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From Live Theater to Movie Theater to Live Theater Again
posted by
btkrefft
on
January 21, 2005 at 7:22 am
CHICAGO, IL — The former Water Tower movie theaters at the Water Tower Place shopping center on Michigan Avenue and Chestnut Street, which closed in summer of 2003 after a brief stint as an art house under the Village Theatres chain, will be opening around April as a single auditorium, 549-seat live theater venue.
The Drury Lane Theatre at Water Tower Place’s first production will be Terrence McNally and David Yazbek’s “The Full Monty”. Drury Lane originally was part of the shopping center when it opened in 1976, but later closed, and the space turned into a movie theater under Plitt Theatres, then Cineplex Odeon, and finally Meridian Theatres before closing in 2001.
Screens 5-7 reopened in 2002 under Village Theatres, while 1-4 were turned into additional retail space. The cost of the renovation back to a live theater space cost around $9 million. It will be the second new live theater to open on Michigan Avenue in recent years, with the Lookingglass Theatre company opening its new space in the historic Water Tower Water Works just across the street from Water Tower Place in 2003.
For more information, read the Chicago Tribune article.
