Early discussions are underway with a prospective tenant for the vacant Times Square Theatre on West 42nd Street, Playbill On-Line has learned.

With the speculation and juggling over theatres and Broadway transfers intensifying close to the deadline for Tony eligibility, any word about the possibility of a new theatre is considered news. The smallish Times Square is the last theatre on the block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues to be either reclaimed as a theatre or converted into an alternate commercial enterprise.

While the talks on the Times Square Theatre are preliminary and no details are available, New 42nd Street's Cora Cahan told Playbill On-Line that discussions have begun. Cahan also confirmed that a proposal for the theatre's use from producer Stewart F. Lane had been turned down a few weeks ago.

The Times Square was built in 1920 by Edgar and Arch Selwyn. Among its notable productions were Noel's Coward's Private Lives, starring Coward and Getrude Lawrence, George Gershwin's Strike Up the Band, and, most successfully, Hecht and MacArthur's newspaper comedy, The Front Page. The theatre has not been a legit house since 1933.

-- By Murdoch McBride
and Robert Simonson