
#4re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:29pmUmmm ... it's not like The Biltmore is any more melodic.
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#5re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:32pm
Would you have preferred it to be called the Sprint? At least it will be named for someone who worked in the theatre ... and not a lawyer.
Personally, MTC could have called that theatre anything, as far as I'm concerned, and no one would have any right to complain. Broadway did nothing for 17 years while that theatre was nearly burned to the ground, taken over by vagrants and vandalized, then abandoned and left in a state of almost complete disrepair.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#6re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:33pm
Biltmore sounds more like a garage than a theatre to me.
I blame Frank Loesser.
Updated On: 6/18/08 at 06:33 PM
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 6:46pm
Yawn
Better to call it the Broadway World Theater.
We are lucky the theater even exists after the years of neglect.
Poster Emeritus
Updated On: 6/18/08 at 06:46 PM
jordangirl
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/1/06
#8re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 7:56pm
I've always liked the name. It reminds me of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.
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#9re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/18/08 at 11:30pmDoesn't exactly roll of the tongue, but what can ya do? Welcome The Friedman. That's a nice honor.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#11re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 12:31am
You know, I thought "Schoenfeld" was a really Jewish name to put on a theatre...
But "Friedman?"
That takes the unleavened cake.
We're taking over, just watch!
Updated On: 6/19/08 at 12:31 AM
#12re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:33amI didn't think Schoenfeld was that bad...Friedman though? Ugh. I'm not looking forward to having to use that name. It sounds like some legal firm.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE: Passing Strange (7.17.08), [title of show] (7.18.08), [title of show (7.19.08 M), [title of show] (7.19.08 E), The 39 Steps (7.20.08 M), Damn Yankees (7.20.08 E)
#14re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:51amSchoenfeld is still my least favorite. I still don't even know how to correctly pronounce it.
#15re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 4:46amSo anyone with enough money to donate can get a theatre named after him/her?
Faced with these Loreleis, what man can moralize!
#16re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 7:36am
We're taking over, just watch!
Honey, you had never NOT taken over. 
myManCape
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/26/05
#17re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 12:24pm
Would you have preferred this?
MANHATTAN Theater Club, one of New York's premiere non-profit theaters, is going through a financial crunch, according to several theater sources. To ease matters, the company is considering selling the name of its flagship Biltmore Theatre to the highest corporate bidder. Word is that Pepsi-Cola may grab the naming rights.
The Roundabout Theatre Co. did this a few years ago, thus its flagship theater in Times Square is called the American Airlines. Next door is the Hilton Theatre. A few blocks north is the Cadillac Winter Garden.
All of which brings to mind the late producer Alex Cohen's prediction that one day Broadway will see "The Campbell's Pork 'n' Bean Palace."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11242006/entertainment/theater/stoppard_wonders_theater_michael_riedel.htm?page=0
"Have they come yet?"
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#18re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 12:55pmI just wish the Schoenfeld would have a prettier marquee. I'd be offended if that were my marquee.
#19re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 12:56pmI LOVE the huge A Chorus Line lettering though.
"He found something that he wanted, had always wanted and always would want— not to be admired, as he had feared; not to be loved, as he had made himself believe; but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise
#20re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:05pm
I'm not fond of the Jacobs either.
How about the Sondheim or the Hammerstein?
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#21re: Biltmore gets a new name
Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:20pm
Well, let's face it, there should also be a Miller, Williams, Porter, Merman, Kern, Berlin, Lerner, Loewe, in addition to Hammerstein or Sondheim. Even though there is a legacy attached to certain names of theatres, like the Imperial or the Majestic, I have to say I wouldn't complain if they wanted to rename the Imperial the Merman or the Majestic for Hammerstein. Or give new names to the St. James, Music Box, Longacre, Ambassador, Circle in the Square, Broadway or Studio 54.
It's a little more disturbing when theatres already named for someone get renamed, like the Martin Beck for Al Hirschfeld (not that he didn't deserve such an honor). Or the fact that we have not one, but TWO theatres named for drama critics, instead of playwrights (not to mention that I'm not really convinced that one of those critics deserved the honor, given his track record).
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teh_pretty
Featured Actor Joined: 4/2/05
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