An unidentified object has fallen from the troubled Conde Nast tower in Times Square onto the nearby Kit Kat Klub, the home of the Roundabout Theatre Company's hit Broadway production of Cabaret. "It appears that [something has fallen onto the theatre]," said Sunny Mandel, spokesperson of the Mayor's Office on Emergency Management, when reached at the construction site. "We're investigating it right now."
Various reports say the object is a plank or a beam. Mandel told Playbill On-Line the nature of the fallen material had not been determined. If the object has punctured the Kit Kit Klub's roof or otherwise damaged the theatre, it would be yet another blow to the producers of Cabaret, who earlier July 27 announced the cancellation of the musical's July 28 and 29 performances. So far, the accident has caused Cabaret to cancel 10 shows.
On the brighter side, the Roundabout will resume performances of Side Man and You Never Can Tell July 28. The two productions are housed in the Criterion Center on Seventh Avenue between 44th and 45th streets.
Roundabout received its first piece of good news in a week early on Monday, July 27, when the city reopened Broadway and Seventh Avenue to traffic. The area had been barred to vehicles and pedestrians since July 21, after the collapse of a construction elevator on the half-built Conde Nast building paralyzed Times Square and closed scores of businesses, including the Roundabout's productions of Cabaret, Side Man and You Never Can Tell.
Also canceled were the July 21-27 performances of the Off-Broadway musical Smoke on the Mountain, which is housed in the W. 44th Street Lamb's Theatre. No announcement has yet been made about performances July 28 and beyond. The fate of Cabaret, located in the Kit Kat Klub on W. 43rd Street, only yards from the disaster, remains in question. The stretch of 43rd Street between Seventh Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas -- the center of the clean-up effort -- remains off-limits, as does 42nd Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues, and the Avenue of the Americas between 42nd and 45th streets. The Mayor's Office said there was no way of knowing when 43rd Street or Cabaret might see life again.
