Mill Run Playhouse (aka Mill Run Theatre) was a 1,600 seat

theatre in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored aga ...

Niles, Illinois Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located in the townships of Maine and Niles, directly neighboring the City of Chicago's far northwest border. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,912. The current mayor of Niles ...

. It was built in 1965 on the grounds of the

Golf Mill Shopping Center Golf Mill Shopping Center, or simply Golf Mill, is a shopping mall located at 239 Golf Mill Center in Niles, Illinois. The shopping mall has a gross leasable area of . It is managed by Sterling Retail Services. It borders the intersections of Gol ...

. It was scheduled to open in June 1965 but torrential rains delayed the opening to July 2, 1965. It was demolished in August 1984. Its last show was a performance by

Lou Rawls Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American record producer, singer, composer and actor. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his s ...

on August 1.

History

Mill Run was originally a venue for off-Broadway shows. It closed sometime in the late 1960s. In 1969, a group headed by Gerald Kaufman,

Sammy Davis, Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

, and Donjo Medlevine (a former owner of the Chez Paris), leased the theater from

. The plan of the new operators was to bring to the theater Las Vegas entertainers, each act opening on a Tuesday and performing 8 or 9 shows - 1 show each night from Tuesday through Thursday, 1 or 2 shows on Friday, and 2 shows on Saturday and Sunday (some shows were booked for weekend performances only, depending on popularity/availability of performers). Almost every show had an opening act and the 20-minute intermission between acts was utilized by the theater to sell drinks and candy. Long before the theater showed a profit, it was kept solvent by the sale of liquor. The first act to perform - in early 1970 - was

Shecky Greene Shecky Greene (born Fred Sheldon Greenfield; April 8, 1926) is an American comedian. He is known for his nightclub performances in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he became a headliner in the 1950s and '60s. He has appeared in several films, including ' ...

, who was paid $30,000 for the appearance (tickets went for $7.50). One of the last to perform - in 1984 - was

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...

, who was paid $250,000 (tickets now cost $25). In the mid-1970s, management started booking one-night stands on Monday nights, sometimes boxing matches, sometimes headliners.

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

was one of the first to perform on a Monday night. His performance sold out, all records for candy sales were broken, and the theater came close to the single night record for liquor sales. When Kaufman saw the figures. he told Butch Wonders, his manager, to re-book Tom Waits. Butch said that Mr. Waits said he would never work there again as it was the first time he had ever worked in a venue where the patrons "didn't vomit in the aisles." Periodically, the theater would showcase a musical or play, such as

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, Grease, and

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. Throughout this time, the theater presented shows for children on weekday and weekend mornings. Harry Lee Rogers ran this operation, handling scripts, costumes, music, lighting, casting, and directing single-handedly. In 1971, Marquee Enterprises was formed to operate Mill Run. It then opened a second venue in

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(

Circle Star Theater The Circle Star Theatre was a performing arts venue in San Carlos, San Mateo County, California. Its name is based on it being a theater in the round, featuring a rotating circular stage with none of its 3,743 seats further than 50 feet (15 m) fr ...

), and subsequently opened other theaters in Los Angeles, Sunrise (Florida), Louisville, Atlanta, and New York. It also ran shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York for 13 weeks a year for several years. It also booked shows for other owners' venues (such as Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville, Indiana). The theater closed when Golf Mill Shopping Center, the owner of the property, refused to renew the lease in 1984. The site is now part of the parking lot of the shopping center.

Cancelled renovation

A renovation was scheduled for January 1977 to increase the seating capacity to 2,000 seats and to be closed for six months during renovation. The renovation never went through.

Notable performers

References

{{reflist

External links

Belli & Belli Architects and Engineers
Buildings and structures demolished in 1984 Demolished theatres in Illinois Niles, Illinois Theatres completed in 1965