Stuart Street Playhouse

I remember attending the Boston premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's FRENZY here on June 20, 1972 with the great director in attendance. Hitch introduced the movie and cracked many sly jokes in his inimitable manner.

The address for the Sack 57 Cinema AKA Stuart Street Playhouse is 200 Stuart Street, Chinatown Boston, Ma.

The street number is probably correct, but it is a far stretch to refer to it as Chinatown, which is a good number of blocks away. Nothing Chinese is there. The theatre is close to Park Square.

In the city directory it is listed as Chinatown, Boston

It really doesn't matter if it is in Chinatown so long as it is listed as Boston, Ma. I was just posting from the city directory.

When did this stop being a cinema? I remember going to see the movie "Hardwear" there in 1990.

The Cinema 57 shut down in May of 1996; its final two offerings were "The Great White Hype" and "Original Gangstas". The property currently houses, in addition to the Stuart Street Playhouse, as noted above by Gerald, an indoor golf driving range in one of the former cinema auditoriums.

"The Exorcist" may have been one of their highest grossing engagements. The back corner of the parking garage was the site of the Cocoanut Grove on Piedmont St.

The Sack Cinema 57 offered many films on an exclusive basis in the 1970s. "A Clockwork Orange" played the 57 exclusively for months. Other exclusives included "What's Up, Doc?," "The Exorcist," "That's Entertainment" and "Close Encounters." The 57 also hosted the world premiere of the 1980 bomb "Raise the Titanic." Speaking of premieres at the 57, I thought the premiere of "Frenzy" was the world premiere and not just the Boston premiere?

Despite the positioning of the 57 during the 1970s as one of the top theaters in the Sack chain, I never liked it much. The screen in the large auditorium (which I think had at least 800 seats) was far too small for a theater of that size. The Pi Alley, another Sack theater that I believe opened a few years before the 57, was more impressive (prior to twinning).

Does anyone know why this theater (and, for a while, the hotel it's contained in) was called the 57? That is not its street address.

I believe it had something to do with the hotel building the theater was housed in, though I'm not sure exactly what. Maybe the hotel restaurant?

The 57 restaurant, for many years a hugely popular Boston eatery, was the anchor for the hotel when it was built. The original 57 restaurant was located on a different street (with a number 57 address) but moved when the hotel was opened.

That was it--I knew it had something to do with the restaurant! Thanks Ian :)

The official web site of the Stuart Street Playhouse (which this cinema has become) is: http://www.stuartstreetplayhouse.com/

The hotel that contains this theatre was built as a Howard Johnson's, but it's now a Radisson.

And here's a link to a 360-degree view of the indoor golf school that the other cinema turned into:

http://www.photowebusa.com/boston/golfschool_medres.html

When they opened these two theatres, the four Norelco 70mm machines
were moved over from the Saxon and Gary Theatres respectivley.They
may have even moved most of the stereo sound equipment. The Saxon and Gary still ran for several years on 35mm replacement mono.

The status of this should be changed to "Open" since it currently hosts live stage shows.

The Cinema 57 showed its last movies (Original Gangstas and The Great White Hype) on Thursday, May 30, 1996.

A Boston Globe article published two days later said: "The Cinema 57 is primarily known as an exhibitor of action, adventure and horror films, and particularly those targeted at black audiences.... The Cinema 57 has been an object of controversy in recent years. Neighbors in Bay Village have complained that the theater's programming attracted rowdy audiences that stimulated street violence in the area."

Less than four months later, it reopened as the "57 Theatre" stage house. Its first production was "Definitely Doris", a revue of Doris Day songs, which opened on September 24. The venue's name was later changed to "Stuart Street Playhouse", which it remains today.

I have just confirmed by looking in an old Playbill for the roadshow presentation of "Camelot" at the Saxon Theatre and seeing an ad for the original "57" restaurant, at that time called "57 Carver Street".

I have no idea if Carver Street even exists anymore.

This is the origin of the "57" name.

