Rumor mill: Downtown SF theaters closing?

UPDATED 5:45 p.m., April 29, 2009
The rumors have been swirling for days that the Post Street Theatre and the Marines Memorial Theatre are closing down.

Roberto Friedman in the Bay Area Reporter reported that the most recent Post Street show, the ballroom dance extravaganza Burn the Floor, would be heading to Broadway but added: “Uncorroborated word that both Post St. and Marines Memorial theaters are to go dark…That would be a real loss to the theater community of San Francisco. Shouldn’t there be a hue and cry over this, like there was over the loss of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre? Or the Tonga Room?”

The Post Street and the Marines, both mid-size professional houses conveniently located near Union Square, were taken over in the early 2000s by brothers Scott and Robert Nederlander Jr of the Nederlander Company. Click here to see some of the more recent shows that have played both theaters.

So far, the only official notice is this:

The Nederlander Company has concluded negotiations with the Post Street and Marines Memorial Theatres and they will no longer be the permanent lessee for either theater. However, this doesn’t preclude them from producing in those theaters in the future.

3 thoughts on “Rumor mill: Downtown SF theaters closing?

  1. Pingback: News Room :: 4/30/09

  2. Rumors and rumors have been popping up on all that chat–west coast. However nothing solid. Your news item is the first time I heard of any “official” announcement. It is a shame that these two theatres cannot operate during these trouble economic times. However people are just not going to live theatre because of money problems. Parking, eating out and going to the theatre in downtown SF takes a big bite out of the monthly expenses of a couple with children (or even without children). At least I am happy that the Curran Theatre will be alive again with “August Osage County” coming into one of the best legit houses on the west coast.

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