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Why Did I Spend All This Time Looking At Building Permits For 530 West 27th Street?

With the imminent close of Sleep No More in under a week's time, I found myself interested in when the idea of The McKittrick came into being. The McKittrick itself is a New York invention. The Boston production in its refurbished school setting didn't have The Hotel. But The Hotel is obviously not actually a hotel, it's three nightclubs wearing a trench coat consolidated into a single building. But when did that consolidation take place?

Thanks to a post on Reddit where I wound up musing about the serendipity of the Hotel coming into being in the time between the Great Recession and the opening of the High Line extension, this lead to me going on a deep dive thanks to the one free building report you can access on a free PropertyShark account. For those unfamiliar with what West 27th was prior to the Hotel and the condos, it used to be a cavalcade of nightclubs. Club B.E.D. sat at 530 West 27th street - as DrinkTheHalo has documented extensively, there was Sound Factory and Twilo and Spirit and Home (532) and Guest House (542) making up what we now know as the full Hotel space. After the murder of a club goer in February of 2007 BED closed. On December 27, 2007, the building that we'd come to know as the Hotel was sold for $28,000,000 to 27th Street Property Owner LLC.

There were still nightclubs operating in other parts of the location, but a plan examination was filed on February 27th, 2008. Meanwhile, the Boston production was mounted in the fall of 2009. A town meeting was called on May 19th, 2009 to approve as the school that the housed the production was town property. There has been much written elsewhere about how Boston pulled things together from wherever they could, though the sleepnomoreboston tumblr seems to be gone at this time.

From October of 2009 to February of 2010, Sleep No More ran in Boston. Then, in September of 2010, scaffolding goes up at 530 West 27th. January 2011 sees a flurry of permits, with the final one pertaining to occupancy being filed on February 22, 2011, changing the use to all floors . Come March 7th, the show opened and has been running up until this coming weekend.

Now, we know from the press around the reopening in 2022 that proto-Emursive initially wanted to bring Punchdrunk's Faust to New York (they did on their own, eventually, through Life and Trust). This failed and they turned their attention to Sleep No More, offering it up to Boston and the ART, now chaired by Diane Paulus (the wife of Randy Weiner, sort of but not any more 1/3 of Emursive). Sleep No More runs for a set time period, the kinks are worked out, and the space is secured from 27th Street Property Owner LLC. We know thanks to the Spring 2024 Permitgate A.K.A That's Bullshit Arthur that the lease was formally entered into on December 1, 2010 It had its first amendment in June of 2012, the second in August of 2015, and the third in June of 2022 after reopening but before the closing announcement in late 2023.

With all these dates in hand, we can see that the Property Owner LLC was created in prior to the BED incident, in December of 2007. Centaur (once again, That's Bullshit Arthur). What their plans would have been without Sleep No More are uncertain, probably condos, but they got a tenant who sort of paid the bills for 15 years instead.

The timeline is likely this: proto-Emursive comes to an agreement with Punchdrunk in 2007 or 2008 to mount Sleep No More in New York City with an out of town tryout in Boston in 2009. At the same time Centaur acquires 530-542 in December of 2007 as the 27th Street club era is dying. The Boston production goes as planned, with a building identified prior to the start of the run. The lease of 530 is officially agreed upon December of 2010, with scaffolding being set earlier that fall and the ability to modify in hand thanks to the examination from 2008. The official layout permits are modified in February of 2011, right in time for the show to open in March. All thanks to a theater for Faust falling through.

Timing is everything. Without the club era dying, the building doesn't become available. Without the High Line extension in 2012, the area isn't changed beyond recognition to the point where something other than immersive theater or a strip club makes sense as an investment. I give Emursive a lot of flack. But they threaded the needle near perfectly in terms of timing. Sleep No More, as a show that attracted both the theatrically minded and those with cash to spend, could not have existed at any time other than Bloomberg's NYC. But it's a different NYC now and that's all there is to a permit.