Stuart Street Playhouse
200 Stuart Street
Boston, MA 02116
capacity: 200

"The Stuart Street Playhouse, formerly The 57 Hotel (itself formerly a Howard Johnsons and now a Radisson), housed a two-screen cinema. It was renovated to be used as a live performance space. The Stuart Street Playhouse is a 200-seat venue with all the comforts of a movie house and a proscenium-arch stage. The interior of the theater was renovated in the summer of 1999 under the supervision of architect Tom Bakalars. The Playhouse's main purpose remains the same--to present Off-Broadway plays and musicals".

Location:
Corner of Stuart Street & Charles Street.

Carver Street no longer exists as such. Several decades of redevelopment (including construction of the 57 Hotel) have rearranged the street pattern in Park Square and the South Cove. What remains of Carver Street is now called 'Charles Street South'.

Also, as mentioned earlier, only one of the two former Cinema 57 screens is now the Stuart Street Playhouse. The other one is a golf school.

I went to Boston University in the 1970s and saw many, many first-run films at this theater. It had great screens and terrific stereo sound, especially for "Grease" and "A Star is Born". The theater showed the reserved performance engagement in 70mm of "Apocalypse Now" and I still have the program the usher handed me for the extra dollar the ticket cost! Great theaters for films in those days - "Superman", "The Wiz", "New York, New York", "The Shining", many happy hours spent at the 57s!

Sadly, by the time it closed, the 57 was anything but classy. In the cinema's final decade, a good rule of thumb was that if it was playing at the 57, you probably didn't want to see it.

According to Donald C. King's new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Cinema 57 opened in 1972.

King's book is mistaken as to the opening date. The Sack Cinema 57 (which is how the theater was described at least in its early years, not "Sack 57 Cinemas") was open by no later than December 1971, when "A Clockwork Orange" began a long exclusive run there.

King also states that the 57 was twinned shortly after opening. Not so; the theater always operated as a two screen complex.

Yes, the back-ends of the two auditorums were on opposite ends of the lobby, as I recall. They were not contiguous.

And it still looks the same today, even though one former cinema is now the Stuart Street Playhouse while the other is a golf school.

Wow... I wanna cry, I just saw the "golf school" complete with its own projection portal...lol.

I used to run the 57s booth for the Union for almost a decade. Both houses were 35/70mm houses. Every Summer and Christmas Blockbuster were almost guaranteed to be 70mm flicks... lugging around those huge 70mm reels was certainly something to "prepare for".

Not very comments on the 'haunting" of the 57. Site of the old Coconut Grove disaster. Lots of crazy stuff went on in that building. Although maybe the best show was outside the backdoor at the transvestite bar. Everynight the creatures of the night would show up... craziest thing this midwestern boy ever saw...lol.

It was the Largest and Third Largest houses in the Boston theater line up...(the Cheri had the 2nd largest) I had an amazing time at that theater... Aliens was the movie that was the biggest flick for that theater. Its was there forever... in 70mm... we had to get replacement reels after all the magnetic sound had finally wore off the film. The theaters weren't anything to be all that proud of... pretty rundown and un-comfortable, but it sure packed em in. I remember when Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, and Michelle Pheiffer were all secretly escorted in to see Aliens once the lights went down. (if only the patrons knew they were screening with Hollywood Royalty. They were "in Town" to film "the Witches of Eastwick") It was funny to see it remarked about in the Boston Phoenix or maybe it was the Boston Herald. So, I guess somebody looked away from the movie screen for a second.

Ron, were you a projectionist?, you seem to have quite a bit of knowledge of my old Union "stomping ground" You have brought back a lot of memories for me. Thanks a lot.. Great stuff, Great website... my first exposure to it.

At the time it closed was it a Loews house ?

yes

I've lived in the Boston area since coming here for college in 1981. Over the years I saw a number of movies at this and several other now-closed theaters. My most vivid memory of the 57 is going with a friend to see Scarface on opening weekend in '83. The theater (presumably the larger of the two) was filled to capacity with a very rowdy crowd of inner-city teens. While waiting for the movie to start, we heard a crashing sound from the lobby, followed by a distant shout of "Free popcorn!" We found out when the movie was over that someone had smashed the glass in the concession stand.

