This article has been edited since it first appeared in print.
Programs advertised Playhouse 3200 theater’s shuttle, a double-decker bus. (Photo by Kyle Talley)
In the spring of 1970, the management of the Holiday Inn West at 3200 W. Broad St. (now The Icon apartments in Scott’s Addition) went into show business.
The national trade publication Restaurant News proclaimed a surging “food and footlights” business throughout the country, and dinner theater did surround Richmond. However, each venue required travel: The Barn sat at the Goochland County end of Patterson Avenue, Swift Creek Mill Playhouse was way down in South Chesterfield, and the Barksdale Theatre was 15 miles distant in Hanover.
The Holiday Inn’s administration decided a theater would be an innovative use for its Gold Room, which had served patrons as the private 3200 Club. The 1968 legalization of liquor by the drink dried up the primary reason for the nightclub. The theater would complement the hotel’s traditional lounge/restaurant, Caesar’s Cellar, where pianist Charlie Wakefield played five nights a week in an “authentic Roman atmosphere.”
The conversion took place in May 1970. An odd three-quarter thrust raked stage was installed, perhaps better suited to hosting bands than plays, plus a sound system and lighting grid. Costumes and makeup were relegated to a nearby room, which left little space for modesty. One performer recalls sharing the bathroom with inebriated guests.
Nevertheless, theater people, accustomed to overcoming obstacles, put on around 30 productions between June 1970 and September 1973. Dinner and nonmusical shows cost $7.50 ($58 today) during the week; they were a dollar more on Fridays and Saturdays, and musicals cost 50 cents extra. Dinner was served at 7 p.m., showtime at 8:30.
On June 1, 1970, the Frank Tarloff sexual mores comedy “First Fish” was ready for the curtain to rise. Except there was no curtain.
Richmond Times-Dispatch critic Jon Longaker later observed that “one misses the hushed expectant atmosphere that precedes the curtain-raising in a traditional theater setting. The audience seems not ready for the start.”
Describing the theater’s atmosphere, Longaker said, “Costumes and set are well done and the night club setting, the corner stage and the 200 chairs around the candlelit dinner tables provide a nice setting for a good evening’s entertainment.”
Director Michael Christopher led the five-member “First Fish” cast of Morris Pruitt, Barbara Intemann, George Kennedy, Marie Mills and Marion Porr. Christopher directed the next show, “Send Me No Flowers,” with regional actors Bob Albertia and Helen Levinson, and then left to act and direct at The Barn.
Don Carter, a former VCU theater instructor, stepped in to helm the bulk of the next two seasons. In theater circles he received the appellation “Crazy Don Carter,” which seems to have suited him well in the circumstances of Playhouse 3200.
“It was dinner theater in the rough,” recalls actor Matthew Costello, who experienced a few plays there as an audience member.
Lynn West regularly performed on Richmond stages, including an appearance in 3200’s November 1972 production of “The Boyfriend.” During a dress rehearsal before a packed house, “The Boyfriend” spent three hours in the dark due to a transformer failure. In this case, the candlelit dinner tables provided more than ambience.
West recalls another production where actor Bill Pitts brandished a prop handgun in the second act, accidentally firing at scene partner Sam Maupin. “Sam did an acting death, and the rest of the cast had to improvise the rest of the show,” West says. “It was not a place that inspired professional behavior.”
An ad for a Playhouse 3200 production (Image courtesy Richmond Times-Dispatch Collection, The Valentine)
The Holiday Inn promoted its theater through advertising and specials. Guests at the newly opened Holiday Inn Crossroads as well as the downtown location could take an “Eliza Doolittle” English double-decker bus to 3200. Whether there was more to the promotion than the vehicle is unclear. The Cascade Room at the Holiday Inn Downtown (now the Graduate Richmond) added a Saturday-night cabaret-style review that included comedy, music and magic, billed as Playhouse 301.
At least one 3200 hit was transferred downtown. “The Drunkard” was a century-old anti-drinking play that reviewer Bob Brickhouse described as a “zany mixture of melodrama, farce, music hall and revival meeting spirit.” Barbara Baroody, who played “The Widow’s Daughter — An Innocent Flower,” appeared in both versions. “I have many fond memories of that show,” she says.
The cavalcade of music and comedy continued into spring 1972 and featured performers either known in the Richmond region or on their way. Among them were Ted Boelt, Glen Crone (who became the longtime Thalhimers department store Santa), Del Driver, Maury Erickson, Anthony J. Kahwajy, Eileen O’Grady, Ed Sala and director/choreographer Randy Strawderman.
Then in March-April 1972 came the appropriately titled “Stop the World — I Want to Get Off.” The Broadway show had made a star of entertainer Anthony Newley. But the Richmond production, directed by Don Clark and featuring Ken Kopec and the versatile Barbara Mappus, worried hotel manager Roger Briggs, thanks to its cast of 10 and six-member orchestra. The expense of the production caused Briggs to reconsider how theater could continue. He decided to bring in packaged New York shows to be rounded out by locals as needed.
“Our product needs to be commercial entertainment,” Briggs told Times-Dispatch writer Carole Kass. “Stop the World” wasn’t. He didn’t want to compete “with ‘theater’ people like Barksdale and Swift Creek Mill,” but instead sought to provide light comedy attractive to both hotel guests and Richmonders.
“The Drunkard” was such a success that it played both Playhouse 3200 and downtown. (Image courtesy Richmond Times-Dispatch Collection, The Valentine)
Briggs described Don Carter as “amenable and capable,” but the longtime director got the hook nevertheless. His successor, Jack Cannon, came from the Barn Dinner Theatre franchise and had once owned a playhouse. Briggs noted that Carter had relied on 3200 for most of his income while Cannon wouldn’t.
Rehearsal space was another factor. Local talent usually worked day jobs, so Briggs bought 6 W. Cary St. (today a tattoo parlor) for use while the theater was occupied. The New York professionals would rehearse at 3200 during the day while the current show played at night.
Today a 3200 veteran scoffs at Briggs’ justifications. He knew a bartender there who said the theater’s alcohol sales far exceeded the production budgets.
Carter’s last show was Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park,” featuring newcomer Carolyn Paulette and Ed Sala, a VCU graduate who went on to write plays, perform on and off Broadway, and narrate books.
The “Broadway” cast took over for another Neil Simon play, “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” Critic Longaker was apparently impressed with the change, saying it had “paid off handsomely”
But New York’s traveling companies didn’t save Playhouse 3200. A series of apparently well-done but undistinguished productions culminated in an ambitious September 1973 mounting of “The Teahouse of the August Moon.” Auditions were advertised for small parts in another bedroom farce, “No Hard Feelings,” but the production never happened. In the Sept. 25, 1973, Times-Dispatch, Carole Kass announced the closing of Playhouse 3200’s metaphorical curtains.
The former theater’s space was joined to the adjacent 250-seat Green Room for meetings, dining and parties. The change, manager Jim Russo said, would draw more customers, and “that’s where the profit comes from.”
And that’s show biz.
Flashback turns the follow spot of gratitude onto Ray Bentley, Jim Johnson and the “Old Images of Richmond” Facebook group, moderated by Christopher B. Coleman. Applause.
Never miss a Sunday Story: Sign up for the newsletter, and we’ll drop a fresh read into your inbox at the start of each week. To keep up with the latest posts, search for the hashtag #SundayStory on Facebook.
