Rebirth of the Waverly Theater
It's been a long time
since the Waverly theater on 6th Avenue in the Village closed “for renovations.”
At some point, it became clear that the entire interior space had been completely
gutted. The building's empty shell stood in place like a cicada husk for a long time, and I began
to wonder if it would ever reopen, or if it would ultimately be
repurposed – converted into a mini mall, for example.
I saw a lot of good movies at the Waverly, even after an earlier round of
renovations carved the building up into two awkward screening rooms, the upstairs
room being especially painful to sit in. I had no intention of seeing “Ghostbusters,”
but ran into a friend on line in front of the Waverly one Saturday, and decided
to go along. I ended up laughing until my sides ached.
I like the TV programming that IFC has to offer. Now that they've got their
own venue, it could be a very good thing.
