How Lucky Theater Book Nerds Are To Be Alive Right Now

January 8, 2019 10:02 AM

Late last year, the 100-year-old Broadway-scene institution The Drama Book Shop announced it would soon close, a victim of rising rents and the age of its owner. ....But a certain Tony/Grammy/Emmy/Pulitzer/Genius Grant/Kennedy Center honoree said "not if I can help it," and got to work. Today the plan was revealed: Lin-Manuel Miranda and two of his Hamilton collaborators have bought The Drama Bookshop, simply so that it will stay open.

Founded in 1917, The Drama Book Shop caters to the aspirant and established theater professional, with nearly 8,000 scripts in stock, as well as books on play production, lighting and costume design, makeup artistry, and "how to do your taxes and finances" advice for struggling actors. In more recent years they've also published scripts themselves, allowing some of New York's independent theater artists a chance to give their work even wider exposure. The store even won special recognition from the TONYS in 2011 for its service to the theater community.

At its current location, Drama Book Shop also had a small theater it rented out to up-and-coming theater artists, letting it out for use as rehearsal or performance space. Lin-Manuel Miranda and collaborator Thomas Kail used the space in 2002 when they were first developing the musical In The Heights, the work which went on to earn the pair their first TONY award. Even before then, Lin says, he was a frequent visitor - "When I was in high school I would go [visit] and sit on the floor and read plays — I didn’t have the money to buy them." He has been a fan and supporter of the store ever since.

This isn't the first time that Lin has rallied to save the Drama Book Shop - a burst pipe in 2016 damaged much of the store's stock, and three days later Lin took to Twitter with an all-hands-on-deck alert for his fans, urging them to patronize the shop to give the store a quick hit of cash. He added a video of his own trip a day later. Sales soared, and the shop was easily able to repair the damage.

The shop will still close in its current location this January, but will re-open in a new space in the fall. Previous owner Rozanne Seelen, who has maintained the shop since 2000, will be kept on as a consultant, and negotiations are underway to keep the shop dog Chester on as well.

posted by EmpressCallipygos (30 comments total)

Hurray!
posted by brujita at 10:08 AM on January 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

Personal note now - I was also a frequent visitor when I was in college at its earlier location (on about the 12th floor of an office building on 7th Avenue somewhere), stopping in to get scripts for class assignments at my studio. I would also stop in as a stage manager, and still have the copy of the "templates for stage managers" book which became my bloody bible for ten years because that was a godsend for organizing your shit in the days before the internet. I was also delighted to stop in once and see a play one of my companies developed sitting on the shelf, newly-published, in its Samuel French edition.

This is an invaluable resource for people connected to theater, and it's such a relief that it's still going to be around.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:08 AM on January 8, 2019 [11 favorites]

Wow, that's awesome!
posted by me3dia at 10:45 AM on January 8, 2019

Always nice when a New York institution is saved instead of "moving" (which more often than not translates to "we're closing forever")
posted by Automocar at 10:48 AM on January 8, 2019

"negotiations are underway to keep the shop dog Chester on as well."

Is the most joyous sentence fragment I've read all year.
posted by el io at 11:00 AM on January 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

"negotiations are underway to keep the shop dog Chester on as well."

Is the most joyous sentence fragment I've read all year.

Well, "negotiations" may be a little grand - someone tweeted at Lin asking if his own dog Tobillo would be the shop dog now, and he responded "we're negotiating keeping Chester", so I think it was more like a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that of course Chester will be dropping in.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:02 AM on January 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

....And Chester has his own backstory here and it's awesome.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:04 AM on January 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

Wow. In the '70's I visited this store several times, and then sort of forgot about it (and many other portions of the civilized world) when we had kids. I'm glad to hear that it survives, and will continue to do so.
posted by ubiquity at 11:10 AM on January 8, 2019

I was depressed to hear of this place's closing--I'm not a huge theater nerd, but it seemed like the kind of specialized store that, if it can't be kept alive in NYC, probably can't be kept alive anywhere, and what a grim statement about the arts! So this is good news.
posted by praemunire at 11:18 AM on January 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

" I think it was more like a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that of course Chester will be dropping in."

I hear what you are saying, but my version (entirely concocted out of my imagination) is that a team of lawyers arguing loudly over this matter in a back room at this very moment.
posted by el io at 11:46 AM on January 8, 2019 [7 favorites]

The first time I went to NYC as an adult it was the first place I went. I ordered my books for the best semester of my life from them. Yay!
posted by wellred at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Chester's lawyers took a hard line, but Chester caved when, during settlement negotiations, the other side offered him a piece of string cheese.
posted by praemunire at 12:40 PM on January 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

This makes me so happy, not only for the performing arts communities in NYC, but for NYC in general. Here is one place meant for the people of New York that isn't going to be flushed out by hyper-capitalism, at least not for now.
posted by droplet at 12:43 PM on January 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Lin-Manuel is not throwing away his...shop!

That was terrible. I'm sorry.
posted by Enemy of Joy at 12:51 PM on January 8, 2019 [19 favorites]

I'm concerned that this will turn into a UCB-type "we have this business because we wanted it to exist, not because we actually wanted to run a business." Will a producer's office really be able and willing to run a bookstore well?
posted by mosst at 12:51 PM on January 8, 2019

Will a producer's office really be able and willing to run a bookstore well?