As if that wasn't enough weirdness for one night, while walking home along the Comm. Ave. mall, we were accosted by two or three drunk kids from Southie who challenged us to tell them how to get to South Boston. We had a small argument, and eventually they admitted they were just looking for some "rich, stuck-up college kids to beat up." We were able to convince them that we were neither rich nor stuck-up, and we were not looking for trouble. I have to wonder if there was a full moon that night. In all my years living here, that's the only brush with trouble I've ever had.

I saw a handful of crummy movies there in the early 1990s, including The Shadow (Alec Baldwin) and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. In its last few years it became a ghetto for "black" movies- notice Ron Newman's comment that it's last movies were Original Gangstas and The Great White Hype.

Someone just directed me to this site, as I was about to recount my experiences in the haunted portions of the Cinema on my LizzieAndrewBorden Discussion Forum.
I started to read the rules here and admit my eyes crossed! I will try to read the rest of "Terms of Use" in a bit.
I was head cashier at Sack57 Cinema, which is what it was called, at the time Frenzy premiered. Met Alfred Hitchcock. Reddest human being I ever saw still walking upright. I guess high blood pressure? It was called a "World Premier" although later I found it had opened in Great Britain first. We had the edited version- the Boston Blue Laws saw to that! So maybe they considered this the World Premier of the edited edition, which removed the "skin" shots.
We had a cake with a doll on top with a man's necktie around it's neck. We were given clear plastic boxes with our piece of cake inside, embossed on the top with the info on the movie. It was by invitation only. Guests had to bring their invitation to get in. It had Hitchcock's profile DRAWN as his signature on a printed invitation. Luckily I saved my box and one attendees invitation.They relinquished them at the box office, to me. I believe it's possible the director signed these himself, because all the Boston Big Wigs were the invitees. I mean Senators, Congressmen, people like that. There were no civilians.
Actually, I did let in one young man who did not know it was by invitation only, as he had hitched from, I think New Hampshire, to be there.
The haunting stories are something else again!
I personally encountered several instances of what might be paranormal activity, with my projectionist as witness to 2 incidents with me.
I'm glad to have found this site- thanks Doug-Oh!- it brings back memories!
-Kat

KatK,
Are you sure about the "invitation only" for the Frenzy premiere? Were there two events, one invitational and one public? I went for what was billed as the American premiere (not world premiere) at the Sack57 on June 20, 1972. I wrote about it in my diary. I had no problem buying a ticket for $10 that afternoon for the evening premiere. That was a high admission price at the time but it was a benefit of some sort, as I recall. The show began at 8:30 with Hitchcock introducing the film. He accepted a Paul Revere award from the sponsoring group. Amusingly, he commented, "I'd have trouble getting on the horse."

Far be it for me to contradict someone's diary notation. I'm thinking more about this now, considering your statement.
I know that I took no money that night. It's possible that while I accepted the invitations for admission that night, that another cashier sold high-priced tickets, earlier. So maybe my hitchhiker/hippie cinema buff not only didn't have an invitation but no $10. I recall I opened my booth door and held his backpack for him until he left, so he could mingle.
Since we had a 900 seat theatre and a 1500 seat theatre, I can't now really imagine filling one theatre at those capacities, with just big-wigs. :-) Also, I did not take in minimum 900 invitations as free passes. I might have taken maybe 250 letters.
I recall I tossed them on the floor of my booth, after the box on the floor filled up. I was giving entrance as fast as possible- to keep things moving out front.
We were all dressed up in our best clothes.
Also, I did not see the film that night, and can't exactly place the timing as to when I was introduced personally to Hitchcock. My assistant manager (Frank, I think his name was) pulled me off the front box office to be presented to the director. Also, what events transpired in the theatre itself prior to, during, or right after the showing, I have no knowledge of. I was still at work- at work until closing- that means walking the theatres, restrooms, and lobby, checking for cleanliness or anything unusual, or helping a patron in some way.

I would have to say that you are very probably correct.
Sorry if this caused confusion. I can say you are jogging my memory and that is always good. :-) This is over 35 years ago!

