Harvard Square Theatre

An historic landmark that reflected the cultural evolution of Cambridge and the surrounding area for nearly 86 years, Harvard Square Theatre was many different things to many different people. In the early 20th century, it was among the region’s top spots for “talkies,” vaudeville and magic shows, making it popular with folks of all ages, classes and creeds; in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was a respected art house, attracting the counter-culture crowd and its associated cinephiles; and in the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, it screened The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Saturday night, accompanied by a live troupe, drawing people from the immediate vicinity and the far-flung suburbs whose shared passion was doing the ”Time Warp” again.

But the most memorable thing about the venue for music lovers of a certain age is that it presented several of the world’s top operatic singers in the ‘60s and some of the most celebrated names in rock, folk, blues, R&B, reggae and pop in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including a future megastar from Freehold, New Jersey. Like Jonathan Swift’s, Inn-Square Men’s Bar, The Plough and Stars and Jacks in Cambridge and Back Bay Theatre, Unicorn Coffee House, Psychedelic Supermarket and Paul’s Mall across the Charles in Boston, Harvard Square Theatre was a cornerstone of the local scene, especially during the shag carpet era.

Despite its storied past and social significance, however, the venue’s become best-known as something entirely unrelated to entertainment since closing in 2012: the most famous vacant space in Harvard Square. Though a number of proposals about how to revitalize the building have been bandied about, none have come to fruition. “It’s not an overstatement to share that nearly every day I am asked about its status,” said Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, about the notoriously empty 60,000-square-foot space in an April 2025 interview with Marc Levy of Cambridge Day.

OPENING, INTERIOR, EARLY YEARS

Harvard Square Theatre’s history begins on November 20, 1926, when it opened as University Theatre. Owned by Charles E. Hatfield (treasurer of Middlesex County), Stanley Sumner (owner of playhouses including the Community Theatre in Newton) and Lindey Hooper (a Boston-based financier), it had a capacity of 1,915, according to an article published that day in Motion Picture News. With an interior designed in Italian Renaissance style, a 40-foot-wide screen and a lobby facing Massachusetts Avenue that provided a bird’s-eye view of Harvard Square, it was one of the area’s premier “movie palaces,” attracting north of 1,000 patrons per day. The theatre had a balcony with box seats, a loge section with wicker seats and rocking chairs (both with velvet cushions), a projection room modeled after that of Metropolitan Theatre (now Boch Center) and an asbestos fire curtain that pictured George Washington commanding the Continental Army on Cambridge Common during the yearlong Siege of Boston in 1775/’76.

While it was primarily a movie house, the theatre also hosted vaudeville acts, magic shows and other types of family-friendly entertainment. According to Motion Picture News, it was particularly unique since appealed to Harvard students and the greater Cambridge community in equal measure. “The University Theatre aims to co-operate with Harvard officials, with the Harvard dramatic organizations and other Harvard clubs, giving a type of entertainment which will appeal to Harvard students as well as to the public and providing a means in Cambridge, for the first time, for Harvard students to present dramatics,” it read. “From its location, the theatre will draw its audiences not only from Cambridge and Harvard University, but from a dozen towns bordering Harvard Square, which have direct traffic communication to this important transfer center.”

OWNERSHIP CHANGES, EXPANSION, ROCKY HORROR PERFORMANCES

In 1961, after the owners of the nearby Brattle Theatre purchased the venue, it was renamed Harvard Square Theatre. Through the remainder of the ‘60s, all of the ‘70s and half of the ‘80s, it was widely known as an art house, presenting regular special screenings and double features. Several famed directors screened their films at the theatre over the decades, among them Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen.

Former Jazz Workshop/Paul’s Mall owners Fred Taylor and Tony Mauriello bought the venue in 1978 and its expansion into a multi-screen space started in 1986, when they sold it to Loews Theatres. That was the end of live music at the theatre as, in an effort to compete with the rising number of multiplexes in the suburbs, the company partitioned the balcony to accommodate two small screens, converted the lobby into a retail space and moved the entrance around the corner to 10 Church Street. Loews added two more screens in ‘87 (one on top of the other on the former stage) and the associated renovations decreased the seating capacity from 1,915 to 1,640. Much of the original decor remained, though most was hidden behind new construction and dropped ceilings.

In April 1984, Harvard Square Theatre became the first venue in the United States to show the 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show accompanied by a live troupe (Boston-based Full Body Cast). The performances continued every Saturday night for 28 years, becoming a weekly tradition for many and ending only after the theatre shuttered in 2012. “It was always a unique experience, always boisterous and fun,” said David S. Lucey Jr., who directed the productions, in a 2019 interview with The Harvard Crimson’s Kevin Lin. “Everyone was always welcoming and had a great time. It was sort of this gathering of people in a safe space where we could all be a little weird.”

