Stuart Street Playhouse
200 Stuart Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
200 Stuart Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
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I Remember standing in line on a cold night with about 10" of snow on the ground to see the Exorcist here. It was cold about 10 degrees and as the line started to move we got close to the front and they put up the SOLD OUT sign. We had to wait in line for the next show or go home. My wife and I stupidly waited in line for over 2 hours with hundreds of other people. We were all cursing ourselves. Once we got in I don’t think we ever warmed up But it was worth the wait. This Cinema duplex was a wonderful theatre. I was hoping they would remodel it back to a duplex. Now what I see is they are making it smaller. What a shame. That leaves no more cinemas left in Downtown except for the Lousy Lowes Common multiplex,. What a shame.
Today’s Boston Herald reports that the Stuart Street Playhouse is being extensively rebuilt and will be renamed “Theatre 1” when it reopens in April.
“The playhouse has been completely redesigned as a 225-seat theater for events ranging from movie screenings, acoustic music performances and short-run plays to corporate meetings.”
They expect it to hold corporate and sales meetings during the day, and to be an entertainment venue at night.
Cinema 57’s former second screen is being converted to a “blank canvas” room called Space 57 that can hold about 800 people for stand-up receptions or 300 for sit-down dinners.
The Radisson Hotel that contains both rooms is being renamed the Revere Hotel and is becoming a “boutique” hotel.
For the past week, the Stuart Street Playhouse has served as the venue for the 2011 Boston Film Festival.
I went there for “Jig” last week – the concession stand/box office (and piano) has basically been pulled out, with a bar in the spot where the concession stand was that looked sort of temporary (candy was sold in a different corner). I initially thought that the hotel had more or less absorbed it, as the people running those counters were wearing Radisson nametags.
I’m kind of surprised they held out this long – it was basically a second-run house with prices that weren’t much of a savings over seeing the same movies first-run, and what was playing often seemed decided so close to the last minute that you often wouldn’t see what was playing that day on their website on Friday morning. I wish they’d tried something a little more out of the box on occasion, whether it be theme days or booking some Chinese imports and advertising in nearby Chinatown.
Aw…that stinks. Maybe with the West Newton and the Studio Belmont it’s too much of a financial pull on them? Still, it sounds like there’s hope for the Boston Film Festival to be held there again, and that would be cool
I talked to David Bramante, who owns this theatre. He said that it is being converted into a ‘special events house’ which will still have film screenings and festivals from time to time, but will no longer be a regularly scheduled movie theatre. He’d love to get the second screen back, but there are no current plans to do so. He said that the building was recently sold.
http://stuartstreetplayhouse.com/ has a show listed for June 17-23: “JIG is the remarkable story of the fortieth Irish Dancing World Championships, held in March 2010 in Glasgow. Three thousand dancers, their families and teachers from around the globe descend upon Glasgow for one drama filled week.”
Can we hope that the construction might turn this back into a twin?
I walked by it a couple of weeks ago. No films were playing but I saw a lot of work activity in the lobby area. I don’t know what is going on. Perhaps some restructuring? Conversion to another use?
I’ve heard that the Stuart St. Playhouse closed about a month ago. Anyone know details?
We’d never been here until the Boston Film Festival in September, and I have to say my wife and I fell in love with this place – the seating is perfect, the sound excellent, the quality equally excellent and everyone at the festival were super nice. We’ll definitely be returning in the future for other films!
Ticket stub for the world premiere of Hitchcock’s Frenzy on June 20, 1972:
STUB.
Hitch introduced the film.
Clarifying a few previous posts (mine included): the Sack Cinema 57 opened in late December 1971 with the long-forgotten “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” on one screen. The second screen opened about a month later with “The Hospital.” Source: back issues of Variety (now online).
I’ve been told that there is a display of old theater photos in the lobby. I don’t know if this is a temporary display, or semi-permanent.
The Stuart Street Playhouse will be home to the 26th annual Boston Film Festival, September 17-23. This festival started at the Sack Copley Place cinema, then moved to Loews Boston Common where it was increasingly neglected. I hope that bringing it to a true independent cinema will put it back into the limelight.
An article about the cinema and the challenges faced by its current owner: View link
Just to clarify the above comment (since it confused someone else): The Sack Theatres chain as a whole changed its name to USACinemas before selling out to Loews. They did not change the name of this theatre, which remained the 57 even through its first few months as a live stage in 1996.
A couple of years before they sold out to Loews, Sack changed its name to ‘USACinemas’.
I should say it was Sack/Loews “Cinema 57”.
This was opened by Sack Theatres as the “Sack 57” and later when Loews acquired Sack, it became the Loews 57, which is the name it closed under.
Loews Theatres in Boston in 1956 were ORPHEUM and State.
What was this theatre called when Loews closed it,anyone know?
According to today’s Boston Herald, a live magic show will play at the Stuart Street on Sat. evening and again on July 24 and Aug. 28. But there will be only 55 tickets per show which means that it will not be performed in the auditorium which has the movie screen, but elsewhere on the premises. The “Backstage Magic Show”.
It would be fantastic if archival films were shown there!
I agree one hundred percent!
I would really love for us to start showing more foreign films. We are currently showing Broken Embraces, but it had been at Kendal Square for the past couple months.
I would also love for us to get another functioning projector so that we can start showing archival films. It takes two projectors running the change-over method of projection to show archival films because they are not allowed to be cut and spliced.
Please post ideas here, and I’ll be sure to let David know… we all want to see this theater succeed!
This theatre needs to show films exclusively, not shared with other local theatres, if it is going to draw a consistent audience.