Mayo Performing Arts Center

The Community Theatre was opened by Walter Reade on December 23, 1937 with the Carole Lombard, Frederic March comedy “Nothing Sacred”. The 40-foot tall building, fronted by four white Corinthian pillars in a Greco-Roman style, was built to show movies though, for a time in the late-1940’s, it also hosted big band performances. Operated by the Walter Reade organization until being sold in 1974, it went through several owners and closed as a movie theatre on September 13, 1987 with Walt Disney’s animated feature “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

When, in February of 1994, the conductor of St. Petersburg’s Kirov Orchestra visited the facility, he was witness to a dilapidated building in which the lobby ceiling had collapsed, there were broken seats sitting in piles, and mushrooms were growing in the balcony. However, after stepping foot on the stage and clapping his hands to test the acoustics, conductor Valery Gergiev agreed to have the Orchestra perform in the theatre as part of the Morris International Festival of the Arts, which had a short-term, rent-free lease on the space. Between that visit and the musical performance on September 29, 1994, nearly 300 volunteers scraped, cleaned, and painted the theatre in preparation.

In 1995, the South Street Theater Company was formed by Don Jay Smith and Lisa Smith, one of four couples who had speared-headed the volunteer effort. The organization purchased the theatre for $1.2 million in that year (after the previous owner had paid $2 million just eight years earlier). In the years since, the theatre, with its 1203 plum-hued seats, has operated as a not-for-profit performing arts venue. Having featured performances by such luminaries as Bob Newhart, Tito Puente, Vienna Choir Boys, Joy Behar, B.B. King, George Winston, Richard Lewis, Ray Charles, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Vanessa Williams, Paula Poundstone, Chuck Berry, Judy Collins, and Kathy Griffin, the theatre has received grants of $500,000 from Warner-Lambert Pharmaceuticals and $250,000 from Novartis. The South Street Theater Company, with the assistance of CEO A. Dale “Bud” Mayo, the founder and former owner of Clearview Cinemas, has raised enough funds to undertake implementation of a master plan designed by Michael Schnoering of the Princeton-based architectural firm of Ford, Farewell, Mills, and Gatsch, which has been involved in the restoration of several historic theaters. The $4 million, Phase 2 of the master plan, to be completed within a year, calls for the addition of a 3000-square ft. glass and limestone third floor. The new space will be utilized for receptions, seminars, and rehearsals. Phase 3 calls for addition of dressing rooms (the theatre currently houses only three), offices, and a loading lift system to get equipment to the stage level.

With an annual operating budget of $3.2 million and annual attendance of 90,000+, plans also call for addition of a bar in the balcony lobby and replacement of the theatre’s stage. The Community Theatre is reported to have some of the best acoustics of any musical venue in New Jersey, with no dead spots.

Recent comments (view all 16 comments)

Mike (saps) on October 4, 2007 at 10:55 pm

Liza Minnelli

(Community Theater at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, Morristown, N.J., 1,274 seats; $175 top)

By ROBERT L. DANIELS

Reviewed Sept. 28, 2007.

Musical director-drums, Billy Lavorgna; piano, David Buckley.

Liza Minnelli kicked off a fall tour in the Garden State at Morristown’s refurbished Community Theater. The singer looked great, boasting the loss of 45 pounds and proudly strutting in a smart and sparkling off-the- shoulder Casey Paul design, topped by a glittering head piece. And she was in great voice, retaining the incandescent punch and verve that has become her trademark.

Minnelli began on secure ground, dotting her repertoire with songs she belted out in her acclaimed Winter Garden run a quarter of a century ago: “I Can See Clearly Now,” “Maybe This Time” and the signature tune from her Oscar-winning “Cabaret.”

She still commands the powerhouse drive that has long marked her career, but sat down midway through her act.

Minnelli, the sultry chanteuse, harbored restraint with some comforting evergreens. Beautifully nuanced readings of “My Ship,” “The Man I Love” and “He’s Funny That Way” reminded the listener of her gift for torchy nuance.

Second half of the program was an affectionate tribute to Minnelli’s godmother, Kay Thompson, the legendary night club entertainer who also penned the popular Eloise books, inspired by little Liza’s adventures at Gotham’s Plaza Hotel.

