BAM Readies For Opening With Stories Of Theater's 100-Year Life

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN —When patrons get to check out long-awaited upgrades surrounding the historic BAM Harvey theater next month, they'll do so by walking through its doors on Fulton Street into a brand new lobby.

But when the theater's namesake first took a look at the venue, more than three decades ago, he took a much different route — up a ladder and through a window.

Then Brooklyn Academy of Music president and executive director, Harvey Lichtenstein, decided to peek into the long-abandoned venue, then called the Majestic Theater, in 1987 to see if its rustic charm was the right fit for a nine-hour theatrical epic the organization was putting on.

The theater had been boarded up since the 1960s, but after Lichtenstein and the play's director climbed up and saw what was inside, its new lease on life began.

Brooklyn Academy of Music is sharing these and other stories of the theater's 115-year history in anticipation of its reopening Oct. 15, after months of renovations part of a massive $25 million expansion that will ultimately link three spaces at the venue.

From a Wizard of Oz production 30 years before the Judy Garland Movie, to the rest of Lichtenstein's first look at what would become his theater — here's a look at the history BAM has shared so far:

(Percy Loomis Sperr.) The Majestic Theater, circa 1942.

(Courtesy of the BAM Hamm Archives) The first production at the Majestic Theater when it opened in 1904 was The Wizard of Oz.

Opening Year — The BAM Harvey first opened as the Majestic Theater in 1904, four years before BAM relocated to 30 Lafayette Ave after the original building on Montague Street burned down. The newest jewel in Brooklyn’s theater row was designed by J.B. McElfatrick at 651 Fulton Street and opened with a production of The Wizard of Oz (yes, 33 years before the Judy Garland film). From 1904 through the late 1930s, the Majestic presented dramas, vaudeville, and test runs for Broadway hopefuls. In 1942, it was converted into an elegant cinema house by a Parisian who had fled the Nazis, but by the 1960s, it was shuttered and remained abandoned until it was taken over by BAM in 1987.

(Michelle Ann Travis) The Majestic Theater, circa 1987, the year it was taken over by BAM.

(Courtesy of the BAM Hamm Archives).

BAM Takes Over — In 1987, BAM’s then President and Executive Producer Harvey Lichtenstein and Peter Brook sought a venue less formal than the Opera House for Brook’s nine-hour theatrical epic, The Mahabharata. He and Brook investigated the long-abandoned Majestic Theater by climbing up a ladder and through a window to find an amphitheater-style layout resembling Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. While maintaining the theater’s rustic charm, the Majestic was renovated in 10 months with assistance by the City of New York and was renamed the BAM Majestic (now called the BAM Harvey): the mezzanine level was removed, the orchestra seating raised and expanded, and the ruined flip-down seats replaced by benches (now 853 modern seats). The Mahabharata, part of the 1987 Next Wave Festival, was a hit for BAM—the first of many productions that have defined the BAM Harvey as a favorite theater for leading directors and performers around the world.

(Martha Swope ©The New York Public Library)

A New Life — Following the BAM Majestic’s (the theater's former name) inaugural performance of Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata, 10 tons of dirt, a concrete riverbed, and gas lines were all demolished when stagehands struck the set to make way for Brook’s production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. The “unfinished” appearance of the theater was critiqued by some architects who wrote that The Mahabharata was a unique site-specific production and that the Majestic would not be versatile enough for other performances. Then executive producer Harvey Lichtenstein countered, ''The idea is not that this would be a one-production theater…it's a very warm space, with a great sense of intimacy. Whatever the architecture critics say, artists have been uniformly enthusiastic. My sense is that the Majestic will have a tremendous life.'' A box office and critical triumph, The Cherry Orchard opened on Jan 18, 1988 and ran for three months with a company drawn from theater, film and television including Brian Dennehy, Zeljko Ivanek, Erland Josephson, Linda Hunt, David Hyde Pierce, Natasha Parry, Stephanie Roth, Jan Triska, Roberts Blossom, Mike Nussbaum, Howard Hensel, Chris McNally, Kate Mailer (daughter of writer Norman Mailer), and Rebecca Miller (daughter of playwright Arthur Miller).

(Annie Leibovitz). Program for “The Harvey Gala,” 1999.

(Courtesy of the The BAM Hamm Archives).

(Paul Bartlett) The theater in 2016.

A New Namesake — When long-time President and Executive Producer Harvey Lichtenstein (1929—2017) stepped down in 1999, the BAM Majestic Theater was renamed in his honor—thanks to a donation made by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation—and became the BAM Harvey Theater we all know and love today.Harvey, as almost everyone called him, was born here in Brooklyn. After graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School and then Brooklyn College, he was awarded a scholarship to study dance at Black Mountain College in 1952 and Bennington College in 1952—'53. He danced professionally through 1957 with some of the artists that he would later present at BAM. Harvey, an impresario, came to BAM in 1967 and focused on presenting the work of challenging artists, forever making a legendary impact on the contemporary performing arts. Under Harvey, the BAM Harvey Theater was the recipient of numerous awards including: the City Club of New York's Albert S. Bard Award of Merit in Architecture and Urban Design; the American Institute of Architects' Honor Award in the Interiors Category; the Preservation League of New York State's Adaptive Use Award; and a Certificate of Merit from the Municipal Art Society.