The Throckmorton Theatre building in Mill Valley is for sale — to the right buyer

The rumors began to fly as soon as the Throckmorton Theatre building in Mill Valley went up for sale, listed at $6.2 million.

Does this mean that the venerable theater is going to close, sold off for a trendy new restaurant, some fashionable new condos, another boutique? How about an organic ice cream parlor? Oh, wait, there’s already one coming to town, opening soon.

I sat down recently with the owner of the building, Lucy Mercer, who is also the artistic director of Mill Valley LiveArts, the nonprofit that runs the theater, to ask her about the sale and what it means for her and for her historic venue going forward.

From what she told me, it boils down to this: As the head of the nonprofit, she’s been producing shows at the theater for the past 22 years and would like to keep producing them for another 22. But, at 70, she doubts that’s in the cards, so she wants to make sure that someone comes along to keep what she’s started going after she metaphorically leaves the stage, whenever that may be. She calls it “securing the theater’s future long term.” And that’s why it’s for sale.

“When I speak, often it’s from my role as artistic director, because what we really want is to have conversations with people (potential buyers) who are friendly toward our existence, want to see us continue on and have ideas, whatever they are,” she says. “We’re not ready to close up Mill Valley LiveArts. We’re working hard here.”

And the hard work has paid off. The day I was there happened to be a closing performance of “A Chorus Line,” the latest in a long series of successful youth productions, a Throckmorton signature. For this Sunday matinee, the place was buzzing with an all-ages crowd that seemed the perfect embodiment of the theater’s founding mission: “to unite our community through the transformative power of the arts.”

A former mortgage broker and entrepreneur with no prior experience in the entertainment business, Mercer and her psychologist husband, Danny Slomoff, sold their Mill Valley house in 1999 to buy and begin restoring the town’s Odd Fellows Hall into its original configuration as a theater with a history dating back to 1912, when it opened as a silent movie house that also presented vaudeville acts. Charlie Chaplin once played there, and Mercer has a poster in the theater of Chaplin as his Little Tramp character in his honor.

Since she began putting on her first shows in 2002, as many as 50,000 theatergoers a year have passed through the Throckmorton’s doors for concerts, plays, musicals, on-stage interviews, fine art exhibits, classes, workshops and all kinds of community gatherings and events. (It got through the pandemic on government grants and Mercer’s own contributions. And, like many other live entertainment venues, it’s building its audiences back after COVID.)

As a gift to the community, Mercer offers free noontime classical music concerts. And the Throckmorton’s Tuesday night comedy shows are legendary, thanks to big-name local comedians like Dana Carvey and Robin Williams, who used to show up unannounced in its early days to hang out and perform, often trying out new material in front of packed houses.

Williams, who died in 2014, is a particularly important figure in the modern history of the theater, as a generous supporter as well as a performer. A portrait of him by a local artist hangs in Mercer’s office, a magical upstairs room stuffed with puppets and toys and the kind of bright-colored trinkets you might imagine finding in a circus wagon.

“Robin was a friend who contributed so much in many different ways,” says Mercer, pointing out a fabric image of the beloved comedian hanging on her office door.

Williams wasn’t the only comedian she was close to. She befriended the aging political satirist Mort Sahl, helping him get settled in Mill Valley and giving him a place to perform in the last years of his life. She was with him when he died in 2021 at 94.

For a small-town theater, the Throckmorton has hosted its share of big stars. Woody Allen and his traditional jazz band, folk icons Richie Havens and Odetta, rockers Bob Weir, Sammy Hagar and Huey Lewis are among the many celebrities who have graced the Throckmorton stage.

“It’s hard to exaggerate what that theater has come to represent,” says songwriter and musical theater composer Rita Abrams, who wrote the 1970 hit “Mill Valley,” the city’s theme song. “The theater has been the community’s core of culture, creativity and connection.”

Over the years, resident artist and set designer Steve Coleman’s romantic neo-classical imagery and faux Corinthian columns have transformed the once-bare space into an enchanting, Maxfield Parrish-like fantasy.

When word got out that the building is for sale, the theater’s supporters rallied, worried that it might be in danger of disappearing. In a group email to a host of people in the arts community, Marin IJ theater critic Barry Willis, calling the Throckmorton “a Mill Valley institution,” suggested deeding it to the city as a local historical site, or raising money to support it through various crowdfunding platforms.

While the nonprofit happily accepts donations, and Mercer continues to fundraise for programs such as a new bilingual community chorus, the building is not up for sale because of money woes. The way it works is that the nonprofit, Mill Valley LiveArts, rents the theater from her and she pays the monthly mortgage.

“People make the assumption that if the building is for sale, then Mill Valley LiveArts must be about to fail, and that’s not really the case,” says Erich Reichenbach, the real estate agent handling the sale. “It has been successful. It has a long track record. It’s been around for 20-plus years, and, in theory, it will be around for another 20-plus years.”

He describes the ideal buyer as someone who may be willing to accept less of a return on his or her investment in order to provide a permanent home for the theater.

“That’s who Lucy (Mercer) has been trying to find and who I’ve been searching for, but that person has been more elusive than I would have thought,” Reichenbach says. “Someone has to have the money to buy it, but also has to be supportive of the efforts of the theater.”

The sale is being advertised as consisting of three addresses, 138 to 144 Throckmorton Ave. That’s because the theater, at 142 Throckmorton, is flanked by two commercial spaces that could become revenue-producing businesses, an “added value” incentive to a prospective buyer. Reichenbach envisions a café or wine bar that would serve theater crowds as well as people who would just drop in off the street. He even has an idea of what to call it, the Hub Café, after the theater’s original name.

“It’s hard to see what the future may hold for the theater,” says Jim Welte, executive director of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce. “But we as a chamber will do anything we can to support it.”

Over the past two decades, Mercer has written a colorful chapter in the theater’s more than century-long history. Now she wants to make sure that the story doesn’t end with her.

“This isn’t a building for just anybody,” she says. “I asked my real estate agent, ‘Even if somebody walked in with the full price, if it wasn’t the right deal, can I say no?’ He said, ‘Yes, you can.’ I’m trying to plan ahead, and I’m definitely looking for that right person.”

The listing can be seen at loopnet.com/Listing/138-144-Throckmorton-Ave-Mill-Valley-CA/30352805.

Mercer can be reached by email at lucy@142throckmortontheatre.org.

Contact Paul Liberatore at p.liberatore@comcast.net