As an entertainer, Thompson, assisted by the Williams brothers (including a young Andy), was a popular figure on the club circuit. Minnelli, supported by a quartet of young men, recreated highlights from Thompson’s act with a rousing “Jubilee Time” and a sultry “Basin Street Blues.” Tribute peaked with “Clap Yo' Hands,” a Thompson rouser from the film “Funny Face.”

“I Love a Violin” appeared to take the wind out of the 61-year-old entertainer, who took a break as the gents offered the Thompson arrangement of the Gershwins' “Liza,” a sequence subsequently cut from the 1946 tuner “Ziegfeld Follies.” The song of course, served director Vincente Minnelli and MGM star Judy Garland as their daughter’s moniker.

The singer wound up with her trademark nod to the city that never sleeps, “New York, New York.” Responding to a standing ovation, Minnelli bid farewell to a capacity aud with an a capella offering of “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

She praised the refurbished Community Theater, a former movie house and concert venue with great acoustics, that now boasts a new stage, upgraded lighting and sound booth.

Subsequent tour dates include Greenvale (Oct. 13), Baltimore(Oct. 27) and Ft. Myers, Fla. (Oct. 28).

Mike (saps) on October 4, 2007 at 10:56 pm

“She praised the refurbished Community Theater, a former movie house and concert venue with great acoustics, that now boasts a new stage, upgraded lighting and sound booth.”

Above review reprinted from Variety.

moviebuff82 on July 8, 2009 at 7:59 pm

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Joe Vogel on December 2, 2010 at 1:53 pm

When Walter Reade launched his new circuit, American Community Theatres, in 1936, he intended all of the houses in the chain to share a single architectural style, that being Colonial Revival. Several of the new theaters were opened in 1937, and these were designed either by William Hohauser or by Thomas Lamb.

Because Reade exercised such close control over the design of these theaters, it is sometimes difficult to tell from appearance alone which of them were designed by Hohauser and which were designed in Lamb’s office. However, in the case of the Morristown project, despite the fact that I’ve been unable to find a source identifying which architect designed the house, we do have a comparable theater opened the same year in Tom’s River, New Jersy, which is definitely a lamb design. Compare the photo of the Morristown Community linked in Justin Fencsak’s comment above with this vintage photo of the Community Theatre in Toms River, New Jersey. They look virtually identical to me.

The only Hohauser-designed Community Theatre I can find a photo of is the one at Hudson, New York, pictured in this photo from the Library of Congress. The Hudson house was larger than the New Jersey houses, which might account for some of the differences, but the entrance treatment and decorative details are handled quite differently in Hohauser’s Hudson design than they are in Lamb’s Toms River project. If I were laying a bet, I’d say the Community Theatre in Morristown is a Thomas Lamb design.

TheNewtonTheatre on March 3, 2011 at 4:39 am

The Community Theatre in Saratoga Springs looks just like it, and it too is a Lamb design.

Jon Peirce
Production Director
Community Theatre/Mayo Performing Arts Center

Bill Huelbig on April 11, 2012 at 4:21 pm

I saw the Moody Blues in concert here last night, and was very impressed by the band and also by the theatre. Just beautiful.

jayessar on September 25, 2012 at 9:09 am

As a child, I saw movies at this theater. Later, when they switched over to live actors, I saw “Oh Calcutta”, performed live in the nude. Years ago my mother attended Morristown High School. She said that graduation was held at the Community Theater.

wrwoolley on March 6, 2017 at 2:38 pm

I went to the Community Theater as a child in the 1960s and have one lasting memory from those days, on which I’d like to get feedback and/or information. Before the feature films on the weekends, they’d show a black-and-white, slapstick, silent short of a bicycle race, with racers numbered 0-9 (as I recall). If the racer’s number matched the last number on your movie ticket, you’d get a free popcorn or small prize, or something like that. I never saw those shorts at any other theater, but I loved watching them and cheering for “my” bicycle racer. If you remember those bicycle races, please let me know and share whatever you can remember from them. I’ve searched for information or video of them online in vain, but am not giving up!

MSC77 on April 23, 2023 at 6:53 pm

Is there any evidence the Community was ever capable of projecting 70mm prints?

50sSNIPES on December 3, 2024 at 7:39 pm

Closed as a first-run movie theater on September 13, 1987 with Walt Disney’s “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs”.