Second Stage to Purchase Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre

Second Stage Theatre is headed for Broadway. The off-Broadway company, which began nearly 30 years ago in a rooftop space on the Upper West Side, announced that it has acquired the right to purchase the Helen Hayes Theatre from its current owner, Martin Markinson, with programming to begin in 2010.

Second Stage will continue to lease and operate its current off-Broadway theaters, the 108-seat McGinn-Cazale on Broadway and 76th Street, and its 296-seat flagship house on the corner of 43rd and Eighth Avenue, the site of a former bank. The sale price for the 596-seat Helen Hayes was not disclosed.

"Acquiring the Helen Hayes is the natural, yet amazing next step for Second Stage in bringing our mission of presenting innovative American theater to the heart of Broadway," Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theatre's founding director, said in a statement. "With this acquisition, we have both the tremendous opportunity and responsibility to help ensure that contemporary American theater remains a vibrant part of Broadway and, in turn, benefits from the power of Broadway to draw and excite new audiences across the nation."

The press announcement of the sale explained that Second Stage has "entered into the quiet phase of a capital campaign to acquire, renovate, preserve, and operate the new facility and to start an endowment for the organization." Until 2010, the current owners will continue to operate the theater, which currently houses the musical Xanadu. The New York Times cited a fund-raising goal of $35 million.

Rothman and Robyn Goodman now an independent producer founded Second Stage in 1979 and presented the first three seasons in the penthouse of the West Side Hotel just off Central Park West. The theater attracted top playwrights and actors from its earliest days, presenting works by Michael Weller, William Finn, David Mamet, Tina Howe and more. The McGinn-Cazale opened in 1984, and the theater's current home designed by famed international architect Rem Koolhaas, opened in 1999. Although the Helen Hayes is less than two blocks away, a Broadway hub will allow Second Stage productions such as last season's musical Next to Normal to receive Tony Award consideration.

"This is the perfect theater for Second Stage," Markinson said in a statement. "The size is well-suited for the presentation of new and innovative work, as we have had the good fortune to realize over the years, and it resonates with the history of the theater as an incubator for innovative works. I think it's important that original, American drama has a strong presence on Broadway, so I'm thrilled that Second Stage will establish its permanent home at the Helen Hayes Theatre."

In retrospect, Second Stage's hiring of longtime Roundabout Theatre Company staffer Ellen Richard who worked with that nonprofit when it acquired and renovated the American Airlines Theatre as executive director signaled the company's desire to grow. "When I joined Second Stage two years ago, one of my main objectives was to find the company a permanent home," Richard said in a statement. "Opening our third home in a building which we will own provides a firm foundation for long-term planning and financial stability, which is especially important to the health of a not-for-profit theater company."

"Second Stage has a proven record of success, both artistically and financially, an enviable position for a New York non-profit organization," Second Stage board co-chair Stephen Sherrill said in a statement. "Building on 30 years of fiscal responsibility and support, the theatre is on solid financial footing, allowing us to take this important investment in our artistic development. It's not often a Broadway house becomes available, but because we have achieved and maintained artist and audience loyalty and financial vitality, we are in a position to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

When it opened in 1912, the Little Theatre as it was then known had only 300 seats and was built as an intimate house to present new playwrights and experimental dramas that were deemed too risky to stage in large Broadway theaters. It was expanded in the 1920 and over the years has housed game shows and talk shows before becoming Broadway's smallest house. It was renamed for Helen Hayes after the original Broadway theater bearing her name was destroyed to build the Marriott Marquis Hotel. According to The New York Times, Second Stage is likely to rename the theater.