CitiWang
This is just wrong.
I may have mentioned that I don’t get out very often. Well, today I was riding along on the dread red line of Mr. T on my way to get my copious locks sheared off. I looked up from my seat, and saw an advert for the Boston Ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Citi Wang Theatre. The Citi Wang Theatre? WTF? Since when is the Wang the Citi Wang?
It seems the change was made late last year, according to Wikipedia. This old joint has been through quite a few names, but this latest one, since I hate the practice of corporations slapping their names onto public spaces, is the worst.
It opened as the Metropolitan Theatre in 1925. It was one of a few movie palaces here in Boston. A couple of the others are still around, a few blocks away in what was until recently the infamous Combat Zone (that is, a couple of strip clubs and an adult bookstore). Anyway, the two theatres in question are the Paramount (which has not, as far as I know, been open at all during the more than 25 years I’ve lived in the area, but it seems like somebody works on it now and then) and the Savoy — which was apparently originally the B.F. Keith Memorial, and has been called the Opera House since the late 70’s, when Sarah Caldwell moved her Opera Company of Boston in. I saw Laurie Anderson there two or three times in the 80’s and early 90’s. I don’t think the theatre’s open nowadays.
By the way, Boston used to have a real Opera House, right by Symphony Hall. The story I heard is that it was demolished to make room for a gym or a parking garage for Northeastern University. But I digress.
The Metropolitan Theatre was renamed the Music Hall in the 60’s. In the 80’s it became the Metropolitan Centre (or the Met Centre, as we all called it). I remember skanking my ass off to Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff there, some time around 1982 or 1983.
Not long after that, An Wang (of Wang Labs) made a big donation and the place was renamed the Wang Centre. Corporate name? Well, sort of, but as far as I was concerned, it was named for the person rather than the company, so I was ok with it. Besides, they started fixing the place up at that point. It’s rather nice in there now.
In the 90’s, the Wang Centre and the Shubert Theatre across the street merged (their management merged, not the buildings, you silly person), so as the two buildings now made up the Wang Centre, the theatre itself was renamed the Wang Theatre.
And so it remained until a few months ago, when Citicorp or Citigroup or Citimonopoly — whatever they’re calling themselves — signed a contract to slap their name onto the place, just like they’re doing with Shea Stadium, and turned it into the Citi Performing Arts Centre, which is made up of the Citi Wang Theatre, and… I don’t know — I hope they’re not going to start calling the Shubert the Citi Shubert.
This sucks. I assume people are going to end up calling the place Citi Centre, which people are going to confuse with City Center, down in the big town.
Feh.
Tags: Wang, Wang Centre, Wang Theatre, Boston, Shubert Theatre, Naming Rights, Cinemas, Movie Theatres, Movie Houses, Movie Palaces
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Category: Arts, Marketing
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Comments (6)
qwerty on 14 Feb 2007 at 6:57 pm #
Strange but true. My first since last May. The guy who’s been cutting my hair since the late 80s probably thought I’d died.
Anonymous on 16 Feb 2007 at 3:14 pm #
The Opera House is open, fully functioning, and has been for at least three years. Remember the Lion King? It opened the theatre. It is a Clear Channel/Live Nation/Broadway Across America/whatever-the-real- name-is venue.
And the Paramouint was bought by Emerson College within the past year and a half and is currently being renovated for performance space, rehearsal space and dorms.
PS, no one is giving money to the Arts anymore so they are resorting to corporate naming rights. Would you rather they close?
Anonymous on 16 Feb 2007 at 4:04 pm #
Hey There!
Unfortunately, since 9/11, people have stopped coming to the theatre. So, Non Profit Organizations cannot sustain themselves from revenue, therefore a lot of Not-For-Profits have to look elsewhere for monetary support. Since the beginning of the concept of the non profit performing arts center organizations, like the Citi Performing Arts Center, they have relied on sponsorship money to support their community outreach initiatives such as Free Shakespeare, Dance Across the City, and many other educational and outreach programs. Without sponsors like Citi, the non-profit performing arts centers would no longer exist in America.
qwerty on 16 Feb 2007 at 5:57 pm #
Are you familiar with Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood? As I recall, Sony (or someone way up in the Sony hierarchy) bought the naming rights, and then didn’t name it Sony Hall. Instead, they chose to name it after a person who’d been very important to the place.
Wouldn’t it be nice if corporations were more concerned with the community than having their name plastered all over the place? I’d be fine with a plaque — a huge plaque — in some obvious place at the Wang Centre that thanked Citigroup for their generous support of the arts, but that just isn’t enough for their marketing departments.
Ed Darrell on 07 Mar 2007 at 10:29 am #
So, somewhere in the depths of the Citicorp bowels there’s a PR guy, either sweating bullets that his boss won’t figure out that “Citi” and “Wang” fit together in a humorous way, or chortling evilly that they do.
Which?
qwerty on 07 Mar 2007 at 2:50 pm #
If his office is in the bowels, I think he can appreciate it.