Hyatt Music Theater

Hyatt Music Theater
1304 Old Bayshore

In 1964 Hyatt Corp of America wanted a theater-in-the-round where residents could see big stars in live musicals like “My Fair Lady” and “Flower Drum Song” without having to drive to San Francisco. It would be a 2500-seat “ultramodern” theater shaped like a big spiked salad bowl with a marquee out front. “We must use stars” Herb Rogers, producer of the Hyatt Music Theater, “but we intend to make use of local talent.” The opening announced Pat Suzuki in “Flower Drum Song. The critics were not kind and in particular the show was likened to a “World War II USO road show designed to cheer the boys in remote camps, noting that these welcome diversions were not always first quality”.

The facility was criticized as “a dangle of microphones” hanging above the actors on the stage. Plastic glasses were used to serve beer and wine at the bar, the parking charge was fifty-cent and there were traffic jams after the show. The complaints also included no checkroom for coats, insufficient drinking fountains, inadequate air conditioning and troublesome equipment. Big Hollywood stars performed at the Hyatt Music Theater but the promise of a complete cultural center on the Peninsula never materialized. It was subsequently used for a childrens theater and later for an acting school.

In the late 1960’s the theatre-in-the-round would become a movie house.  In 2007 the Movie house closed.  Currently its fate is unknown.