Sutton Theater
205 E. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
205 E. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 175 comments
I finally checked out the UA Gemini tonight, had no clue such an auditorium existed in the city, and had to walk by the Sutton. Boy, it’s a real heart-dropped. Such a cool marquee on 57th, and now just gone. Just rubble. I ran over there when I heard the news and caught my third screening of Kill Bill 2 in the main auditorium and had a peek upstairs just to see it. Not so hot up there, but the cool script doors for Sutton 1 and Sutton 2 where pretty cool. The stairs by concessions to the restrooms were cool and I thought the curved audiotorium was pretty cool.
Last film I saw there was Rick McKay’s Broadway: The Golden Age. The director was there and had a lot of great anecdotes about the film and his cast, and he had quite a few stage folks showing up to enjoy the fun, including Jim Borstelman from Chicago and now The Producers (and soon the film version also). Sad to see it go, but great to have it go out on a grand note like Broadway: The Golden Age. I heard Rick came back for a few more screenings.
In one of those sad ironies, a friend photographed the last film on the marquee:
We Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Too little, too late… the Sutton has been demolished and is now nothing more than a pile of rubble and a series of memories for everyone who loved this cool little moviehouse. The fight now is on to save the Beekman and Cinema 1-2-3; check out those theatres' pages on this site, along with the news stories on the front page, to find out why and how these gems became endangered and about the resultant efforts to save them.
this theater must be saved. it is a historic beautiful part of new york and destoying it als destroys our historic. ANy news on landmarking it and/or preserving it?
NOTE to Moviefone…you can remove the Sutton 1 & 2 from your listings.
The last movies I saw here were “Rabbit Proof Fence” and “ANything But Love,” the latter being a real musical that was lucky to get release. Thank god the Sutton was willing to show it.
I live on East 57th Street and walk by the place every day. The wonderful “Sutton” sign was removed last Friday, 22 October and the building is now in the process of being demolished. Thanks in part to the brilliant efforts of Ismael Leyva—who, one can argue, should probably have his architecture license revoked for his misrepresentation of a facade repair project—New York is losing another great old theater.
The Clarett Group is still listing Place 57 as a forthcoming project on its web site; perhaps the crew responsible for preparing the Sutton’s interior for demolition were in the building at the time…
Oh that would be great.I just called and the phone number is disconnected. Please see what you can find out.
My friend told me the theatre was open last week when he went by, is this true?
This theater needs to be updated to Closed. The theater can also be seen in The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond.
Boy, the days of exclusive runs. It seems that even now when a film opens exclusive in Manhattan and does boffo buisness they open it everywhere within a few weeks.
Lets boycott the last City Cinema theatres, what a bunch of loosers.
The Sutton can be briefly glimpsed towards the end of the 1997 Al Pacino-Keanu Reeves flick ‘Devil’s Advocate’.
RobertR –
The proceeds from the sale of the New York properties of City Cinemas/Reading Entertainment are probably being used to finance expansion of Reading’s circuit in Australia.
Of the remaining 4 sites, only the Cinema 1-2-3 is owned. The East 86th St. and Village East are both leased, and I’m pretty sure the Angelika is also leased. The Village East was and may still be a partnership with Ackerman, and the 86th St was and may still be a partnership with the previous operator, Town & Country.
Just for the record, the final two films booked into the Sutton were ‘Maria Full of Grace’ and ‘We Don’t Live Here Anymore’, both of which were move-overs from the Cinema 1-2-3; the final initial release engagement was ‘Bush’s Brain’, a documentary about G.O.P. (and George W. Bush) political strategist Karl Rove.
It would be great to have a first run chronology of this theater – say from 1963-1985…it would probably include a number of Oscar nominees on long first runs at least from say 1970 onwards…thanks in advance to the research minded among us…
Shame on greedy City Cinemas who seem to be more real estate brokers then theatre owners. Originally alot of their upper management were the same people from Cinema 5, but I guess they all died out. Cinema 1 & 2 were once among the most prestigious art houses in the country. The adding of the third screen was only the start of the downfall. They began to book mainstream garbage like any UA theatre in a suburban mall would book.
According to the web site of the Clarett Group, the company which currently owns the Sutton property, it is scheduled to be cleared within the next few months to make way for Place 57, a 34-story luxury condominium tower. (For the record, the Clarett Group can be contacted at 212.399.2400 or at , while Ismael Leyva Associates, P.C. – the architecture firm responsible for the Sutton’s recent exterior alterations – can be reached at 212.290.1444 or at .)
I never went to the Suttona after it was twinned. I do know that New Line Cinema has a film coming out for Christmas that was filmed in 70mm digital. Sorry I don’t remember the name.
Terrible news. But it was badly twinned. It should never have been. Same goes for Cinema 1(Saw wonderful presentations of Ran and Oklahoma there.) Whatever distinctions they had were destroyed when they were sliced in two.
Is the Beekman all that’s left?
It seems that within the next few years, most of the classic theaters will be closed forever leaving just the multiplexes. I never went to the Sutton. Wish I did. I hear Cinema 1 isn’t the same as it was years ago when it was a premiere theater. Now they show the crap.
So, that leaves what? Radio City which only shows premieres with invited audiences and the Ziegfeld which isn’t even open every day, doesn’t show 70MM anymore (who does) and shows mainstream. We’re doomed!! Soon on this site there will really be nothing to talk about. The Astor Plaza site, which was one of the busiest is basically a ghost town, now that it’s gone.
This really sucks.The theater still shows as open on their web site. Was there any word that they may close.
So that leaves City Cinemas with what? the Cinema ½/3 the Village East and the Angelika…Hardly critical mass…The Sutton may have been badly twinned but it did give longer legs to some smaller films in its last two years
Well that’s all folks we lost the Sutton if you go pass the theatre right now the marquee is dark the films are still listed though.On the entrance door it reads closed forever. it did just like the Astor Plaza did wherein it featured new movies on Fri and closed sunday or monday.
Warren
The review in today’s USA today wasn’t great. it only got 2 ½ stars. I said this before, Loews could have put a movie in the Astor Plaza that would h ave been and exculusive showing for 6 days.