Lorcan and Genie Otway may lose their house, and his household's life work, if Theatre 80 -- a legendary off-Broadway venue in New York Metropolis -- is not saved by a lender.
Stephen Yang
To listen to Lorcan Otway inform it, he’s in a battle for his life.
If he finds somebody keen to refinance his debt, Theatre 80 — the long-lasting East Village venue the place Otway has lived and labored since he was 9 years outdated — will likely be saved.
If he doesn’t, the off-Broadway theater the place “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” was born and numerous stars have thrived will possible be offered at chapter public sale to the very best bidder.
Otway is dealing with practically $10.5 million in money owed after COVID shutdowns left him unable to pay a mortgage.
“[The creditors] are actually making an attempt to remove the whole lot I've ever accomplished and the whole lot I ever will likely be,” mentioned Otway, 67, of the theater, pub and museum which are his life’s work in addition to his house. (He and his spouse Genie, who's in her 60s, stay in a an adjoining townhouse that can also be a part of the chapter.)
On July 21, a decide will determine whether or not to transform Otway’s Chapter 11 chapter, filed in December 2020, into Chapter 7 — which can most definitely finish in an public sale. Neither the court-appointed trustee nor her lawyer returned calls in search of remark.
As Otway scrambles to search out monetary assist, politicians and celebrities are rallying to his trigger.
Amongst them is Malachy McCourt, the Irish actor and bestselling writer of “A Monk Swimming” who's a longtime good friend of the Otway household. Final month, the 90-year-old grew to become the most recent star so as to add his handprint and signature to the Stroll of Fame exterior Theatre 80.
“I’ll be planting my hand within the cement,” McCourt instructed The Publish earlier than the ceremony. “I want we may minimize the arms off the cash grubbers who're making an attempt to steal the place. It’s horrible what is occurring to Lorcan.”
After submitting for pandemic-induced chapter in 2020, and with a $6.1 million mortgage in default, Otway’s debt on the adjoined buildings was offered to Maverick Actual Property Companions and the rate of interest soared.
Otway believes the mobsters who helped finance his father’s acquisition of the previous jazz membership and speakeasy had extra compassion for the neighborhood than at the moment’s “actual property vultures.”
His dad, Howard, used a $64,000 mortgage from a Decrease East Facet mobster to purchase the 2 adjoined buildings at 78 and 80 St. Marks Place in 1964.
“The distinction between organized crime then and actual property predators at the moment is organized crime charged decrease rates of interest,” Otway mentioned. “They wished you to succeed to stabilize the neighborhood. The true property predators at the moment are parasites. They're killing New York’s cultural entities. We don’t want extra banks and Starbucks. We'd like extra theaters.”
The spot had as soon as been a speakeasy the place Al Capone drank. It was one of many first locations Frank Sinatra carried out, in 1939, whereas renting a room across the nook. Harry Belafonte was an everyday within the Nineteen Fifties, when it was the Jazz Gallery.
After his dad purchased it, “[We] dug out the stage by hand once I was 9 years outdated,” Otway recalled, explaining why an outdated door is now just a few toes above the ground degree of the stage. “That [door] was the one manner in throughout Prohibition when it was a speakeasy,” he mentioned. Patrons needed to enter a butcher store on First Ave., ask to go to “Scheib’s place” after which cross a again alley to get to a tunnel resulting in the speakeasy’s again door.
Otway recalled his dad uncovering two safes buried within the basement. Walter Scheib, the mob underling who had offered the previous Jazz Gallery to Howard, claimed the safes belonged to him and that he had forgotten the mixtures. A secure cracker was introduced in and found one was empty — whereas the second contained $2 million in gold certificates, wrapped in newspapers from 1945.
The Otway household didn't get a minimize of the recovered loot, however they ultimately discovered that the cash belonged to Scheib’s boss, Frank Hoffman, who made a fortune as a bootlegger throughout Prohibition.
Hoffman had disappeared in 1945 along with his Brazilian girlfriend and was presumed lengthy lifeless. So Scheib used the cash to retire and construct the Promenade Lodge in Miami Seaside. (Otway has written a guide and film remedy based mostly on it, however mentioned, “I don’t wish to give an excessive amount of of the story away.”)
Otway has lived there since his father purchased the place and moved the household into the connected townhouse.
Rising up, Otway labored as an usher, concessionaire, projectionist and handyman. “My dad had me begin on the bottom degree of each job and work my manner as much as administration at every,” he mentioned.
The partitions of the theater are lined with Otway’s reminiscences: Posters from previous exhibits, in addition to images of the celebrities who had been in them or had been friends along with his household: Katharine Hepburn, Robert De Niro, Jimmy Stewart, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis. One other image exhibits Howard holding up a tipsy Maureen Stapleton leaving her handprint in moist cement for the Stroll of Fame. As Otway recalled, the Oscar-winning actress was too inebriated to signal her identify.
