Saved! Boston’s Colonial Theater will NOT become a dining hall!

MALC is overjoyed to learn that the historic Colonial Theater, built in 1900 and currently owned by Emerson College, will not be converted to a student activity center, dining hall, etc.

The Emerson community and notable voices such as Stephen Sondheim and NYT theater critic, Frank Rich, weighed in on a well organized and effective Change.org petition.

We’re quite happy for the successful outcome.

See:

Emerson College Withdraws Plan to Convert Boston’s Colonial Theatre

The Colonial Theatre, which opened Dec. 20, 1900, has seen more than its share of theatre history. With 1,700 seats, it is roughly the size of a big Broadway house, and has hosted pre-Broadway tryouts of many legendary hits, including Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, the Gershwin brothers’ Porgy and Bess, Irving Berlin‘s Annie Get Your Gun, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles and Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and A Little Night Music.

~Robert Viagas , Olivia Clement, March 3, 2016, Playbill

The Colonial Will Remain A Theater; Emerson Finds An Alternative

Pelton, in the Emerson email, wrote, “I appreciate and remain touched by the interest that the performing arts communities and some of our faculty demonstrated in their commitment to the Colonial. We value the theater’s history and its beauty. We have a team of people working hard on studying the options for its continued use as a theater space.

“I am very grateful to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and his team, including Joyce Linehan, Julie Burros, and John Barros, for their ongoing support and consultation,” he continued.

~Ed Siegel, March 3, 2016, The ARTERY