The Lakeview building known as Stage 773 that formerly was Theatre Building Chicago, a seminal venue in the history of off-Loop Chicago theater, appears headed for the wrecking ball.
The low-slung building at 1225 W. Belmont Ave. has been targeted by developers JAB Real Estate, which has proposed a new building with 40 residential units and ground-floor commercial space. The planning proposal, as yet unapproved, was first reported by Block Club.
Once known as the Theatre Building, then Theatre Building Chicago, this former grocery warehouse in Lakeview was a beloved part of Chicago’s burgeoning off-Loop scene beginning in 1977 and continuing for decades. Founder Byron Schaffer Jr., a theater professor at Northern Illinois University who died in 1990, imagined the building as a three-theater venue offering affordable space to itinerant arts groups. Run for years by Ruth Higgins, Schaffer’s widow, the Theatre Building hosted the first Chicago stage appearances of such noted actors as Joan Allen, John Malkovich and Aidan Quinn, and was long regarded as a catalyst for the development of Belmont Avenue as a rough-but-ready entertainment district, the Belmont Theater District, and for the gentrification of west Lakeview in general.
Notable Chicago theater companies once resident at the Theatre Building include Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Famous Door Theatre Company, New Tuners, Porchlight Music Theatre, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre and, at times, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company and Remains Theatre. Famous past shows staged there include Malkovich and Allen in Steppenwolf’s “Say Goodnight, Gracie” in 1979 (Steppenwolf’s first show in the City of Chicago), William Petersen and Gary Cole in the Remains Theatre staging of “The Tooth of Crime” in 1982 and David Schwimmer working on the Lookingglass Theatre production of “West” in 1991.
In 2010, the building was turned over to an entity calling itself Lukaba Productions, associated with Chicago improvisor Brian Posen and his family. It was reborn as Stage 773, although still a multi-theater venue. Posen stepped down as creative director in 2017 amid accusations of inappropriate behavior toward female collaborators and colleagues, the Tribune reported at the time. Most recently, Stage 773 had morphed into a weird bar and art installation, labelled WHIM and initially described as “a Willy Wonka meets Burning Man meets the Museum of Modern Art immersive experience.” It failed to catch on and closed at the end of last year. Laura Michaud, Posen’s sister, told the Tribune last month that Stage 773 had closed with the show and that she did not know what would happen to the building.
Chicago has been losing many of its storied theaters. The Royal George Theatre announced its closure in 2021 after its owner, the New York-based Liberty Theatres LLC, decided to sell the theater for redevelopment. The building was acquired by the Chicago real estate developers Draper and Kramer, who obtained approval in 2023 for a nine-story apartment building with ground-floor retail (most likely restaurant space). Due to issues with financing, says a source familiar with the sale, nothing has happened. It is conceivable the building may get flipped or even that a new buyer would retain the current building or even incorporate one into new plans. But the current structure is in poor condition. An artistic future is viewed as highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, plans were approved this week for the redevelopment of the former Briar Street Theatre (3133 N. Halsted St.), long the home of the Blue Man Group. JAB Real Estate is behind that condo project, too. And the Mercury Theater on Southport Avenue sits vacant, sparking worries that it, too, could be redeveloped and its performance spaces closed.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
