30 Years Later Morosco Memories

[Kevin Norte]

The Morosco Theater has been gone 30 years now, so too the original Helen Hayes and the Piccadilly Hotel closed on July 1, 1982. Perhaps the rest of Times Square was revitalized but that area seems like a large toaster and turns its back on the street. Unlike Cafe Ziegfeld at the Piccadilly, one can't just run in for an after show drink. The hotel abandons Times Square instead of celebrating it. Seeing how they even moved theaters on 42nd Street, I think they destroyed the Morosco on spite alone. They did not even strip the theater (unlike the Hayes). Broadway would have been better off if the theaters were preserved and incorporated into the new hotel. I think the Great White Way is dimmer for it.
Theatrical Syndicate

[once a month]

I remember when they tore them down to make way for the Marquis, the theatre community was so upset! I think I saw Da at the Morosco...and I took a nice sized decorative concrete chunk of the exterior from the rubble, which I still hold dear.

[morosco]

Morosco. My favorite theatre.

[Kevin Norte]

It is nice to meet a fellow traveler who has a piece too. My best friend from high school and I climbed over (or under) the barricades by the fire door closest to the Piccadilly and ran up the steps. There was no roof behind the facade since it was a fire escape. We ran up and threw the door open. We found complete devastation and almost fell. A piece of onyx and plaster (with horse hair) fell at our feet. We found photos and matched the pieces up. We still have it. I wrote on the onyx "March 22, 1982" and also found an "At This Performance" sign plus a Playbill from "The Mooney Shapiro Songbook"
Thirty Years Ago A Part Of Us Died When The Morosco Theater Died

[WOSQ]

The Morosco;
Not too big, not too small, just right. Just over 1000 seats and only one mezz.

Perfect sightlines from every seat and perfect acoustics.

They don't make them like this any more and I wonder why. The blue prints are probably still extant with all the specs. Instead we got the Marquis. A lousy trade-off.

[frontrowcentre2]

Thank you for sharing these photos. In October 1981 I went to New York for a week and stayed at the Piccadilly..It was a bit frayed and run down but still our room was clean and comfortable. The following March I watched a rally as the theatre community tried to stave off demolition of the theatres...Christopher Reeve, Tammy Grimes, Comede and Green and many others performed on a makeshift stage in front of the Morosco. On the morning of March 22 many of them stood in the path of the bulldozers, getting arrested and being taken away in police wagons..it was on all the local newscasts. The first thing workers did was smash each of those beautiful "Morosco" panes of glass. People begged the to just take them down and give them away but were bruskly told "No."

Thoe opposed to the demolition were hoping that the new hotel could incorporate the existing theatres into their plans, but as one writer noted both the Morosco and Helen Hayes were white elephants with seldom used or needed second balconies. Within days both buildings were reduced to rubble.

Looking down the list of shows that have played the Marquis theatre built in their place I am hard pressed to find a hit show..lots of huge flops: THE CAPEMAN, WOMAN IN WHITE, CRY BABY...

[Kevin Norte]

@patrickhealynyt is looking for a theater story to do. I tweeted him and urged him to do a Times Square Redevelopment Story- 30 years after the destruction of The Morosco Theater (architect Herbert Krapp) which was built by The Shubert Bros. to mark the end of the war with The Theatrical Syndicate, The Helen Hayes Theater (architect Herts and Tallant) built by Henry B. Harris who perished on the Titanic, and the Bijou, Astor, and Victoria theaters. Five historic theaters perished within a matter of days. I still feel the loss resonating in time 30 years later.