Ziegfeld Theatre
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
131 people
favorited this theater
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So gald to hear Les Miz is doing so well at the Ziegfeld. Howard this would have been a perfect movie for out Boyd in Phila. Sigh.
What’s the next movie after Les Mis?
I saw Les Miserables here last night at the new ticket price of $14. Seems to go a little higher every year. Anyway, it was quite a show. I even enjoyed Russell Crowe’s singing. I think he’s being unfairly slammed all over the place – he was just fine. In fact the only thing that could’ve improved it any would be the use of the curtains, but after what Al told us, I fear we may never see them get used again. Even without them, the Ziegfeld is the best place in NYC to see a movie. The big crowd in the center section last night (a Thursday) is proof of that.
Happy New Year, Vito! Great to have you back.
In addition to use of the curtain, I’d root for upgrade to 4k projection as mentoned above.
Al, just curious…….are you in favor of the interior landmarking of The Ziegfeld? It is now old enough and it should qualify on many levels. It was the last of the Movie Palaces to be built and is an exquisite example of its late 60’s era. It has played host to probably more premieres than any other Manhattan cinema and is the last of the palaces still showing films regularly; unless one also counts the Paris (which I kind of do). The theater is beautiful and it is a joy to see a film in; regardless of whether the curtains are used or not. And how many movie theaters were built with individual sinks in the bathroom stalls; even in the men’s room??? I don’t know of any other. :–)
p.s. Thanks Vito for your spirited defense of the curtains. As a lay person, I just can’t understand how complicated it could be to operate a simple curtain. Thanks for your input.
My little local theater in downtown Asheville,NC the Fine Arts still uses curtains in bothe theaters. The downstairs theater has curtains that rise up and the upstairs balcony theater has curtains that open across.
Call it a clunker or bad karma but I worked for Cineplex Odeon for almost ten years, much of that time out of the Ziegfeld. In spite of weekly maintenance and a full time Union stagehand, that curtain was always broken and cost more money on lost shows and repairs than it was worth. We loved classic presentations but we all hated the damn thing.
My man Vito just summed it all up with the last sentence. Enough said.
Sorry Al I am not buying into that, maintaining curtains just simply is not all that hard. In all of my years in this biz I have worked many a theatre with just about every size and shape of curtain it is only recently, as Mark pointed out, have the industry lost the art of presenting movies and no one cares anymore about showmanship. In my day curtains rarely broke down and if they did it was repaired immediately because it was considered a sin to have a bare screen exposed in the theatre. And we used the curtains as a part of the show almost always presenting the movie with a Delux presentation opening and closing them between pre feature film and the feature. Heck we would not even allow the audience to see the masking moving between a flat presentation and a scope one the curtains were used to hide that. Perhaps the folks at the Ziegfeld should go over to Radio City Music Hall and find out just how to properly maintain the curtains. During the days of movies at RCMH have you ever gone into and found the curtain not working? That answer would be NO, and the Music Hall curtains are far more elaborate than the ones at the Ziegfeld and yet they manage to keep them working.
So cut the crap Clearview and get this problem resolved you are embarrassing yourself with the excuses that us ole timers aren’t buying
If you look at previous posts here, the curtain has never worked for more than a few weeks at a time regardless of who owned or managed the theatre. It is an albatross that has lead to many canceled performances and a fortune in repair costs over the years. It is too heavy to pull manually and takes weeks sometimes to get repair parts.
Even presentation conscience Walter Reade Theatres used to tie it up before a major screening for fear of it shutting the house down. I suppose a more profitable theatre would have replaced it years ago with the flimsy cheaper horizontal version that many legit theatres now have.
Al, it’s not lost on me. I minored in English Literature. I simply thought it was stupid. I’m allowed to have an opinion. Now, back to the Ziegeld. I want my curtain back!!!!!
saps, I’m sure the curtain works just fine and dandy. The bigger problem today is that no one at the theatre cares about showmanship. I can almost bet that the managers are a tad older than the kids selling concession. Gone are the days of managers in their 40’s and 50’s and projectionists like myself and my father who really truely cared about the presentation. Today, its get em in, get em out and how much is our per cap. I’m sure no one at Clearview (or any other chain who may end up with this theatre) gives a hoot about us old timers who are passionate about things like curtains and intermissions. Its really very sad.
But can they get the curtain working?
Lol, al. If Digiplex takes over Clearview then theyll upgrade to 4k projection.
I guess Victor Hugo’s brilliant allegory on man’s inability to escape his past sins is lost on you.
It’s true it is a classic, but that doesn’t mean the plot is in any way believable. I and many people I know find the plot truly nonsensical. Without going into specifics it is astounding that the two main characters keep running into each other all over France in the most unusual places. I didn’t buy it. :–)
“The plot is preposterous and the story nonsensical”
I can see not liking a movie or a play, but ridiculing the premise of one of the greatest classic works of all time is a bit much.
By the way, the 1934 French version which recently ran on TCM is four and a half hours long and I was not bored for a minute.
I was bored to tears. The plot is preposterous and the story nonsensical. Russell Crowe’s voice was awful. The big surprise for me was how wonderful the actress who played Eponine was. For the record, I did not like to Broadway production either and I saw the original cast back in the late 80’s. Also, for the record, I have seen Chicago, Phantom, Mamma Mia, Dreamgirls, Grease, Sweeney Todd, etc at The Ziegfeld and they were all FAR better than Les Mis but that is only my opinion. Lots of other people like it, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many people completely agree with me. LOL! p.s. Dreamgirls, hands down, best movie experience for me at the Ziegfeld of any movie musical. It was something I will never forget including three standing ovations during the standing room only crowd.
Hobbit les mis and zero dark thirty
Bigjoe the thing was you are so involved in the movie that you don’t want to get up. I think i saw 2 people the whole time get up. I domiss the days of intermissions. Almosrt all of the big Christmas movies this year are way over 2 hours.
Hello-
it interesting even people i know who like the film if they have any negative comment per se is that they thought it was a tad long. haven’t they ever seen a stage production?
also there have been countless films in the past say 15 years that were huge box office hits and were longer than “Les Miz”. so if the only negative comment per se that people have about the film is its length i find that interesting.
It didn’t have an intermission here in Asheville NC either. I loved the movie but it was a long time to sit.
Perhaps Raysson made that up as something we can dream for the Ziegfeld?
It certainly wasn’t screened with any extras this afternoon, 2nd Jan 2013. Very, very disappointing presentation. ….and the movie itself wasn’t up to much either!!! Flagship cinemas should give an audience an experience, this afternoon I could have been in any shopping mall multiplex, from ticket kiosk all the way through to the screening!
Hello-
i am totally confused my raysson’s comment.
at what theater or theaters are they showing the
film with overture,intermission and exit music?
its certainly not at the Ziegfeld.