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I do strongly believe that if theatre-makers are asking audience members to be vulnerable, the minimum requirement is that they consider their responsibility of care, and create a support system in case that vulnerability is pushed too far.

Without that contract of trust between themselves and their audience, immersive theatre-makers are essentially mysterious strangers, handing their audience a drink and expecting them to drink it.

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Thesis Project Part 2 including: Hades, Demeter, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, and Hermes.

PRINTS / PART 1

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My mom is waxing poetic about cheese tonight

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too many stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for pretending to be something you aren't and losing yourself in the process. not enough stories about turning yourself into a monster as a metaphor for choosing to openly embrace yourself even if it's strange to other people

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Вернувшиеся/ Ghosts

I have not been writing reviews beyond a few words on Facebook/twitter for a very long while, but tonight I have seen something I really need to talk about, and raise a few questions about. 

You see, what I have seen tonight is a very close rip-off of Punchdrunk formula, to a point I am not even sure is legal. From what I have heard about it, a production company in Moscow saw Sleep No More, fell in love with it (as you do), went back home and created a close approximation. In process they have teamed up with a NYC-based Journey Labs, who are allegedly creatively connected to Punchdrunk, but I have looked at their website and am yet to spot the connection. 

The Moscow show is based on Ibsen’s Ghosts and titled “Вернувшиеся”,  translated as Those Who Came Back. Apparently, Journey Lab has already been developing an immersive production based on that particular play, but I have no knowledge about it being as indebted to Punchdrunk as this eventual product is. Russia never had an open narrative immersive show such as this, but is that really an excuse for stealing someone else’s formula?

As soon as you enter the space you are in a cheaper version of Manderley Bar, for some reason being referred to as Speakeasy, complete with 1920s/30s music (you would recognise a few tunes there as easily as I did). There is less ambiance and the colour scheme is an odd gold/green, but it is distinctly an attempt to create Manderley, which is quite bizarre, considering that the narrative of the story is happening in the last quarter of the 19th century, and is styled as such. 

More similarities to Sleep No More follow. As an audience member you are called to the entrance (by number received at check in, as opposed to card), you are given instructions and a mask, and are sent on your way. The masks look like a thinner, greyer, simple version of the ones designed by Punchdrunk. It’s not that they are uncomfortable - they are alright, really, - but the sheer fact that they are just completely ripped off something that’s been in development for a decade is very irksome. I should also mention that the show is oversold to a point of absurdity. Unless you sneak right behind characters, getting out of some of the bigger scenes is quite literally impossible. There are too many audience members to physically fit in the finale room, and, I’m sorry, but this is just silly. 

There are lots of individual spaces, spreading over four floors, and it’s easy to get lost in it. I think some of the spaces also double up, but I was too disoriented to say for sure. The set is not bad overall, but quite a lot of textures are all wrong, and there is nowhere near the amount of detail Punchdrunk put in their productions.I had problems with massive curtains used between staircases and the hallways, simply because they were a little difficult to handle and caused pile-ups. I was pleasantly surprised to see new interesting elements, but I bet that a lot of them were influenced by the shortage of space, as individual rooms are not that big at all; and so much of it rang a bell. An asylum, a church, a graveyard, a mirror room, a room with a cot…

Most of the soundtrack sounds fresh, but then there is “It’s Deserted” from King Kong as reset music, and I am not sure whether they were trying to do a homage to The Drowned Man, or just taking the piss. Apart from that, there are definitely lots of different sound zones, and the only issue I had really was levels. This a very dialogue-heavy show, and there were times when I had troubles hearing characters even though the actors were projecting well, and I was right next to them. I could barely hear a character speaking to me in a 1:1, which is not ideal either. It just didn’t feel like the sound was well balanced.

The lighting design is average, too harsh and character-less. It was not painful, but did close to nothing in creating a magical atmosphere, which is pretty much its one job. 

