UPDATE: Wellmont sends the following statement…
The Wellmont Theater will be closed to repair portions of the plaster ceiling finishes. The owners and leaseholders of the Wellmont are working closely with the Montclair building department and an independent contractor, following an incident last week when it was discovered that repairs were necessary to ensure patron safety. As a result, the Interpol concert scheduled for Wednesday, August 4 has been postponed. The Wellmont looks forward to upcoming shows with Lyle Lovett, Counting Crows, Tears for Fears and many others. For information and updates on concerts, please check the website at www.wellmonttheatre.com.
Montclair’s Wellmont Theatre is temporarily closed — and its scheduled show of Interpol Wednesday night may be canceled — after a piece of the ceiling fell from the upper balcony during the Deadmau5 last week.
Louis Litvin, a Wellmont partner, confirmed that Robert McLoughlin of the Montclair buildings department had closed the Wellmont following the incident.Litvin added that one concertgoer was taken from the theater in an ambulance, but that the injury appeared to be minor and the victim was able to walk after being struck.
Litvin said that an engineering team with thermal imaging equipment is currently inspecting the entire building, ceiling and walls, and that management will do “whatever we need to do to protect the public.”
“Once we do that and Bob McLoughlin is comfortable, the show will go on,” Litvin said. The Wellmont hopes that all the repairs are done in time for the Lyle Lovett concert scheduled for August 15.
A reader who’d been to the Deadmau5 show sent us the picture above, and we’ve been following up on the story since last week, but hadn’t heard back from Wellmont executives until today. The concertgoer wrote:
Deadmau5 brought the house down at the Welllmont, Literally!
A reasonably sized piece of ceiling fell down during the Deadmau5 concert at the Wellmont yesterday. No one was injured to my knowledge, but it did fall on someone. It happened in the upper balcony, luckily not too many people were sitting there.
Here is my take on things…
While dancing during Deadmau5 last night at the Wellmont, I suddenly notice everyone in my section of the upper balcony pointing and turning to look behind them. A large piece of ceiling had fallen down!
While walking out, I heard a kid saying to his friend, “The ceiling fell on me man!”
Jaime Roberts, a spokesperson for Bowery Presents, says that the bookers are trying to see if it is possible to hold Wednesday night’s concert. We’ll update as soon as we hear.
Montclair’s Robert McLoughlin has not yet returned our call. A similar incident was reported in November, 2008, shortly after the building opened.
If memory serves me correctly, didn’t the same thing happen a few years ago?
noooo.. i was gonna go see Interpol. been rocking out to em all weekend in anticipation. boooo
Thought so:
http://www.baristanet.com/2008/11/fan_sees_chunk_of_wellmont_fal.php
That’s a big piece of ceiling missing in the picture. Hopefully, they will get engineers and architects in there right away and keep the Wellmont open.
Wow! I never thought Deadmau5 could bring the house down. I stand corrected.
They are very lucky no one was seriously injured.
Ah, how times don’t change. I had some plaster fall on me the last time I saw a movie there.
The movie was Young Einstein with Yahoo Serious.
Srsly, what are they waiting for, for someone to get seriously injured or killed? Why are the building code people cutting them such slack?
Let’s get real. what knocked down the roof was their sky-high prices in combination with the skimpiest seats designed for children, not adults.
I couldn’t see myself goin to a show where the ceiling might collapse on my head, especially when you can see similar shows at bergen pac, the mayo center in morristown, and count basie theatre in red bank
McHugh,
Tell us, how do you know the ceilings won’t fall down at the other venues too?
Just because it hasn’t already is no guarantee it won’t ever…
McHugh, for some reason your post made me LOL!
Now if you were going to a GG Allin concert, this MIGHT be considered entertainment.
profwilliams,
There’s no guarantee on anything but from what I understand, count basie theatre spent 8 million dollars in 2008 renovating their interior. They hired some top notch company to redo the ceiling, it looks amazing. Not sure about the other two theaters.