The composers who wrote the “great American songbook’’ musicals of the mid-20th century have been turning in their graves at the thought that the North Shore Music Theatre - dedicated to presenting Broadway shows to a suburban audience - closed its doors because of poor sales for “Disney’s High School Musical 2.’’
If the half-century-old playhouse had to go, let it sink into debt with Rodgers and Hammerstein rather than a Zac Efron knockoff.
William Hanney, the 40-year-old entrepreneur who has reached a purchase agreement to buy the shuttered playhouse, seems to understand this. He already owns a musical theater in Rhode Island, and started a chain of movie multiplexes. Giving Hanney the necessary permits to reopen North Shore Music Theatre ought to be a formality, and great news for Beverly and other nearby cities and towns that enjoy the shows.
With luck, Hanney will offer a road map for other struggling arts organizations in Massachusetts, injecting some business savvy into enterprises that suffered from an excess of vision and a deficit of common sense. Bringing back a beloved old theater could also be a good theme for a high school musical, but only if Harold Arlen could come back and write the songs.
