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The Roundabout has rented the Studio 54 building since 1998, when it relocated "Cabaret" from a nightclub on W. 43rd St. At that time, the Roundabout spent an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million fixing up Studio 54 to be the new Kit Kat Klub, the musical's fictional setting.
The Roundabout is the city's second-largest nonprofit theater, after Lincoln Center. It has 46,000 subscribing members and an annual audience of 700,000. The company has two other locations - the American Airlines Theater at 227 W. 42nd St., which it owns, and the Gramercy Theatre on E. 23rd Street, which it leases. After "Cabaret's" success, the Roundabout decided it wanted to buy Studio 54 for future musicals.
KRISTEN ARTZ LIFE IS A 'CABARET' The Roundabout Theatre Company, whose production of "Cabaret" is showing at the Studio 54 building, will use proceeds from city-backed bond issue for the purchase.
Come buy the Cabaret, old chum.
The Roundabout Theatre Company is set to buy the Studio 54 building - home to its production of 'Cabaret' - for $25 million, using proceeds of a city-backed bond issue, the Daily News has learned.
"It's a cultural icon in the city, and they would like to have it available permanently," said theater spokesman Jim Grossman.
The Roundabout has rented the Studio 54 building since 1998, when it relocated "Cabaret" from a nightclub on W. 43rd St. At that time, the Roundabout spent an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million fixing up Studio 54 to be the new Kit Kat Klub, the musical's fictional setting.
The Roundabout is the city's second-largest nonprofit theater, after Lincoln Center. It has 46,000 subscribing members and an annual audience of 700,000. The company has two other locations - the American Airlines Theater at 227 W. 42nd St., which it owns, and the Gramercy Theatre on E. 23rd Street, which it leases. After "Cabaret's" success, the Roundabout decided it wanted to buy Studio 54 for future musicals.
Buying the building could save the theater money. As a nonprofit, it will owe no city real estate taxes once it owns the building. And in a deal that will give the theater low interest on its debt, the city's Industrial Development Agency plans to issue up to $32 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance the purchase and cover costs. The Roundabout is also hoping to get $9 million pledged by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs to help pay off the debt.
The Roundabout has had many locations in its 36-year history. In 1966, it started in a supermarket basement on W. 26th St. Now, the Studio 54 deal offers the theater a second permanent home on Broadway.
"It's very hard to rent theater space in the Broadway district, so this was a real important part of their future," Grossman said.
The Studio 54 building, at 254 W. 54th St., has a storied past.
In the 1920s it served as the theater for the San Carlo Opera Company.
Two decades later, CBS acquired it and turned it into a broadcast studio.
Nightlife impresarios Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager made it famous in the 1970s, when they transformed it into a disco called Studio 54.
The club became the symbol of the excesses of that decade. Hundreds lined up outside to be selected for admission.
Inside, celebrities partied, deafening music pulsated, and drugs flowed freely.
Bianca Jagger held her birthday party there and rode in on a white horse.
The Hadar family bought the building in the late 1990s as they began to build their name in real estate circles.
Executives of the Hadars' company did not return calls seeking comment.
Caption: KRISTEN ARTZ LIFE IS A 'CABARET' The Roundabout Theatre Company, whose production of "Cabaret" is showing at the Studio 54 building, will use proceeds from city-backed bond issue for the purchase.
Copyright Daily News, L.P. Feb 13, 2002