Op-Ed; Stage set for revival of Theater District

THOMAS M. KEANE JR.
795 words
26 April 2002
Boston Herald
All Editions
023
English
(Copyright 2002)

When I was a kid, calling the Green Line stop at Boylston and Tremont the "Theater District" seemed some sort of a joke. Rundown and dodgy, the only theaters we knew of were the kind that involved garters and dollar bills.

It wasn't always a joke. A hundred years ago, Boston's Theater District was the nation's premier theatrical venue. But by the mid- 1970s, a victim of changing times and bad decisions, it was a shell of itself, a decaying place of peep shows and strip bars.

For almost 20 years, however, the city has been laying plans for a revival of the area. Of late things have accelerated. The Theater District is now poised for what could be a spectacular comeback.

The Puritans regarded theater as immoral and it took some time - until 1792 - before Boston built its first stage. From then until 1925, theater took off. Bostonians developed a reputation as discerning theatergoers. Vaudeville was invented here. Major plays typically premiered in Boston before going on tour. By the 1920s, the district had 18 significant theaters, with streets packed with evening crowds.

And then began a slow collapse. By 1950, the number of theaters had dropped to 13; by 1975, just four were operating - and even those were frequently dark.

The causes were many. Most obviously, the rise of motion pictures and television came at live theater's expense. But as the late critic Elliot Norton argued, a lot had to do with the ascendancy of Broadway. With a larger population, New York simply had more theatergoers. On top of that, New York's drama critics had power; it became increasingly important to commercial success that plays receive good critical notices. Boston was relegated to "Broadway Down East," where plays were tried out, perfected (it was hoped) and then sent on to the bigger city. Eventually, even that ended as New York looked to Off (and Off-Off) Broadway theaters for its tryouts.

At the same time, there began an exodus to the suburbs. The new suburbanites saw cities as places to escape from, not go to. Audiences stopped coming into town.

It was a grim time for Boston. Magnificent theaters fell into disrepair. The Keith Memorial Theater was for a time used by Sarah Caldwell's opera company and then abandoned. The interior of the Majestic was covered with wood paneling and turned into the Saxon movie theater. The Modern, pathetically, was used to store pushcarts.

And then, in what has to have been one of the dumbest planning decisions ever, Boston designated the once-proud Theater District the Combat Zone. Sexually oriented businesses were essentially allowed free rein. Legitimate uses were pushed out, ancillary activities such as prostitution and drug dealing grew and the adjacent Chinatown neighborhood lived in terror.

In 1976 there came a wake-up call. Andrew Puopulo, captain of Harvard's football team, was stabbed to death in the Zone. In shock, the city clamped down. Under Mayor Ray Flynn, the Boston Redevelopment Authority drew up its Midtown Cultural Plan, an effort to revive the Theater District.

It met with some successes. The vast Metropolitan Theater, almost demolished in 1983, was restored and renamed the Wang Center. Emerson College acquired the Majestic Theater and reopened it in 1989. And the Radisson Hotel recently converted its movie theater into the Stuart Street Playhouse. That brought the number of operating theaters up to seven, still a far cry from the district's heyday.

And something amazing has occurred. Live entertainment is back in vogue. The problem is too few stages, not too many.

The reasons? Megashows such as "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast," irresistible draws to families, are one reason. And movies, television and computer games can wear thin. "They lack the jolt of real, live theater," says Susan Hartnett, former head of the Boston Center for the Arts.

On top of that, cities have revived. The kinds of entertainment cities can offer - fine dining, music, art and theater - are benefiting as a result. Finally, the Combat Zone is no more. Boston has been aggressive in shutting down sexually oriented businesses and stopping new ones from opening. From a high of 39 in 1978, there are now just a handful.

Thus the stage is set, so to speak, for a revival of the Theater District. The mayor's office and BRA dream excitedly of up to six new theaters. The challenge - and the subject of next week's column - is finding the money and battling the politics to make it all happen.

Tom Keane can be reached at tom@tomkeane.com.

Caption: FLYNN: Deserves applause for Midtown Cultural Plan.

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