Mamiche family look to
reopen Piccadilly Theater

Daughter spearheads negotiations

The Mamiche Afara family is working to reopen the now defunct famous Piccadilly Theater. Doris Mamiche, daughter of the late co-owner, Mahmoud Mamiche, said. “We are in talks with the landlord to reopen it.”

It was reported that the late Mahmoud Mamiche said that the theater’s restoration would cost in the region of $3 million.

His daughter said: “The cost of restoration works are still under study.”

The property is owned by National Institute for Guarantee of Deposits (NIGD). “We wanted to speed up the reopening before my father passed away, but it was too late,” she said.

Piccadilly Theater was owned by Mahmoud Mamiche and Khaled and Hashem Itani. It was inaugurated in 1965 by the then interior minister, Pierre Gemayel.

The theater was designed by William Saidnaoui on an area of 2,000 square meters (m2) and seated 800. Its name was named after the same name theater in London.

The theater closed down after it caught fire in the year 2000, on the eve of a play by Director, Marwan Najjar. No restoration efforts have taken place since.

“The theater will keep its current concept. It will not be transformed into something else,” a source at the Mamiche Afara Company said.