Although the reunion concert is supposed to take place in Town Hall, the interior of the theatre is definitely not Town Hall. I've been to Town Hall in New York City many times and that place looks nothing like it. For one, there are no balconies beside the stage.
shareA check at the IMDb filming locations shows that the Town Hall interiors were shot at the Orpheum in LA.
shareAs another poster noted, the interiors were indeed shot elsewhere -- but the fact is, Town Hall most definitely does have a balcony. I've sat in it many times.
shareThe OP said "there are no balconies beside the stage" at the actual Town Hall in NYC, which is quite true. There are no box seats in their own separate balconies on each side of the front of the stage like there are in the Orpheum in L.A. which subbed for "Town Hall" in the movie. The actual Town Hall in NYC just has a regular balcony seating area above the main floor.
shareChristopher Guest films are notorious for inside jokes like that. For example, in Spinal Tap, there's a scene outside "Fidelity Hall" in Philadelphia. Not only was the scene not in Philadelphia, but there has never been any venue called Fidelity Hall in the history of the city (we had the Spectrum, Vet Stadium, JFK Stadium and now the Wachovia Center). I think it's hilarious.
shareYou came on this board to complain about that?? Cmon maaaan!! It's no big deal
shareAnd in Best in Show they say they're at some venue in Philadelphia but the exterior shot is of the old Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
share<<Not only was the scene not in Philadelphia, but there has never been any venue called Fidelity Hall in the history of the city>>
As far as I know, none of the venues that Spinal Tap play in the movie are real. I know for sure the theater in Cleveland (I think it's called the Xanadu Star Hall or something like that) wasn't really.
The one exception is Milwaukee, but I've heard it said that the real Shank Hall was actually named, after the fact, in honor of the film.
I imagine though it's less a matter of it being an "inside joke" and more a matter of not having the budget to shoot a film on location. A picture like This Is Spinal Tap, which takes places in various locations all over the US, they probably couldn't afford to actual transport the production from city to city so that, for instances, the scenes in Philadelphia or Milwaukee or wherever were actually shot in the respective cities. And it's probably a lot cheaper and easier to rent one theater or concert hall for a couple days, shoot on the in concert scenes (or in the case of Milwaukee, the sound check scene) all in one go.
In the case of A Mighty Wind and "Town Hall", again, they were probably working with a limited budget, and since most of the cast are probably based in the LA area, it was probably too cost prohibitive to fly everyone out to NYC to shoot the reunion concert at the real Town Hall.
Also, possibly, it might have been decided that the Orpheum was more "impressive" looking. The descriptions in earlier posts suggest maybe they felt the box seats on either side of the stage, would "look better" on film, than a basic no frills balcony as the real Town Hall has.
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