The Rebirth of The Murat Theatre

A look back….

THE REBIRTH OF THE MURAT THEATRE

INDIANAPOLIS, IN

PART ONE

In the 80’s during my time at Sunshine Promotions we promoted concerts in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena, The Sports Center, Clowes Hall, The Convention Center, The Indiana State Fairgrounds, The Vogue, The Indiana Roof Ballroom, and at other times tried venues like The Sherwood, The Carmel Ice Skadium, and The Madam Walker Theater just to name a few. As the larger shows were sexier we still desired to book and produce shows at smaller venues as this is what great concert promoters do. You want to be part of growing a new young act. This was a principal that the owners of Sunshine Promotions, Dave Lucas and Steve Sybesma understood and pushed that direction whenever we could.

For the most part at that time whenever we had a chance to book a theatre show the plan was to put it in Clowes Hall which is part of Butler University. Clowes Hall is a fantastic venue. It was built around 1960 and it was way ahead of its time with a very large stage with a high limit rigging capability. In the mid 80’s a new manager began at Clowes Hall, and we didn’t seem to get along too well. He viewed the venue as more of a performing arts center as well as serving the students at Butler University first and we respected that to a point. However, it seemed that we could not get dates more and more, so we decided to look at other options in town…and they were limited. Clowes Hall had a capacity of just over 2,000 which was ideal as we could make better show deals based on that capacity instead of making deals based on a larger capacity. We have the beautiful Circle Theatre in Downtown Indianapolis which was renovated in 1984 and redone specifically for The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The capacity of The Circle which is now The Hilbert Circle Theatre was around 1,600 which is small. However, with the way the venue was redesigned it was impossible to bring in touring concert production. The Madam Walker Theater was absolutely beautiful, but the capacity was 944…again too small.

I decided to check out The Murat Theater which is located on the East side of our downtown. This venue had hosted a variety of basic shows but nothing too large. For the most part this venue was not on anyone’s radar whether it was a large entertainment promoter or the people of Central Indiana. In looking at the theater for the first time it looked like it was in complete disrepair…and it was. Although it was clean, there were many things that were broken such as toilets, electrical sockets, bad plumbing, and I knew that the Shriners who owned and operated the venue didn’t have the money to repair things, and that happens. But I knew that this venue would work and went back to the office and sat down with Dave (Lucas) and Steve (Sybesma) and reviewed everything and we decided to start booking shows at the venue. For the most part the theater schedule was wide open and that helped in getting shows booked and confirmed.

Over the next few years, we booked many great shows including Earth, Wind & Fire, Billy Squier, Phish, Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett, Pantera, Peter Frampton, Tori Amos, Sam Kinison, The Black Crowes, Steven Wright, and many more. We also booked a few “non-equity” Broadway shows including the “bus’n’truck” versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom Of The Opera. I will get into some of the fun stories from some of these shows later.

The building / complex has three sections. The Theater was built in 1909 and they referenced it as the 09 building. The Social Room which is now called The Grand Lobby and The Egyptian Room were added in 1922 and that part of the venue was called the 22 building. The Shriners part was built in 1968 and it was called the 68 building.

The original theater was not bad considering when it was built. It had two onstage dressing rooms located stage right and left and there were dressing rooms above these rooms. Inside the seating area the venue featured 24 boxes / box seats, and they was evenly divided with 12 on each side and within those twelve, 6 were upper and 6 were lower. While the boxes looked good they did not have the best sightlines. We didn’t sell the front boxes as they were obstructed by the sound system that we had to bring in for every show. The venue had a pair of Altec Voice of the Theater speakers and that was state of the art in the 50’s but inadequate for the 80’s and beyond. The balcony in the theater was built on a very hard slant. I was not fond of this balcony and often was concerned about patrons seated in the balcony wondering if they were comfortable. There were hallways that ran on the right and left side of the theater as well.

