Mechanic Theatre

Two scheduling changes for the 1990-91 Subscription Series at the Mechanic Theatre have been announced by the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts."

Baltimore's historical preservation commission on Tuesday officially disapproved of demolishing the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre. The vote by the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, or CHAP, means the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, which issues demolition permits, will not be able to proceed for at least six months. Owings Mills-based developer David S. Brown Enterprises Ltd. and the Washington architecture firm Shalom Baranes Associates released plans in the spring that called for the demolition of the Mechanic and the construction of two residential towers in its place.

The shell of Baltimore's long-dormant Morris A. Mechanic Theatre would be partially preserved as part of a mixed-use complex containing a 30-story residential and hotel tower and commercial space, if its owners can obtain city approval and financing to carry out their latest plans. Renderings of the proposed development were filed with Baltimore's planning department this summer in preparation for a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. today by the Baltimore Planning Commission. The project is the latest of several hotel and residential towers proposed for construction in downtown Baltimore despite the uncertain real estate market.

An informational meeting held Thursday for Baltimore officials to review the initial design of a mixed-use development planned for the site of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre ended with impassioned comments about the proposed demolition of the architecturally significant building. "You people are being manipulated," Baltimore land-use attorney John C. Murphy told the city Planning Department's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. Murphy and others in the audience at the public meeting, which had no binding outcome, said the architecture review panel should delay discussion of the plans until a decision is made on whether the theater at Baltimore and Charles streets should be allowed to stand.

Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre will not be added to the city's landmark list, even though the city's preservation commission determined more than a year ago that it met the criteria for designation and recommended that it be listed. Baltimore's Planning Commission voted 7-0 yesterday to keep the shuttered theater at 1 W. Baltimore St. off the landmark list, after hearing testimony that its owners didn't want it to be added but do plan to preserve "80 to 90 percent" of its shell as part of a large redevelopment project.

"The Lion in Winter," originally scheduled to play the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre April 6 to May 2, has been postponed and will not be replaced this season, the Baltimore Center for the Performing Arts has announced in a letter to subscribers.The delay in the touring production was due to difficulties finding an actress to play Eleanor of Aquitaine opposite George Peppard's Henry II, according to BCPA general manager Steven E. Goldstein.The theater hopes to re-book the show -- or find a replacement -- for November.

When you are 16 years old and supposed to be doing Latin homework, you'll seize any excuse to waste time by looking out a window. On the night of Jan. 16, 1967, searchlights crisscrossed the downtown skyline. It was a big night for Baltimore -- the grand opening of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre. Many blocks away, in what was just then starting to be referred to as Charles Village, I could see the evidence in the sky that Baltimore had a new playhouse.

He's the man with the $6 million feet. He's also "Dr. Tune," a specialist in curing Broadway-bound musicals of whatever ails them.These days, Tommy Tune is functioning in both capacities. By night, he shows off his Lloyd's of London-insured, size 13 feet as a tap-dancing street performer in "Buskers." By day, he brings his Tony Award-winning wisdom and experience to rehearsals, as "Buskers' " creative team reworks and fine tunes the show during the cross-country, pre-Broadway tour that brings it to the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre tonight.

If you're "Searchin' " for an escape from the holiday blahs, then "Stay a While" at the Mechanic Theatre and see "Smokey Joe's Cafe" 'cause, baby, "That Is Rock & Roll" -- and not just "Yakety Yak."These are only a few of the 40 songs by rock-and-roll pioneers Jerry Leiber (a Baltimore native) and Mike Stoller in this hit Broadway revue, whose nine-person touring cast is as polished as the New York original.Leiber and Stoller revues have been tried before. There were two in London in the 1980s and one in Seattle a few years ago. Nothing clicked, however, until "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre has been closed for four years, but it's still a source of high drama for those curious about what will happen to the key downtown property. A year after Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation recommended that the dormant theater at 1 W. Baltimore St. be added to the city's landmark list as a way to protect it from demolition, the building's owners have come up with a redevelopment plan that would keep it standing, although not as a theater.

