1950s-Style Crooning Arrives in Redwood City

Updated 11:15 a.m.: The newly renovated marquee will be unveiled Friday, Apr. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Broadway By the Bay debuts on Broadway Avenue on Thursday night, bringing up the curtain on the longest running drama in Redwood City – the future of the .

The season opener for Broadway By the Bay is “,” the story of four eager 1950s-style male singers who are killed in a car crash but return to life to stage the show that never was. Future offerings slated for the musical theater group this season are “The Music Man,” “Gypsy,” and “Broadway by the Year.”

Until last season, Broadway By the Bay performed at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. It was lured south by Eric Lochtefeld, new owner of the Fox, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Broadway By the Bay, BBBay for short, describes itself as a “not-for-profit corporation for the public benefit which provides full scale musical theatre productions of professional quality at family prices.” Prices range from $24 to $50.  Whatever the price, the group continues to grow with nearly 4,000 season subscribers and over 4,000 single show ticket sales per production, according to its mission and history website.

A History Repeat?

Fans of the Fox, which opened in 1929 as The Sequoia, might wonder if history is repeating itself. Broadway By the Bay is not the first non-profit theater group to be based at the Fox. Real estate developer Justin Jacobs, who had tried to turn a profit at the Fox with everything from movies to bingo games and auctions, donated the dormant movie house to the Palo Alto Players in 1986.

The Palo Alto Players drew nearly 20,000 customers in just a few seasons. Sell-out shows included “Annie,” “West Side Story,” “Evita” and “Jesus Christ, Superstar.”

Packing them in wasn’t enough, players official Peter Bliznick said when the Fox was honored with the national register designation. Rents for commercial space within the massive Fox building and ticket sales couldn’t cover the costs of maintaining and restoring a historic theater, Bliznick said in asking for donations from the public.

“It would be tragic should Redwood City someday find itself with a wonderful historic theater building which is unable to serve a theater going public,” he said.

Tragedy was avoided five years later when John Anagostou bought the Fox for $1.9 million. He made a valiant attempt at restoring the Fox, but he and co-owner Mike Monte ran into debt problems and foreclosure, forcing the Fox to bring down the curtain in 2009.

Among other things, Anagostou brought the theater up to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards, added fire curtains, and improved lighting. It was obvious in an interview with Patch that he was most proud of the mahogany trim he returned to the front of the Fox and the nearby offices of the building.

Lochtefeld sees the day when the Fox will be “the second best producing venue of our size in the entire Bay Area, only behind the legendary Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco.” He said Broadway By The Bay will bring 65 performances this year. His other plans call for using the Fox for private events, comedy shows, live music, and lectures and “shows for kids and families.”

Lochtefeld said he renovated the theater’s marquee to its glory days of the 1950s when it proclaimed that “movies are better than ever.” The unveiling will take place this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Fox marquee marks a significant part of the show house’s history. A section of the plaster ceiling collapsed on June 21, 1950, injuring 27 people in the balcony, three of them seriously. The theater was known as The Sequoia then. When it reopened three months later, it was the Fox. Extensive remodeling changed the interior from its original Moorish design to what one critic called “art moderne meets streamlined.”

Lochtefeld expects the shows to bring increased business to Redwood City.

“So far, we have brought over 15,000 people to downtown Redwood City,” he said. “That’s good for business all around us. We are off to a great start.”

A taste of things to come took place in February when the Fox was the venue for the premiere of “The Last Train from Bay Meadows,” a documentary about the San Mateo race track that closed in 2008. The event drew more than 700 people and was immediately followed by the opening of an exhibit on the Roaring ‘20s at the museum. The crowd walked about the length of a basketball court to get from one show to the other.