The entrance was located at 502 N. New Jersey Street and the door vestibule was very small and tight. The ticket office was located in this vestibule, and it tended to “log-jam” at times. Inside there was a small lobby and it too was tight. After producing several shows we convinced the venue to let us have people enter at the next set of doors at 510 N. New Jersey Street. This brought people into the Social Room, and it allowed people to spread out. This helped greatly with servicing Will Call, beverage sales and merchandise sales.

From a financial standpoint the venue was good for Sunshine Promotions. We had a favorable rent deal, we could use our Ticketmaster deal, we added a facility charge and we controlled the merchandise sales. These revenue streams helped quite a bit. We did not share in the revenue from beverage sales or parking.

Overall, the people of Central Indiana immediately went to the venue to attend concerts, and we promoted quite a variety of shows as previously mentioned. A few fun facts include:

? Earth Wind & Fire, bassist Verdine White absolutely loved this awesome silk shirt that I was wearing, and I told him he could wear it on stage, and he did!

? Jerry Seinfeld performed on June 19, 1991 and this was a few weeks prior to his TV show Seinfeld airing its first episode. The show sold out selling 1,965 tickets and grossing $22,847.50. His tour was sponsored by Trident Sugarless Gum.

? When Phish played the drummer John Fishman used the venue vacuum cleaner as a sound effect during an extended jam. He had fun!

? Tony Bennett had a standard practice when he sound checked. He would play a song completely unplugged and without a microphone and no sound system. If it worked he made it part of his show and it was very cool and intimate. Coincidently the day after Tony Bennett performed at The Murat I booked him for a private show at The Indiana Roof Ballroom. During sound check that day they attempted to do a song without amplification, but it didn’t work.

? We booked a few nights of Jesus Christ Superstar and it featured Ted Neely and Carl Anderson who were in the original Broadway show. After each show people would wait outside the stage door to meet Ted Neely and they believed that he was indeed Jesus Christ. Ted Neely always handled this like a pro and would have small talk and even take a few pictures with his adoring fans.

In the early 90’s we tried to present something at The Murat Theater that we had no business doing. It was a Broadway series with legitimate Broadway shows each running for one week (8 shows over 6 days). Some of the shows included Will Rogers Follies and Oklahoma. We had to do some work with the stage and update the fly system. A fly system is used to raise and lower backdrops and lighting at various points of a Broadway show. The union stagehands really show their skill set on Broadway shows. We partnered this with a Broadway promoter named Larry Aiken from Evansville. We worked quite a bit with Larry over the years in the Evansville market and it was a fantastic relationship. But this series was a complete disaster in many ways. First, we had a big issue with every Broadway touring company in that the venue did not meet the standards of The Actors Equity Union. It was a given on each show that we would receive a phone call from someone in New York to air their grievances. Needless to say, the backstage was very unfriendly. Also, the series lost quite a bit of money, over $100,000 which was a HUGE hit. On paper this series looked good but one thing about the entertainment industry, if something looks too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. At that time Indianapolis was not a good Broadway market, but that would change in a few years.

The theater had a house man from the local IATSE (International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees) named Jack Smith. I loved working with Jack. He was very easy going and he loved getting the additional work. He knew the venue in and out and would always look out for everyone’s best interest.

The Murat Theater was haunted. The ghost of Jacoby lived within the confines of the Murat Theater. The story goes that Jacoby was a stagehand that fell from the ceiling to the floor just in front of the downstage right / house left area. They said there was a blue light that shined in that area when the lights were off and when the room was empty. The venue employee’s would talk about things strangely moving from one place to another, or doors opening by themselves. They even said at times it felt like there was someone walking briskly past them. The Murat had a historian named Lloyd who was easily in his late 70’s when I met him, and Lloyd would hold a séance every so often and they would communicate with Jacoby. I can attest that the venue was very spooky when it was late night, and it was empty and dark. The venue made a considerable amount of noise. It was mostly rattling, and I concluded that it was the pipes….but nonetheless it was very scary!

I will have part two in a few days and will discuss how the renovation came to be and what took place.

Please let us know your thoughts on the old Murat Theater and add in any details that I may have missed.

Are you looking to book entertainment? If so, please contact me.