| Formerly known as the Family Circle | |
| Posted by: aleck 10:56 am EST 11/24/24 | |
| In reply to: Which theatre has the scariest balcony? - DistantDrumming 07:46 pm EST 11/23/24 | |
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| My vote would be for the Palace and the Schubert, with the upper levels above the proscenium arch. The stage is far, far away. (The St. James is no picnic either. From the top most level you can only see about half of the upper part of the stage.) The nomenclature keeps changing. That top-most level used to be called the Family Circle, often with a separate outside entrance to keep the completely unwashed from mingling with regular audience members. But somehow the olden Mezzanine, which used to be just the first few rows of the upper level, with everything behind it on the second level identified as balcony, became the FRONT mezzanine with rows behind that ever-expanding "front" mezzanine as the "rear" mezzanine. (I see that some "front mezzanines" extend almost to the last two rows of the upper level. Mezzanine creep?) Now that the full second level is somehow a mezzanine(front and rear) and in theaters without a third level, the balcony has disappeared altogether. Then, the family circle, in theaters with three levels, became the "balcony" while the family circle seems to have floated out into the atmosphere, where the tickets must be even less expensive. Only the Met Opera seems to cling to the original nomenclature, while the State Theatre (since I refuse to call it the Koch Theatre) softens the blow by identifying the various levels as Ring One, Ring Two, etc. (With Rings Three and Four now, reflecting a shrinking audience, not even open most of the time.) The most outrageous renaming of these levels of seats has got to be at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, formerly the Biltmore. There the front few rows of the upper level are NOT the Front Mezzanine, but instead are labelled something like the Golden Circle with the front mezzanine starting some four rows behind that -- in what used to be the balcony. I know because I saw Barefoot in the Park there in the '60s and those rows were balcony -- where I sat. Today there is no balcony in that theater. I questioned this one time with the house manager at the Friedman (after I bought a "front Mezzanine" ticket and found myself nearly able to touch the ceiling) and was told that the balcony was removed when the theater was renovated. Well, it was removed only in name. I'm looking forward to the day when those first few rows of the upper level, or maybe the entire level, will be called the "Upper Orchestra" or some such nonsense. Then, maybe, the third level, formerly the family circle and now the balcony, can all be dubbed "mezzanine" of different degrees of nomenclature -- completely erasing the meaning of "mezzanine," or the level between two levels. |
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| Previous: | re: Which theatre has the scariest balcony? - Charlie_Baker 11:59 am EST 11/24/24 |
| Next: | Does any theatre have a separate entrance for the uppermost level? - portenopete 01:40 pm EST 11/24/24 |
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