Others whose handprints and signatures made it onto the sidewalk embrace Joan Rivers, Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson and Alan Cumming. The actor who performed Radar O’Reilly in “MASH,” Gary Burghoff, additionally left his mark, however it’s set in a cement block that has but to be set into the sidewalk. “He hates coming to New York, so we needed to carry the cement to him,” Otway defined.
One in every of his favourite tales is from 1969, when “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” was drawing an A-list crowd to the best way off-Broadway venue.
A younger Billy Crystal was working as an usher and noticed legendary newscaster Walter Cronkite sitting within the entrance row. Crystal raced as much as Cronkite, shining a flashlight in his eyes. “Mr. Cronkite, if there may be something I can do for you, something in any respect, simply let me know,” he mentioned enthusiastically.
“One factor you are able to do for me is get that f–king flashlight out of my face,” Cronkite retorted.
Years later, after Crystal had turn into a star himself, he bumped into Cronkite on a chat present. The newsman reportedly remembered the encounter and mentioned he all the time regretted talking so rudely to a younger usher.
Extra not too long ago, Otway was there when British actor Patrick Stewart made a shock look seven years in the past with the Improvisational Shakespeare Firm. He additionally recalled John Lithgow and Emma Thompson filming scenes for the 2019 film “Late Night time” on the theater.
Howard died in 1994 on the age of 72. Otway’s mom, Florence, was 94 when she handed away in 2014.
“They died at house and we took care of them by means of their last sicknesses,” mentioned Otway referring to himself and spouse Genie, a lawyer. (The 2 don't have any kids.) The buildings went to him and his older brother, Thomas, who has since handed away.
After attending legislation college, Otway labored for a decade as an lawyer, primarily specializing in human rights — which he mentioned was rewarding, simply not financially. The theater has all the time been his ardour and he returned to it full time in 2006.
In 2019, Otway took out a $6.1 million bridge mortgage to repay his late brother’s property to the tune of $2.8 million and invested funds into the institution. He mentioned he was assembly his funds to the lender on time — till the pandemic hit.
The 200-seat theater, in addition to the buildings’ William Barnacle Tavern and the Museum of the American Gangster, which Otway additionally runs, had been compelled to shut. Some business rental items stopped paying lease. With no actual earnings for Otway, the mortgage went into default and the unique lender, Hirschmark Capital, offered the financial institution debt to Maverick Actual Property Companions. Neither the agency’s principal David Aviram nor his lawyer returned calls in search of remark.
However Otway mentioned that, with the mortgage in default, his rate of interest was jacked up from 10% to 24% in early 2021 — and the unique $6.1 million bridge mortgage ballooned to greater than $9.2 million with penalties quickly accumulating.
In December 2020, Oway filed for Chapter 11 chapter, which he hoped would purchase time to discover a lender for a brand new long-term mortgage and allow him to repay his debt, together with a six-figure property tax invoice.
“Chapter legal guidelines are supposed to assist companies to get time to reorganize. As a substitute they're getting used to spoil me,” mentioned Otway. “It was unlawful for me to evict any of my tenants in the course of the COVID shutdown. For the general public good, I used to be not allowed to do any enterprise. However Maverick was allowed to proceed to do enterprise by shopping for the debt, and now they wish to evict us.”
Sen. Brad Hoylman urged Governor Kathy Hochul to ensure a low-interest mortgage for the struggling enterprise, to no avail. “It was the identical week she had okayed $840 million for a billionaire to construct a brand new soccer stadium in Buffalo,” Otway mentioned.
Carlina Rivera, the Metropolis Councilwoman from the Decrease East Facet who's working for Congress, instructed The Publish she got here to know Theatre 80 as a high-school pupil when she noticed a manufacturing of “Romeo and Juliet.” She’s now hoping to assist put it aside.
“It sparked a love for the performing arts that I've to at the present time,” Rivera mentioned. “As an elected official I’ve labored to attach [Otway] with assets on the Metropolis, State and Federal degree, and my workplace has labored to help them with steerage round mission-driven financing choices. I hope that we will proceed to name Theatre 80 our neighbors, and I'll definitely preserve preventing to help our beloved arts and cultural establishments.”
Otway mentioned that until he can discover a new backer in pretty brief order, the theater, pub and museum may very well be compelled to shut its doorways — and he and his spouse will likely be evicted from their house if the July 21 court docket session units a date for a compelled sale.
He added that he has not too long ago gotten an expression of curiosity from a possible lender however realizes time shouldn't be on his aspect.
“It is a New York cultural establishment,” Otway mentioned as he appeared over the bar that was carved from the one in Schreib’s speakeasy. “I hope it survives.”
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