Berklee Performance Center
136 Massachusetts Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
136 Massachusetts Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 38 of 38 comments
On this 1928 map, you can barely make out the FENWAY THEATRE near the map’s bottom left corner. It’s on Masschusetts Avenue, one building to the right (south) of Boylston Street.
I don’t know Berklee’s motivation for modernizing it, but it’s possible that the old theatre was not acoustically appropriate for its new function as a concert hall.
Tom N is correct- it is a miracle that the building is still standing. If it were not for the fact that the Berklee School of Music is in the immediate area, the old Fenway Theatre would be “toast”. Because the interior was “modernized”, theatre enthusiast groups skip it. For example, the THSA did not visit it during their 1983 Boston tour and will not visit it during their 2006 tour. The LHAT did not visit it during their 1990 tour, although I believe they at least mentioned it in their guidebook. The CTA tour in April 2004 paused briefly to examine the exterior but did not arrange to go inside. I do not feel that the auditorium is not worth seeing just because it has been altered.
Ron-I’ve only been to the BPC once for a benefit performance given by comedian Robert Klein. I remember the modern interior. I wish they’d done a restoration instead, though I suppose it’s a miracle that the building is still standing.
After sitting dormant for what seemed like eons to me, this place at the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston st, reopened with Zappa doing his fabulous Mudshark show (available as the Fillmore East recording of it) with Howard Kaylen and Mark Volmann – The Turtles! – as his vocalists. On this auspicious opening night, Mr Zappa ripped into the audience for being so obtuse and, as he aptly put it: “I often wondered where all the assholes went after the Fillmore closed in NYC."
Biting but true.
Don’t recall many other shows there at all at that time.
The Fenway was part of M&P Theatres, and as the “uptown” location, sometimes showed the same film as the Paramount. Much like Loews State & Orpheum. For example, on Sept 23, 1947, “Variety Girl” with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and “40 Stars!” along with the Co-hit! “Jungle Flight” was playing at both the Paramount and the Fenway. The Fenway was designed by Thomas Lamb and had 1373 seats (it has about 1220 seats now). I went into it a few times, a nice house with an oblong shape, and one balcony. It was sort of an art house in the early 1960s – I saw a Japanese film there. Oddly, when Berklee took it over as a live concert hall, they bricked up the original scene door and stage door at the rear of the stagehouse. Today, there is a stage door at stage-right, but no scene loading door. They also “modernized” the interior instead of restoring it.
During the mid to late ‘50’s the Fenway and Paramount ran the same features. The newspapers always listed the Paramount and Fenway in the same block ads. Either they had an agreement or were managed by the same company. I do recall this arrangement ending early in 1960 when art films were exhibited.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Fenway Theatre opened on December 19, 1915, with 1500 seats. “Architect Thomas Lamb designed it in early Adam style.” It was designed solely to show motion pictures, but also “had a fully equipped vaudeville stage, just in case.”
On July 28, 1928, the Fenway and the Washington Street Olympia presented what was billed as “The First 100% Talking Motion Picture” — Lionel Barrymore in The Lion and the Mouse, with a musical score plus a little dialogue.
Around 1969, the Theatre Company of Boston took over the Fenway’s stage.
The Fenway Theatre was used for rock shows briefly in the early 70’s. I saw both Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart there (in seperate shows) in ‘70, '71. It was closed when I went to Berklee in '73.
Gerald, I also saw “Sundays and Cybele” at the Fenway Theater. I was in high school, and our French class went to see it. I was 16 and a month away from getting my driver’s license. I didn’t know Boston at all. We went in at night by bus. It’s like revisiting a dream to know I was there.
The Fenway was an art house in the early 1960s. In April of 1963 I saw the French SUNDAYS AND CYBELE here and Antonioni’s IL GRIDO in June. Also in June of 1963 the theatre was used for an early version of the Boston Film Festival. I remember seeing the Brazilian THE GIVEN WORD. In November of 1963 there were programs of nudies like BABES IN THE WOODS and KIPLING’S WOMEN. The place went from art fare to nudie/exploitation flicks.
This page describes a Captain Beefheart show at the Fenway Theatre in 1972. It must have been one of the last events held there before Berklee bought it and began gutting it for renovation.
URL is http://www.berkleebpc.com/ . (I thought I had included that when I submitted this theatre yesterday).
http://www.berkleebpc.com/history.html has some history of the theatre, and a couple of old photos.
The interior is now thoroughly modern, as shown in this photo and this one .