Who owns the Mercury Theater? Two months after the Wrigleyville playhouse and two adjacent restaurant spaces were sold for a reported $3.3 million, that’s still a mystery. Walter Stearns, the Mercury’s new executive director—and outgoing artistic director of Porchlight Music Theatre—says he’s just an employee; the owners are a “small group of investors” incorporated as Southport Theatre LLC. Stearns says he put the group together but isn’t part of it and won’t reveal the members’ names.
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Whoever the new owners are, they’re looking to run the 292-seat theater at 3745 N. Southport as a for-profit rental venue. Despite earlier print and blog reports that he’d be mounting his own productions, Stearns says there are no immediate plans for that and no money earmarked to support it. Last week he was awaiting the arrival of a new HVAC system and planning a trip to New York to scare up some business. So far, he’s got no bookings.
Except for a sketch comedy show presented there on September 11, 2009, the Mercury has been dark since a touring production of Mark’s Gospel closed more than 16 months ago. Stearns remembers thinking last winter that it shouldn’t be standing unused in a town with so much great theater and so many companies that need space. When he read that it might be available, he says, he talked it up to potential investors. “I started to introduce people to each other, and began negotiating, in May.”
Originally called the Blaine Theatre, the Mercury opened in 1912 as a nickelodeon and then ran silent films until 1920. After that, until Cullen and Carlucci took over, it housed a rug-cleaning company and a series of retail outlets. The 3,800-square-foot Strega Nona space has been empty since Carlucci’s lease ran out in 2008. Stearns says it’s available for any kind of use, but he’d like to see another restaurant there.
Porchlight posted its opening for a new artistic director last week.
