BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
30 Lafayette Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
13 people
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Showing 23 comments
Please update total seats 754
Let me put my two cents in here, Mr. Vindanpar. The complete theatre exists behind the walls built forward on the sides and front of stage downstairs. The top procenium of theatre is viewed in the upstairs front stadium cinema and the entire ceiling details are seen in the entrances on both sides upstairs while the cinema ceilings of both upstairs cinemas are painted dark colors but the details can be seen. What I am saying is should the death nell happen to movies in the next ten years, the BAM Rose Cinemas can be put back intact as it was with the alterations removed. The theatre exists like the Loew’s Paradise in the Bronx which was twinned, tripled and quaded before it closed and is now is in it’s original 1929 opening single auditorium. Loew’s covered the original decor and was sensitive in its conversions and that’s why the Loew’s Paradise is a prime example for the BAM Rose Cinemas to follow.
I have been in the main stage opera house MANY times but the former Carey only once. I don’t recall the latter as being more than a utilitarian space. And, there is no need to go to the site proffered by digital for the BAM Harvey when you can get it’s full history right here on CT from the days when it was the Majestic and had double the seating capacity that it does now.
Jeez Louise, the main stage opera house is untouched, but the smaller concert space was carefully and tastefully converted into four screens, two upstairs,and two downstairs. It was hardly haphazardly “cut up” like so many big movies houses were back in the 70s and 80s.
I don’t recall much theater being performed in the concert hall, or at BAM in general, but they do have other spaces now for theater and other live performances, including the restored Majestic Theater and a few smaller spots.
So since you’re referring to my comment from February let me just say a few things:
What I write is not representative of everyone here.
The only reason Black Panther played here was because of the “cultural significance”. Normally only smaller, indie films play here. It attracted many crowds that otherwise might never have visited BAM, so I did welcome that. For instance now they’re playing “Us” there, also mainly because of cultural significance.
The Harvey theater in here is quite large. It has 837 seats. You can read its history here: https://www.bam.org/visit/buildings/harvey-lichtenstein-theater and its screen here: https://www.bam.org/media/2086882/steinberg_screen_final.pdf
They didn’t divide that one up. That’s the theater that Black Panther played in, so it didn’t play in “a fraction of the space” but in a large, over-a-century-old 800+ seat auditorium.
What’s the point of saving a beautiful theater if they are going to turn it into a multiplex? I get no pleasure from seeing this kind of nonsense. Honestly tearing it down would have been the same thing. You people have got to be kidding praising this in any way. Nice to see a comic book movie playing in a fraction of its space when I had some of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life here? You clearly did not experience what I did. Otherwise this stupiddagine would make you angry. Like a believer seeing St Patrick’s desecrated.
Vindanpar… sometimes we just need to be thankful for what we have left. Would you have rather seen the entire room gutted to bare brick and converted to office space? Nice to see a big movie playing here that will bring crowds and keep the theater viable for its owners.
It’s not just coming to my attention.
It just infuriates me that people have anything good to say about it. This was a great stage theater. And showing films is fine as long as the theater is basically kept intact. Nice to see a blockbuster playing here! I mean come on.
vindanpar-it happened twenty years ago. I don’t understand why this is only now coming to your attention.
This is terrible. A wonderful theater cut up into a multiplex. I don’t understand how people can extoll such a place. I saw some wonderful Ingmar Bergman stage productions here. I don’t understand you people.
BAM will be playing “Black Panther” on the Steinberg Screen following their “Black Superheroes on Film” film series.
https://www.bam.org/film/2018/black-panther https://www.bam.org/film/2018/fight-the-power-black-superheroes-on-film
Nice to see a blockbuster playing here.
I wonder how business is, now that the Alamo Drafhouse has opened down the road a bit…
Does BAM have the capability to show 70mm films?
I heard on another thread that BAM recently messed up the changeover on Where Eagles Dare…!
BAM has really stepped up their rep showings in the past two years. Great stuff that’s often not on DVD: Shy People, The Keep, Times Square, etc. That plus their top-notch taste in first-run films keeps this place easily in my top-three for places to go in NYC. The crowd is always enthusiastic yet polite (no texting, etc) and the staff is great too. The four auditoriums are nice, though the one downstairs is a little small.
As the Carey Playhouse I saw Gershwin’s “Tap Toes” featuring Georgia Engel and Rusty Thatcher. It’s always sad when a space named for someone is rededicated to someone else losing the heritage of the space and, sometimes, as in the case of Broadway Theatres, all references to names of the past. And just who is the Rose named for? We know the Harvey of the BAM Harvey.
Now, THIS is a beautiful place for repertory and offbeat film, including the occasional revival. Big screens, bright images, clear sound, high ceilings, great sightlines, theatrical ambiance…and only slightly uncomfortable seats (remember — one has to suffer for one’s art).
The BAM Rose Cinemas were created out of the space formerly occupied by BAM’s 1000-seat Carey Playhouse, named for the late wife of the former NY governor. You get a glorious, closeup view of the detail in the proscenium arch in the top-most theatre which is tucked just below the old ceiling.
You can view some nice images of movie material here. Most are souvnir programs and most are for sale.
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/
you can also view my entire inventory for sale at
www.cinemagebooks.com
email me at
Information & photos of the conversion of the playhouse to a cinema:
View link
OK, before adding a theatre I’ll write here because BAM is the closest theatre to the “Fourth Avenue/Dean Street” theatre. I haven’t checked all the Brooklyn listings but did enter BAM’s zip code and didn’t get the name of this theatre.
In any event, the theatre is on the eastern side of Fourth Avenue on the corner of Dean Street. The address if 47 Fourth Avenue and the building, which was obviously a theatre, is now occupied by the Iglesia Universal Del Reino De Dios church. I remember driving back here in ‘82 and the chuch I believe was at this site then.
Anyone know the name/history of this theatre?
You can see the theatre building clearly from the back/Dean Street and when you walk into the lobby you can tell it was a movie theatre. I think there is also a small awning.
This area in ‘82 when I lived a few blocks away in Park Slope was a pit back then with prostitutes parading up and down the street. The Brooklyn renaissance has spread to this area and it has been cleaned up to a great extent.
I tried to find a theatre building by entering BAM’s zip code but didn’t come up with anything so I’m not sure the theatre I entered was even a theatre. I thought there was a theatre on Fourth Avenue right off Flatbush. It would have been on the east side of the street. I lived in Brooklyn in ‘82 and the area around 4th Avenue/Flatbush was pretty seedy. The building wasn’t used as a theatre, but was used as a church. I don’t know if the building still even stands. Next time I’m at BAM I’ll take a walk by to see if I can find the building, which I remember having a marquee and being shaped like a theatre. I said to myself at the time that “that must have been a theatre at one time.”
BAM since it opened its four-‘plex has dedicated one screen to rep fare. I read where Dan Talbot booked BAM. Does he still book BAM. I remember at one point I stopped going to the rep house because they weren’t playing anything of interest. I didn’t even re-up my membership. Than all of a sudden the rep house started showing all sorts of stuff I wanted to see. I have no idea if this is a coincidence or they changed bookers. Anyone know?