Marriott Moxy Hotel | 240 Tremont Street (Parcel P-7A) | Theater District

Boston isn't the dramatic center New York is; it lacks the critical mass for such an industry (what other North American city can compete with Manhattan in this regard anyway? Boston is lucky to have carved out a niche in at least one of the arts - classical music). "Educated" theatre fans do have some local choices, however. Quite a few do go to Huntington Theatre performances or American Rep ones in Cambridge, in addition to other companies away from the theatre district. When one thinks about it, the concept of a district of clustered theatres is rather odd and unnecessary; who goes to multiple shows in one night? It made more sense when these places were vaudeville acts and penny arcades.
 
czsz said:
When one thinks about it, the concept of a district of clustered theatres is rather odd and unnecessary; who goes to multiple shows in one night? It made more sense when these places were vaudeville acts and penny arcades...
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...or strip joints.

.
 
The area was so much more lively when it was full of prostitutes, crack dealers, winos, crack heads, porno hawkers, pick pockets, purse snatchers, perverts, transvestites ,con-artists, and various other shady characters who had no problem stabbing you for the $2 in your wallet.

The Theater District/Combat Zone was a hellhole as a red light district and it is very foolish to be nostalgic for the pool of human filth and misery it was in the later half of its life. Turning the area back into a flesh feast is not the way to return the kind of 'life' to the district that would be beneficial to the city.
 
^ some might say that adds character to a city.

I personally was too young to remember the combat zone at its height, but I miss it from what I remember..... hanging out w/ the homeless dudes at the shelter across the street from the packie when I was 16, drinking 40s, buying weed, mistakenly buying crack... ah those were the days.
 
ablarc said:
czsz said:
When one thinks about it, the concept of a district of clustered theaters is rather odd and unnecessary; who goes to multiple shows in one night? It made more sense when these places were vaudeville acts and penny arcades...
Click to expand...
...or strip joints.

.
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multiple theaters side by side is a great way to concentrate eyeballs and get low cost advertising, all other location factors held equal -- probably more so when these theaters were built given the media mix of the time.

could be other benefits to proximity as well, likely based on both a lower cost of doing business for owners and higher return to the professionals in the theater trade. E.g. one of the premier sellers of printed plays is/was (at least in late 1980s) just down the street from the theater district.

same principles as why kendall square is what it is. the consumer is only half (or often much less) of the picture.

See: Porter: http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-A...0410231?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182020181&sr=1-5
for a great read and better arguments. (or not if you don't think poli-geo-econ can be a great read... :)
 
Lurker said:
The area was so much more lively when it was full of prostitutes, crack dealers, winos, crack heads, porno hawkers, pick pockets, purse snatchers, perverts, transvestites ,con-artists, and various other shady characters who had no problem stabbing you for the $2 in your wallet.

The Theater District/Combat Zone was a hellhole as a red light district and it is very foolish to be nostalgic for the pool of human filth and misery it was in the later half of its life. Turning the area back into a flesh feast is not the way to return the kind of 'life' to the district that would be beneficial to the city.
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It wasn't nearly as bad as your description, which sounds like hearsay, not personal experience. It was heavily patrolled and only dangerous if you did something grossly foolish, such as threaten someone. It's probably less safe now for a person passing through late at night: deserted and unpatrolled.
 
singbat - I agree that those advantages held true when the theatre district was in its prime. Today, though, communications have decentralized many of those functions, particularly advertising. Theatre districts are passe in the same way jewelry and other specialty shopping areas are becoming rare; they may have only survived as long as they have because of a greater need for tailor-made structures within the theatre industry.

And when one thinks about it, aren't theatres better promoted when they're located where one is conducting other business rather than in an area which one goes to solely to attend the theatre? If I'm strolling down the street to buy groceries and a marquee catches my eye, I may consider attending that performance. But if theatres are ghettoized away from other parts of the city, no one other than already-intent theatre-goers and theatre industry people will be paying attention to them. Of course, it's arguable that intent theatre-goers may be exactly the sort of audience other theatres want to woo for their own performances, but truly frequent theatre-goers are a decreasing demographic, especially in Boston.

