Renovated Morse Theatre reborn as live music venue
There’s a new player on the Chicago concert stage. The Morse Theatre, 1328 W. Morse, reopens Thursday as a resplendent music hall, restaurant and broadcast studio.
Jazz drummer Winard Harper christens the 299-seat performance space, followed by the Taj Mahal Trio on Friday and Saturday night.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
PHOTO GALLERY
Morse Theater renovations
The East Rogers Park theater was built in 1912 as a nickelodeon and vaudeville house. Andrew McGhee — a longtime Rogers Park resident, jazz musician and former trader — is leading the multi-million-dollar restoration.
Upcoming bookings range from folk singer David Amram with Fareed Haque (Nov. 2) to country singer Suzy Bogguss (Nov. 15). On Oct. 19, WFMT-FM (98.7) launches a Sunday classical series, “Live From the Morse.”
“Our focus is American and acoustic music,” McGhee said during a preview tour. “And American music could be world music. One reason world music is so popular is because of the broad swath of folks living here. We’ll have a big focus on jazz and traditional blues [Delta, American Hill Music, traditional bluegrass]. Our classical music focus will grow, too.”
Neil Lifton, who booked the 400-seat Bottom Line in New York from 1988 to 2004, is helping line up the talent, as is David Chavez, formerly of HotHouse and currently with Uncommon Ground.
The building, a block east of the Morse Red Line station, has had three lives. After closing as a 600-seat nickelodeon in the 1930s, it morphed into a neighborhood movie theater. The new sheet steel sign pays homage to the pre-1950s marquee. (Now lit with LEDs, “it uses less energy than a toaster oven,” McGhee said.) A synagogue operated there from the 1950s until 1977. Several storefronts occupied the space until McGhee and his partners acquired the building in late 2005. Renovation began in spring of 2007. The project was stalled in mid-August when an arsonist torched the theater, causing $500,000 in damage.
“It was a mental crunch,” McGhee said. “It took a couple of weeks to get back on our feet. Wires in the walls got cooked. There was lots of smoke damage. What happened isn’t representative of Rogers Park.”
The economy is worse now than it was in August. “We have a wonderful investor with very long views of investing in the community,” he said. “The money for doing the project was not a problem. But we’re not alone in wondering what the next few years is going to bring to the economy.”
The slightly circular concert space has cabaret seating with tables. Recycled naughahyde banquettes surround the perimeter of the hall, which is done in tones of midnight blue. The stage is dropped down. No seat is more than 50 feet from the stage.
“A lot of people compare us to the Old Town School,” McGhee said. “We’re about 100 seats smaller. I love Old Town, and our mindset is not to compete with them. We will have a bigger focus on jazz and classical.”
The immaculate sound system is designed by T.C. Furlong, also former slide guitarist for the Jump n’ the Saddle band.
Off the lobby is the Century Public House, a 100-seat restaurant with seasonal menu changes. The food will be about 70 percent local-sourced, according to McGhee. The room swings of the 1920s. In keeping with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, the eatery is lined with bamboo redwood. The cement floor and tile are recycled.
The long Brunswick replica bar was built by Chicago craftsman John Wray, who also restored bars at Coogan’s Riverside Saloon downtown and Cullen’s Bar & Grill on North Southport. “Brunswick’s original business was making bars and church interiors,” McGhee said. “If you look at our [white oak] bar, its an altar. It has the same forms because the same European guys who were building a church interior, the next project was a bar. Then you think about the symbiotic relationship between bars and churches.”
Evanston artist Zuyleka Benitez did the period-correct bar painting of a well-endowed lady with a monkey and a dog. They will not be appearing in the theater.
During the renovation process, McGhee and his crew found some blasts from the past.
“In the middle of what is now the restaurant, there was an area they excavated during an extensive 1930s reconfiguration,” he said. “We found about 25 wonderful blue glass beer bottles from the U.S. Brewing Co. That was when Prohibition ended. There was a group of workmen who drank some beer the end of the day, threw the bottles down in this pit and covered it up with cement. We’re going to put some in a nice little display case.”
Just like the live music at the Morse Theatre.
For tickets and more information, call (773) 654-5100 or visit Themorse.com.