They're already running a Hamilton-themed store in the city, and they're keeping the previous owner (who started co-running the shop with her husband in 1969 and then took over entirely when he died in 2000) involved as a consultant.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:55 PM on January 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I guess I'm just worried about what happens when it's no longer their shiny new thing and/or when the going gets rough. A Hamilton store is much more limited/topical/profitable, and when that's no longer true they'll surely just close it (it's a pop-up). As far as the previous owner, well, she's 84 - it's not unlikely that she may want to (or have to) retire/disengage at some point in the relatively near future.

Look, I hope I'm wrong. I just imagine opening a bookstore as a part-time project to be a recipe for trouble. Hopefully someone who really wants to manage a bookstore (and...knows how) is involved here.
posted by mosst at 1:07 PM on January 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

my version (entirely concocted out of my imagination) is that a team of lawyers arguing loudly over this matter in a back room at this very moment.

My version: the lawyers are dogs in suits
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:09 PM on January 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

I just imagine opening a bookstore as a part-time project to be a recipe for trouble. Hopefully someone who really wants to manage a bookstore (and...knows how) is involved here.

I can't imagine any of them are actually planning to be involved in managing it. I was wondering if they might end up turning it into a non-profit.
posted by Mavri at 1:21 PM on January 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

They can just hire someone to run it.
posted by bleep at 1:45 PM on January 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

The only thing that can save us from bad guys with a gun rich people who don't care about anything is a good guy with a gun rich people who care about something.
posted by bleep at 1:47 PM on January 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

I just imagine opening a bookstore as a part-time project to be a recipe for trouble. Hopefully someone who really wants to manage a bookstore (and...knows how) is involved here.

I....really think the president of the Nederlander Organization can find someone in NYC with bookstore management experience.
posted by praemunire at 3:24 PM on January 8, 2019 [9 favorites]

I just imagine opening a bookstore as a part-time project to be a recipe for trouble.

I agree that opening a bookstore as a part-time project would be difficult.

So it's a good thing that that's not what they're doing - they are instead investing in the ownership of an existing bookstore that's been in the community for 100 plus years, one which they have all patronized as up-and-coming theater professionals, and it's even better that one of them used to belong to a theater company that was based IN that store, for five years and thus had a good up-close view of what it took to manage that store - and it's doubly-fortunate that they're just owners and someone with retail experience is going to be actually doing the operation aspect.

.....In short - RTFA, maybe?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:05 PM on January 8, 2019 [5 favorites]

Yeah? Because your comment is going so far out of its way to misconstrue the situation that it really seems like this is grousing about a really nice story, just for the sake of it. And as well:

their shiny new thing and/or when the going gets rough

....fairly reeks of condescension. And

well, she's 84 - it's not unlikely that she may want to (or have to) retire/disengage at some point in the relatively near future

...appears to suggest that we're all not very aware that an 84 year old is generally retired? Or that, what, Lin Manuel Miranda isn't aware that aging is a thing?

opening a bookstore

Not "opening". BUYING.

as a part-time project

As owners-not-managers. Not unlike the ownership of literally countless small businesses all over the country.

to be a recipe for trouble.

More trouble than, say, shuttering a century-old business for good right now?

Hopefully someone who really wants to manage a bookstore (and...knows how) is involved here.

I.e. you hope the people doing this unalloyed good thing aren't idiots, which is a worry of yours because...why, exactly? Keep in mind that Miranda has a fair amount of personal wealth, and can probably afford to have the place operate as a virtual non-profit for a very very long time.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:58 PM on January 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I did RTFA. What I learned from that is that they expect this bookstore to break even consistently rather than its current "occasionally," so they probably won't be too thrilled if it's a long-term money pit; that the bookstore is losing its current location, so who knows how the new one will compare; and that there's no mention of bringing someone new into the organization to run it. And even if someone else is running it for the day-to-day - well, I stand by my UCB comparison (recent thread).

Anyways, I'll bow out now - this isn't the hill I want to die on.
posted by mosst at 2:42 AM on January 9, 2019

What I learned from that is that they expect this bookstore to break even consistently rather than its current "occasionally,"

Which would be an improvement....

so they probably won't be too thrilled if it's a long-term money pit

This was not in the article and is something you are assuming.

that the bookstore is losing its current location

That was a pre-existing condition, and the store was on the verge of closing altogether instead of just moving, and the new owners are ensuring it WILL be a move - also the article states there is a pledge from the city itself to assist in finding a new location,

so who knows how the new one will compare

This is another assumption you are making, instead of trusting that the four people interested would want the best possible space;

and that there's no mention of bringing someone new into the organization to run it.

They have the people to run it already.

Anyways, I'll bow out now - this isn't the hill I want to die on.

Shitting in a punch bowl is not the same as dying on a hill.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:41 AM on January 9, 2019 [4 favorites]

Whoops, forgot one:

And even if someone else is running it for the day-to-day - well, I stand by my UCB comparison (recent thread).

UCB is an improv comedy club, and Drama Book Shop is a book shop.

Improv comedy clubs are not the same thing as book shops, and it is puzzling why you would consider that an even comparison.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:43 AM on January 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

The importance of The Drama Book Shop to the NY theater community can't be overstated. As a recovering playwright/erstwhile actor myself, having access to their selection of plays to browse/buy back in the day was important to my learning my craft. Having a play I wrote published and on the shelves of the store was (and still is) very meaningful.

I hope TDBS lives on for generations to come and am thankful to LMM and Co.
posted by papercake at 5:58 AM on January 9, 2019

there's no mention of bringing someone new into the organization to run it.

There's no mention of hiring cashiers, either, which definitely means they are planning to give away their stock for free and are doomed.
posted by praemunire at 8:01 AM on January 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Restating the obvious: LMM is a national treasure.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:01 PM on January 16, 2019