I think the show itself has something close to three loops, but I am certain that the first loop is for VIP ticket-holders only (those sell for approximately £400 a pop, by the way), so, naturally, I missed it completely. From what I saw, I can tell that the loops are not as literal as they are within Punchdrunk’s logistics. Within the world of the show, some of the characters exist as two mirror images: a literal, narrative one, and a more Punchdrunk-esque, non-verbal one, with only some of the scenes being the same. As a result, I ended up following a single performer for almost two loops, because he happened to switch between those worlds instead of resetting, which was actually surprisingly satisfying. The choreography around his loop was nowhere near as impressive as any of Punchdrunk shows, with only some wall-running and one interesting duet. I have not come across a single dance set-piece that would compare to a one of Punchdrunk’s. Do bear in mind though, that there is a bunch of very physical characters (household staff) who have what is supposed to be a classic Punchdrunk-style orgy, but I missed that one, so I can’t really comment on it. What I called a literal (narrative) part of this show’s world, on the other hand, has a pretty much straight-through dialogue, with very minimal elements of physical theatre.

I like that this production did end up offering plenty of new form even when being logistically as unoriginal as it can get. With some characters not having doubles, some switching between worlds (like the one I ended up following) and some resetting within their own one, there is plenty of variety of different characters, without confusing the audience too badly. The structure here is not as rigid as the one Punchdrunk created, and I found that very interesting. I did also enjoy performances, including choreography, prolonged spoken scenes, and lovely personable in-show and pre-show interactions (yeah, characters can get you drunk here). The only time I felt kind of awkward was during 1:1. The felt like the character did not really know why I was where and the actor did not quite know how to relax into the intimacy. Shame, really; by the time I got to be behind the closed doors with the character I have been majorly invested in his storyline(s), and really hoped to enjoy the 1:1 experience. 

The point I am trying to make, I suppose, is that this show is not, strictly speaking, bad. It has problems, and it’s both overpriced and oversold, but it is thoroughly enjoyable. Nevertheless, this is not just someone adapting a paradigm, this show is literally stealing someone else’s formula, that’s been worked on and developed for many years. 

I guess my question is, how ethical is it to take someone’s material and sell it as “inspired by”? Yes, many of the audience members would never make it to New York or Shanghai, but does it make it legitimate?

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I don’t think that door goes anywhere, honest.

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SUBSTANCE

Give me SUBSTANCE

For once, let me feel surprised that there is more below the surface than I anticipated. Rather than, time and time again, expecting there to be more and being disappointed when I hit the invisible walls of your world.

Give me depth. Let me sink neck-deep into the story. Give me the time to get accustomed to the water temperature and I'll never want to leave.

Give me symbolism and allusions and force me to learn something new. Inspire me to widen my horizons. And make it worth my while.

That's what I miss most. Do not promise me the moon and hand me a saucer. But at TBC, they made no promises, but the longer I looked at it, the more I could believe it really was the moon.

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Felix Barrett’s custom personal notebooks for the creation process of The Drowned Man.

“Notebooks Before I start any big project, I have one of these notebooks made at the Wyvern Bindery in Clerkenwell. I fill them with notes, to-do lists, musical scores – all the fragments of the process. Then, when I have a name for the project, I have it embossed on the spine. We have an extra one called Farley’s Phrases, for the made-up words and sentences Farley came up with when he was learning to talk. I am always amazed by how languages develop.”

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A film showing four weeks of R&D of Red, a dance piece by Mischief. It’s the creation of Jasmin Vardimon regular David Lloyd, and stars Vinicius Salles and Miranda Mac Letten of Drowned Man fame, plus newcomer (to my Tumblr account at least) Darragh Butterworth. David’s hoping to get funding for the full piece by the end of this year so keep an eye out for the finished piece.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo_EQ0vj_3c)

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when an article i'm reading throws in an entire untranslated passage of homer or w/e

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And then one day, he went away, and I thought I’d die.  But I didn’t.

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can i come over and do this

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“There is something I need to tell you. In private…”