Norita Messick, a homemaker who attended Baltimore theaters for 80 years, died of dementia Sunday at the Arden Courts assisted-living facility. She was 99 and lived in Hamilton. Born Mary Norita Burke in Baltimore and raised on Preston Street, she was a 1931 Seton High School graduate. "She loved to say she studied three Shakespeare histories, three tragedies, three comedies and three romances for each of her years there," said her son, Roger Messick of Baltimore. She also played cello in the school orchestra.

Lola M. Baxter, a retired telephone operator and receptionist who greeted guests at the WMAR television studios, died of complications from a broken hip Aug. 26 at Gilchrist Hospice Care of Howard County. She was 101 and had lived in Towson. Born Lola Marie Annen in Baltimore, she lived in the 2900 block of Greenmount Ave. in Waverly and could recall how the International League Orioles played their games immediately behind her family's home at old Oriole Park. She told her children that she watched Babe Ruth play baseball there.

T he economy did the arts no favor. The volatile stock market and then the decade-ending recession wreaked havoc on endowments and grants, and left many ticket-buyers thinking they'd better cut back on luxuries. But there were happy endings, too. After a death scene more prolonged than any Hollywood melodrama, The Senator, the last of Baltimore's old-time movie houses, was auctioned off. And Landmark Theatres opened a multiplex with cushiony seats and bar service at Harbor East.

Clarisse Mechanic made Maryland better Clarisse Mechanic leaves a legacy of having made Baltimore City and the state of Maryland better places to live. Citizens of Maryland and visitors are grateful to Morris and Clarisse Mechanic for their personal gift - no taxpayer dollars - of the beautiful Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, where for decades we were treated to great Broadway plays and other national and international performances. Acoustics were state-of-the-art and the seats were roomy and very comfortable.

Baltimore's Morris A. Mechanic Theatre will not be added to the city's landmark list, even though the city's preservation commission determined more than a year ago that it met the criteria for designation and recommended that it be listed. Baltimore's Planning Commission voted 7-0 yesterday to keep the shuttered theater at 1 W. Baltimore St. off the landmark list, after hearing testimony that its owners didn't want it to be added but do plan to preserve "80 to 90 percent" of its shell as part of a large redevelopment project.

The shell of Baltimore's long-dormant Morris A. Mechanic Theatre would be partially preserved as part of a mixed-use complex containing a 30-story residential and hotel tower and commercial space, if its owners can obtain city approval and financing to carry out their latest plans. Renderings of the proposed development were filed with Baltimore's planning department this summer in preparation for a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. today by the Baltimore Planning Commission. The project is the latest of several hotel and residential towers proposed for construction in downtown Baltimore despite the uncertain real estate market.

Jim Dale, former chief executive officer of W. B. Donor & Co. Advertising, has been named executive director of the Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is expected to announce at his weekly press conference today.Mr. Dale, who joined the theater's board of directors late last summer, was asked to assume the management role by board chairman Frank P. Bramble, who called him "a trustee we feel has the management capability to figure out what this theater needs going forward."Adding that the board has been playing "an unusually involved role" in the theater, Mr. Bramble said, "We on the board are relieved and excited -- relieved because of all the time we were giving it But now we have a leader."

After a 37-year run, the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, a centerpiece of Baltimore's redevelopment, is for sale. The estate of Morris A. Mechanic is entertaining offers for the 1,614-seat theater at 25 Hopkins Plaza, a property that includes street-level commercial space and underground parking. "It is being shown," said George Cox, an accountant and personal representative for the Mechanic estate. "We don't have a firm offer, but we're in negotiations with a prospective buyer." Cox declined to say who the buyer might be, what the prospective owner plans for the building or what the price is. "We would like to have it as a legitimate theater, but that may not be in the cards," he said.

Right way to save Mechanic Theatre Thanks to Edward Gunts for pointing to a solution regarding the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre and its uncertain future ("Heightened drama," Aug. 4). The architectural and cultural significance of the building is without question, as affirmed by a unanimous vote for landmark designation by Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) and a flood of testimony from local and national experts. Among historians of architecture and urbanism, Benjamin Latrobe's Basilica of the Assumption is the only building in Baltimore better known beyond the city.