NOTABLE APPEARANCES, LIVE RECORDINGS

As popular as the weekly Rocky Horror performances were in the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, many recall Harvard Square Theatre mostly for the solo artists, combos and bands that took the stage in the decades before, particularly in the ‘70s. The venue began hosting jazz in the mid-‘50s, with the Detroit-based duo of trumpeter Donald Byrd and bassist-cellist Doug Watkins appearing in December ‘55, and added opera stars to the roster in the ‘60s. Among the most globally acclaimed were Spanish soprano Victoria de los Ángeles, French soprano Régine Crespin, Canadian-American bass baritone George London and Italian tenor Ferruccio Tagliavini.

The theatre moved away from jazz and opera in the ‘70s, booking mostly well-established rock and pop acts instead, including former Cambridge resident Van Morrison, who appeared in March ‘74. The most talked-about events in the venue’s history came on May 9 that year when, in 7pm and 10pm shows produced by Dick Waterman, 24-year-old Bruce Springsteen opened for 24-year-old Bonnie Raitt, with 27-year-old rock critic Jon Landau in the audience. In an effusive review for the Boston-based alternative weekly The Real Paper, he referred to Springsteen as “rock and roll future,” a term that Columbia Records used as the foundation of its promo campaign for Springsteen’s breakthrough album Born to Run, released 15 months after Landau’s review. While the Harvard Square Theatre shows weren’t Springsteen’s first appearances in the area – he debuted in Boston in January ‘73 at Paul’s Mall and played at venues including Sandy’s Jazz Revival later that year – they were arguably the most impactful performances he’d ever done at that point because Landau’s comments helped supercharge his career.

Raitt returned in May ‘75, when other acts included Fairport Convention, Orleans, Jean-Luc Ponty and Bob Dylan (with Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and Joni Mitchell as part of his Rolling Thunder Revue) and among those who took the stage in ‘76 was Roy Buchanan. Procol Harum and Iggy Pop appeared in ‘77, the latter with Blondie as the opening act and David Bowie on keyboards and backing vocals as a member of Pop’s band. The rest of the decade saw acts ranging from Tom Waits, Peter Tosh, Mink DeVille and George Thorogood (with opener NRBQ) to Leon Redbone, Bo Diddley, Hall & Oates and The Clash (as art of their first North American tour) and concerts in the ‘80s included ones by Frank Zappa, chart-topping new waver Gary Numan and Cream bassist jack Bruce. A number of artists recorded live albums or parts of live albums at Harvard Square Theatre including George Thorogood, Joni Mitchell, Orleans, Dylan and Zappa.

CLOSING, REVITALIZATION EFFORTS, CURRENT STATUS

In January 2006, following the merger of AMC Entertainment and Loews, the theatre was rebranded as “AMC Loews Harvard Square 5.” Just six and a half years later, on July 8, 2012, AMC Loews shuttered the theatre, citing years of declining attendance; local billionaire Gerald Chan bought it for $17.5 million in 2015, adding it to his $100-odd million real estate portfolio in and around Harvard Square. Community leaders and residents have been very clear that they want the theatre restored to its former glory, stressing its unique importance to Harvard Square and the Cambridge area.

In a March 2025 letter to Chan, Harvard Square Business Association Executive Director Jillson requested that he move forward urgently. “As we approach the 100th anniversary of this beloved and iconic building, we appeal to your sense of decency, love for community, appreciation of art and culture, leadership as a business owner, your solidarity with those who loathe urban blight and deplore the deterioration of public art,” she wrote. “We implore you to reestablish the theater in time for its 100th anniversary. Take your investment to your community a step further by leading the restoration of the movie theater and reactivating live performances.”

Chan’s team responded by saying that they shared Jillson’s vision, though they did not offer any fresh proposals. “We remain fully committed to bringing forward a new plan to develop the site in an innovative way that will energize both Church Street and Harvard Square,” said Dan White, a manager for Mayhaw, Chan’s investment firm, in an interview with Cambridge Day‘s Levy. “Our previous plan, which was well received and on its way to final approval, was derailed by the pandemic, requiring us to reappraise what might work best for the site. We continue to work diligently on these efforts. Ultimately, our goal is to create a vibrant space on Church Street by developing a venue that will create jobs, help drive visitors to Harvard Square and, most importantly, bring the site back to life and carry it into a new era.”

(by D.S. Monahan)