It's funny- I thought people might be more interested in the Cocoanut Grove fire and the odd occurrences while I worked at Sack57. I did also wish to back up the person who gave that as the name we called it: Sack57.

At other times I also worked at the Garden Cinema and the Symphony Cinema. [That's not a place I usually talk about! :-) ] But The Garden Cinema was really nice- my favorite!
-Kat

BTW: I always called it a "World Premiere." My sister has the embossed cake box and invitation that I kept. When she gets back to town I will ask her what it says on the top of the box. We never called it an "American Premiere."
It wasn't until I Googled the film recently that I found out it had shown in England first. I still don't understand that!
-Kat

I was there for Clockwork Orange and still have the thin newspaper-style handout, called "Orange Times," Vol.2, No. 001, Spring/Summer 1972.
It does say "Sack's Cinema 57," but again, we referred to it differently.

According to an item in the entertainment section of today's Boston Herald, the theater recently purchased lighting and sound equipment and will begin booking music acts in concert. It has 443 seats.

Just a thought - and correct me if I'm wrong: Shouldn't this be listed as "Stuart Street Playhouse" with "Sack 57 Cinemas" as a "aka", because it's not known by that name anymore?

Just wondering.

I don't know how "Sack 57th Street" got into the Description above, but it is not correct. It was the "Sack 57" or the "Cinema 57".

Also, only one of the former two cinemas is now the Stuart Street Playhouse. As mentioned several times in the comments, the other former cinema is now an indoor golf school.

Looks like the 57 is about to become a movie theatre again:

http://www.bostonreb.com/2009/09/breaking-downtown-boston-to-get-new-movie-theater/

The Boston Courant breaks the news that Boston is about to get a new movie theater. Or, should I say, new-old movie theater.

The Stuart Street Playhouse vwill reopen in September as a “art and independent movie house under a new ownership group led by Dave and Jim Bramante, the brothers who run the West Newton Cinema.”

A friend who lives in downtown Boston and is a big film buff can't wait for this new operation to begin. He pointed out that it will be the third movie venue for the new operators since they also run the Studio Th. in Belmont as well as the West Newton Cinema.

Will it be a single screen (like the current Stuart St Playhouse) or a twin (like the original 57)?

This is great news! I think this is probably the only location in downtown Boston that can be reconverted back into a movie theater. The other old movie houses were either converted into performance spaces or entombed in cement (like the old RKO Boston/Cinerama).

I still have a ticket stub for Close Encounters of the Third Kind that played at the Sack 57 the winter of 1977. They had printed up fancy, special reserve tickets for that presentation.

Another piece of trivia is that in 1979 Francis Ford Coppola wanted "Apocalypse Now" to play at the Charles (he had a rivalry with George Lucas and wanted the film to play many of the original locations that "Star Wars" did.) Fox films were locked in there, so Sack Theaters installed a brand new sound system in the "smaller" 57 theater with speakers every 10 feet or so along the walls to appease the director. The sound was very good in that theater from then on.

Sack Theaters channeled most of the action pictures there throughout the 1980s. It was not unusual to see lines going from the outside ticket office in the garage, down along the garage wall, and curving around the corner and stretching down the side street. In the 1990s, Loews threw all the R-rated violent action and urban films there which brought some very tough crowds, and I guess neither the hotel nor Loews wanted the lease renewed.

From the two articles I've read, and the speed in which the brothers were promising to have the theater opened, it sounds like they're not planning any extensive renovations and they're only going to use the one auditorium that the Stuart Street Playhouse people used.

But Boston hasn't had independent movies since the Nick closed, and this is welcomed news!

According to this article in yesterday's Globe, the theatre will reopen on October 9, will be a single screen, and will keep the name 'Stuart Street Playhouse'.

I hope this succeeds. I don't know of anyone else trying to open single-screen cinemas these days.

I hope it succeeds, too. Two recent examples of other single-screen cinemas opening in eastern-MA are the Plimoth Cinema in Plymouth and the Cape Ann Community Cinema in Gloucester. The latter is run by a film society and the former is run by a museum. Both are "art houses".

Looks like the golf school has closed, as it's no longer on the hotel's web site. If it's not going to become a second screen again, I wonder what is going to happen to that space?

