So now there is a plan to raise the Palace Theater off the ground and hoist it into the air to make room for pricey, pricey Times Square storefront real estate. Apparently, the rents that can be charged by the square foot makes the billion dollar plan economically feasible.
At well over 1700 seats, the Palace is one of the larger Broadway theaters. I wonder what the plan will be to evacuate the theater in the event of an emergency. It's hard enough to get that many people in and out of a theater when it's on the ground floor, it boggles the mind to imagine getting all those people out of the building safely in an emergency situation when the theater is aloft somewhere above the street. What about the elderly that typically make up a large chunk of the Broadway audience? What about wheelchair or other ADA patrons? What about in the event a power outage and all escalators and elevators are out of commission? The odds are against it, but it's not like it hasn't happened before.
I wonder why nobody has brought up these contingencies? Oh wait, I know why.
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