There are more intriguing possibilities for movie theatre clusters, especially because competing theatres can stagger showtimes to accomodate audiences sold out for a popular film at one or who missed their intended showtimes. Since movie tickets tend not to be purchased in advance as often as live theatre ones, one could decide to go to the "movie district" and take in whichever show is playing next or which is the most intriguing among a number of different theatres' offerings. I've found myself doing that a number of times in parts of New York that are highly populated with movie theatres, like the Village, Times Square, or the area around Lincoln Center.
 
Unfortunately, multiplex cinemas have pretty much done away with movie-theatre districts. Loews Boston Common has 19 screens, which is more than there were on all of Washington Street at its height as a movie-theatre district.
 
^ You could say that such a multiplex is a movie theater district under a single management.
 
Unfortunately, multiplex cinemas have pretty much done away with movie-theatre districts. Loews Boston Common has 19 screens, which is more than there were on all of Washington Street at its height as a movie-theatre district.
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This is true. I guess it works better for small arthouses and the like, although in especially large cities neighborly competition among mainstream cinemas can still take place. In Times Square there are dueling multiplexes...and when I go see a film in central Boston, I usually find myself going to either Fenway or Boston Common. Rarely do I really have a choice between them for a given time; one could imagine them working together in close proximity.
 
It wasn't nearly as bad as your description, which sounds like hearsay, not personal experience. It was heavily patrolled and only dangerous if you did something grossly foolish, such as threaten someone. It's probably less safe now for a person passing through late at night: deserted and unpatrolled.
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The police never heavily patrolled that area in my memory. They just came to clean up and tie the broken bits of what had been some semblance of life together with yellow tape. During the day it was reasonably safe for a sketchy area, past midnight it became a Stanley Kubrick safari into hell.

Ugh, personal story time....

I've been here since 1978. Since then I've been stabbed twice within a two year period. My thick accent at the time and overconfidence in my soviet combat training (what I once did, why and how I left, and so on, is a long story I'd rather not get into ) put me in some positions others probably would have avoided. I worked odd jobs around the city mostly doing repair work or construction that required some muscle. I didn't really have any aim left in life other than to distance myself from what I had done and drop off the face of the Earth. Cash under the table, and staying at rooming houses before I found a cheap apartment, was the daily way of life. When I had extra money, it usually went to the same entertainment I now think is a bad idea, along with paint stripper better known as vodka.

The first time was on Columbus Ave, near where Bob the Chef's is, over a leather jacket some thugs wanted from me. I fought them off and was rather pissed my new cool 'American' jacket had been wrecked. I stitched myself up. and for various reasons, never went through anything official on that one.

The second on Washington street near intersection with Stuart/Eliot st, somewhat close to Jacob Worth's. (I wasn't in any condition to remember my surroundings too well) I pissed off some pimp by shoving one of 'his ladies' out of the way. I had one too many, wanted to go back home to pass out, and she wouldn't give up her sales pitch which was blocking my path. He started an argument, called me commie, and stuck me when I tried to walk off.

He was a little whelp with a utterly stupid hat and the world's filthiest corduroy pants. A complete joke of a man that if it weren't for the knife and his control of a cadre of crack whores (well it was a little early for coke in the city, they were on something bad) would have been a nobody.
I was very happy that he went to prison for a very long time later on.

Understandably enraged and quite numb from copious amount of vodka, I left him a twitching bloody mess before the police arrived. They were so kind as to point out that I probably wanted a doctor to put my intestines back where they belong. An experiment with gravity ensued as a combination of blood loss and shock caught up to my nervous system. After a stint in MGH handcuffed to a bed, a lot of paperwork with the police, and those who were gracious enough to allow me into this country...they were quite pissed to say the least. I got my life in order quite rapidly to avoid deportation and somehow wiggled my way into university.

The combat zone wasn't an area full of the kind of 'life' the city needs and I don't think the return of the various of forms of entertainment found there would be beneficial to the revitalization of the area.
 
I dont know if Lurker's story is true or not -- I hope it isn't -- but I think it does paint a pretty accurate picture of what the "Combat Zone" once was.

Where does this newly romanticized idea of the place comes from? Nostalgia for the mud? Most likely, I think.

I remember the bad old days of the "Zone". It was an ugly, scary, scummy place. Be grateful its been semi-tamed.
 
I spent two weeks scared to death of dieing of sepsis and being deported.


