Broadway, New York City
Lyric Theatre LLC
No one knows the Lyric Theatre better than Helpern Architects’ Senior Associate Don Lasker, who restored the Lyric. Twice.
In 2015, Helpern restored the theater to its appearance and structure before the over-the-top production of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark greatly altered the stage and hall. As the contract required, the production had to restore the theater to its original aspect.
Here’s the backstory: The Lyric is essentially a new building for major musicals. Don Lasker was project manager for the design team that combined two small, derelict theaters between West 42nd and 43rd Streets to create the second-largest theater on Broadway [1886 seats].
To conform to preservation guidelines as part of the city-owned New 42nd Street district, they had salvaged the landmarked façade of the Lyric [1903] and elements of the heavily ornamented, also-landmarked interior of the Apollo [1910].
Ten years later, Don’s own architecture firm was hired to dismantle the stage and greatly reinforce its infrastructure to accommodate Spiderman’s elaborate sets, equipment, and machinery. He removed the orchestra pit down to bedrock to accommodate the show’s lifts, dismantled the side boxes, and detached and stored the proscenium.
When Spiderman closed and Don was long a senior member of the Helpern staff, under his leadership Helpern recreated the recreated theater and stage for its newest owners. We also restored and strengthened the cast-plaster proscenium arch, filled in pit changes with a flexible flooring system, closed up the ceiling, reinstalled the boxes, and updated the theater to current codes.
