Norwood Theatre
109 Central Street,
Norwood,
MA
02062
109 Central Street,
Norwood,
MA
02062
4 people favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 38 comments
GENERAL CINEMA ran this beautiful theater I would stop by as a fellow manager for a visit always love the setting face the common at that time really nice downtown theater
Communications media people teach that a TV commercial has failed when viewers cannot figure out what is being advertised by whom. Last night (Sat.) on the 11PM local news on WBZ-TV there was a commercial about 30 seconds or more long. There were at least two exterior views of the Norwood Theatre and several very nice interior shots. This was the first and only time that I have seen this commercial. I don’t have the slightest idea what was being advertised or who was behind it, but the pictures were great!
The Norwood Theatre will re-open on September 1 with a live musical performance by the Hal McIntyre Orchestra. On September 2, there will be two free screenings of the film “Mary Poppins.”
An article in today’s Boston Globe (maybe only in the Globe South regional edition) says:
Susan Lewis of Dover and South Carolina … bought the old Norwood Theatre and is carrying out a multimillion-dollar restoration. With a new beer and wine license almost in hand, Lewis will offer the space for arts and other events when it opens in August 2012. First up, three months before that grand opening, is a bridal shower, she said.
According to the norwoodstage.com website, the balcony partition which created the upstairs screen has been removed, so the auditorium is now whole or “single” again.
http://norwoodstage.com/
Official website is now www.norwoodstage.org
Please visit often to check on the progress of the renovations as well as events.
Status should be changed from Open to Closed/Renovating/Restoring.
The Norwood Theatre (no relation to me!) has recently been sold. I believe that the plan is to renovate and upgrade the building and then re-open to host various types of events, primarily live stage productions.
article here: View link
Note that in the 1980 photo, the name of the theater, as posted on the marquee,seems to be just plain “Cinema”.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d6mthx
Is someone else taking over the theatre, or should we change the status to ‘Closed’ ?
Ron- I read the story in the print edition; it was a side-bar to a review (favorable) of “Funny Girl”. The side-bar really did not have much detail in it. I am afraid for the future for this theater without a tenant in it.
I’m sorry to read this. If the story is online, can you link to it? Thanks.
According to a story in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot Ledger, the Fiddlehead Theatre Company plans to vacate the Norwood Theater, apparently after the run of their current show “Funny Girl” ends. They are seeking another venue. This is due to “economic” reasons. According to the newspaper, they have occupied the Norwood for the past 13 years.
I am not certain as to the year of the twinning of the Norwood theater, but it occurred by no later than 1972. I only visited this theater once, for a screening of “Modern Times” (one of the Chaplin films that was re-released around the time of his return to the US in 1972 to receive an honorary Oscar). “Modern Times” was shown in the upstairs auditorium.
According to an article about the Fiddlehead Theatre Company in the Quincy Patriot Ledger of Oct. 25, 2007, the company is no longer an amateur group and now hires actors for lead roles from the Actors Equity union. A capital improvement program is underway and it is hoped to purchase 500 new theatre seats and a new stage curtain as well as perform other renovation projects. Recently, ornamental plaster and gold-leaf lion heads around the proscenium were restored. The article never mentions the name of the theatre.
After renovations in the 2000
me selling ticket from the lobby box office here @ the Norwood Cinema
A picture can be viewed at http://norwoodcommonsense.com . The building is now known as the Norwood Theatre. The Norwood Common Sense Committee is trying to preserve another of Upham’s buildings, the Norwood High School, by renovating it rather than tearing it down and putting up another school.
Thanks to James J. Fisher for his posting above with the name of the architect and the date of the opening, as well as original seating figures. In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac the Norwood Theatre, along with the Guild, are both listed under the George A. Giles Company of Cambridge. Giles also ran the Uptown in Boston and the St. George and the Gorman in Framingham, among others. For some reason, when the MGM Theatre Report project was underway in 1941, they skipped the Norwood and the Guild theatres in Norwood.
The Norwood owners were defendants in a 1958 anti-trust suit:
http://tinyurl.com/ytrlce
To despute the diffrence on seating i know on Opening Night Auguest 31,1927 the entire theatre would house over 1200 inclduing the Orchestra that held 760 and Balcony with 450 the ample stage was in size of 20 feet by 70 feet William G Upham was the architeck
Glad to hear that! Why did it temporarily close?