I do love live theater by the way, it kindly introduced me to my very lovely wife.
 
briv said:
Where does this newly romanticized idea of the place comes from? Nostalgia for the mud? Most likely, I think.
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Call it the "Times Square" effect -- place is a devolved mess, place gets sterilized, certain people wish for old "interesting" place again.
 
You know, this just hit me; but i think Providence, RI has done pretty well with some of their old theaters and some of their renovations could work in Boston.

One place, the old Strand theater gutted out the Orchestra level and left it open in front of the stage with nice new floors. Further back, there are a few nice bars (including a rotating circular one) and two on either side. Behind that there is plush lounge seating. The Balconies are left intact.

The reason it's set up like this is that they attract live bands, comedians, etc... but turn into a night club after. it keeps people coming, yet remaining classy and not run down. They fill the dance floor with chairs for shows and move them later. it also goes by different names (the Strand for shows, Roxy Boston, formerly Club Diesel) depending on what's taking place. It makes for a nice experience no matter what.

Believe it or not, I've never been to Avalon for a show, so i can't say if it's the same thing or not, but multi-purpose facilities can be useful and profitable.
 
kz1000ps said:
Call it the "Times Square" effect -- place is a devolved mess, place gets sterilized, certain people wish for old "interesting" place again.
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That's it.
 
certain people wish for old "interesting" place again.

I have a feeling that these "certain people" were once college guys or guys in their late teens-mid 20's who are now grown and once, years ago, hung out once in a while in one of the bars/strip joints. The irony here is that it was that exact demographic that got the zone closed down; one too many BC football jocks stabbed to death in one of the strip joints in the 70's and that was the beginning of the end of the combat zone. Not being judgmental, hell we all like a good time...but that's what happened.
 
^ It was Harvard, not BC --and like Lurker, he rashly started something with a pimp.
 
^^^^^^^

True, but to the powers that be, the newspapers, and TV stations, it was.......popular Harvard football star walking through the Combat Zone gets jumped by thugs and bleeds to death on the sidewalk...or something like that. With a few hundred thousand college kids living in town that doesn't play well to their parents back home. And you know the rest.
 
Time to put show on road
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Monday, July 2, 2007 - Updated: 04:48 PM EST


Developers interested in taking on a historic but now derelict theater with development possibilities: City Hill has a deal for you.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is preparing to go to market with the Modern Theatre in hopes of finding a developer for the long-shuttered downtown theater, which opened in 1914.

While the terms are still being hammered out, city officials are seeking a partner that would also preserve the Washington Street venue?s historic facade.

That could mean building anything from student dorm rooms to offices on the building?s upper floors. Part of the building would be reserved for some sort of ?cultural use,? which may or may not include a theater, said Jessica Shumaker, a spokeswoman for the BRA.

The move to find a savior for the rundown Modern is the last stage in a theater restoration campaign unveiled by Mayor Thomas M. Menino a decade ago, when he pledged to revive a trio of historic performance venues.

Since then, a restored Opera House has opened, while Emerson College has inked a deal to redevelop the nearby Paramount into both a theater and dorm complex.

That leaves the Modern, which is on lower Washington Street next to the Opera House and the Paramount.

?The Modern is the last one,? Shumaker said. ?It is a big priority of ours and of (Menino?s) to see that one restored and activated.?

City officials are not seeking an outright sale of the building, but rather a development partner interested in a long-term lease deal.

The Sager family, which operates a Boston charitable foundation, took on the Modern a few years ago, but was not able to ultimately pull off a restoration of the theater.

Michael Byrne, director of the family?s charitable foundation, said that a number of arts groups expressed interest in putting on events or shows in a restored Modern, but none had the capital needed to make such a dream a reality.

?Candidly, we were just not getting anywhere,? Byrne said.

However, a potential buyer may already be emerging in Suffolk University.

Suffolk has proposed converting a planned condo building next to the theater at 10 West St. into a dorm. John Nucci, Suffolk?s government affairs chief, said Suffolk will take a look at the Modern when city officials release a formal request for proposals.

?It is of interest,? Nucci said.

Whether the university then pursues a deal for the theater will depend on what parameters city officials set for the Modern?s redevelopment, Nucci said. So far, city officials are not saying much, beyond that the Modern is in an area downtown where zoning regulations cap building heights at 10 to 12 stories.

Such rules have not stopped taller buildings from going up in the area, including some towers, but such projects need special dispensation from City Hall.


Link
 
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