Paul Bass Photo
The sounds of heavy metal pierced the air Wednesday inside a revived College Street theater, so that music can follow.
The heavy metal sounds came not from guitars or drums, but from power tools, as crews scurried throughout the 89-year-old former Palace (and before that Roger Sherman) Theater across from the Shubert. Workers prepped the main floor, applied grouting, put in bathroom tiles, finagled mechanical systems into place.
Outside, a crew from Derby-based A Quick-Pick Crane lifted components of HVAC systems 248 feet into the air to lower back into the theater.
The workers are up against a deadline: After 12 years in mothballs, the theater is set to reopen May 1 as the College Street Music Hall with a concert by Pink Floyd tribute band the Machine, followed on May 2 by Americana headliners Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt and May 9 with Polaris and Mates of State.
As he raced from the balcony to the main stage back to the lobby, Keith Mahler appeared unworried. Mahler’s Premier Concerts firm is opening and running the operation for the theater’s not-for-profit owners, New Haven Center For Performing Arts.
“May 1, definitely,” he declared about the scheduled reopening. “This is going to be unbelievable.”
“Sound is going to fly on Friday. Light is flying on Friday,” Mahler said of the next stages of the last-minute work leading up to the reopening. Seating will be added to the lower level. (The plan is to use seating down there for some concerts, leave the space open for others. The balcony has permanent seats.) Some isolated spots in the lobby will remain incomplete and off-limits the night of the opening, Mahler said.
The city closed College Street to traffic between College and Crown Wednesday to make room for the crane. The block will close again on Sunday for more of the work. A press preview of the finished work is planned for next week.
You should show a picture of the bollards Yale recently installed to block any possible use of the alley for access to the stage door for load-ins. Thankfully the Music Hall won't need it, as described in a previous article, but the city would be better served if Yale Properties [i.e. Bruce Alexander] would allow access so the trucks would not need to block the street and take up parking, etc.
YP's actions remind me of the time they put up fencing inches away from the fire doors of the old York Square cinema, shortly after the landowners declined Yale's purchase offer.
It would also be nice to know how much they are spending in the renovation.