I see no ad in today's Boston Globe, and nothing on the theatre's website, so I doubt that it actually opened today.

The Boston Herald ran an article today "New Venture hoping to reel in Indie fans" which says that the Stuart Street will reopen on Friday Oct. 23 with the Cedric Klapisch film "Paris". It says that the "one-screen" venue has 435 seats and will keep its current name. The new operator, David Bramante, was asked about turning it back into a 2-screener and said "There's some space available. I don't know right now, but I wouldn't rule it out". Ed Symkus wrote the article.

That's not a good sign; that movie has been playing at the Kendall Square for a few weeks now, so that is a second-run booking. Maybe they are doing a soft opening. I hope once they are on their feet they are able to bear Landmark Theaters out of a first-run art film regularly.

That should be "beat" not "bear".

Would they be able to book a first-run at the same time as Landmark? Downtown Boston is a different market from Cambridge or Waltham.

On a bigger 'art' release (like the new Coen Bros film) they would have to compete with Loews/Regal, and on a smaller release usually there is only one run of a film, and Landmark is a powerful chain with a local outlet (Kendall) with proven success. It would be great if they could play WITH Landmark (I mean, it makes sense to me personally) but that is not always how it works. I really hope this theater is a success; the Bramante's are good operators, and it would be nice to see an alternative downtown.

At last, an ad in today's Boston Sunday Globe movie directory:

STUART STREET PLAYHOUSE
200 Stuart Street 617-426-2190

The Stuart Street Playhouse located at the Radisson Hotel Boston
is the city's new home for foreign and independent film.
The newly revamped Playhouse features a 435 seat single screen movie
theatre and will begin showing films on Friday October 23rd.

Coming Attractions...
Juliette Binoche in PARIS
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
BRIGHTSTAR

The opening date has been changed to Friday, October 30th.

That's odd . Yesterday's Globe advertised a double feature of PARIS and THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE>

Yes, I saw that ad. I was in town for an opera at the Emerson Majestic. I walked over to the Stuart just to check it out, and there was a sign on the door with the new info.

The new opening date of Oct. 30th is also posted on their website. I hope they make that date because if they continue to postpone it , people will lose interest.

Yep, and their website (http://www.StuartStreetPlayhouse.com) now reflects the fact that it is a moviehouse rather than a live stage. I'm not sure if they are going to have one price for a double feature, or separate admissions.

I've heard this delay was due to installation of projection equipment. All of the film projectors etc. had been removed in 1996 when the cinema first closed, so other equipment for this new operator had to be installed.

October 29th article from Boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/10/29/stuart_playhouse_goes_art_house_cinema/

I think it was interesting that the Radison gave the theater an open-ended lease so that the operators could take a chance on the space. And there's still the potential to use the second (empty) theater in the future if it works out.

Does anyone recall what was the last live stage production here, and what exact day it closed? This would be useful information to add to the Description above.

Answering my own question -- I'm going to guess that the last live show was Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra's A Night At the Rock Opera. I suspect the page that I just linked to won't be around much longer, but it lists the run as being from April 18-June 27, 2009. I think it ran only on Saturday nights and some Friday nights.

I went to the afternoon screening of Amreeka at the Stuart Street. The theatre is a very clean and pleasant place; the movie was excellent. There was, sadly, only a handful of patrons at the showing. The cinema fulfills a need, since it is such a convenient place to see recent independent and foreign films in Boston's downtown. I really do hope it succeeds in attracting more moviegoers as they discover the venue. Like a previous commenter, I believe the use of the other space in the theatre for another screen (or screens) would be a big plus.

Since they reopened as a cinema I had not seen any movie ads in the Boston Herald until today, Dec. 11. They ran a fairly large display ad for the movie "Irene in Time". I was surprised to see that they have afternoon screenings on weekdays as well as weekends.

Today's Globe has a very small display ad for this movie and theatre (page G17) -- but unfortunately also a one-star review that says:

“Irene in Time’’ is the initial first-run feature to debut at the Stuart Street Playhouse, Boston’s newest art house cinema. Both the theater and its audiences deserve much better.