When the audience steps through the doors of the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, they’re not only treated to a Broadway-caliber show, but are immersed in the history of a family-operated establishment which for three generations, provided a stage for major stars and even local thespians striving for the limelight.
Beginning life with the family of Henry Pomeran, who originally purchased the property with a mansion and ballroom for use as a Christian Science Retreat in 1949, the theater saw its first performances in a repurposed dairy barn on what was once a 70-acre farm. In remembrance, the Gateway’s wall of fame features a picture of Daisy the Cow, along with photos of Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and other stars who spent their early days at the playhouse honing their craft.
Daisy’s stage, with its wide-plank floors and seats from the Yale University’s Shubert Theatre, each with a rack for the storage of one’s hat, was the inspiration of a more spacious theater built in 1962 that incorporates the rustic feel of the original. Central to transitioning the Gateway to a 500-seat theater were Pomeran’s three children, David, Sally and Ruth, who started putting on modest shows with their college friends. Helping take the playhouse to the next level was Stan Allan, Ruth’s husband who went on to become the town clerk for Brookhaven. Their son, Paul, is still at it having started in the family business at 12 years old.
“It was magical working with the actors and the people behind the scenes,” said Paul as he took a break from readying the evening’s show, a full Broadway production of Evita. “I was always in trouble for being up late, but l would tell my parents everyone needed me, so they let me stay,” said the man who still works his magic behind the scenes.
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The playhouse struggled as a family affair until 2011 when it became a not-for-profit supported by an adoring community happy to have a world-class performing arts center in its midst. The mansion, designed by the renowned architect Stanford White, houses the stars and supporting cast during the runs with various out-buildings used for costume and set construction and rehearsals, including a “Wigwam” for the storage of a multitude of hairpieces. Recognized as one of the top ten summer theaters in the nation, its productions don’t end with the season. They roll into October with a huge haunted house experience and then a holiday show complete with an ice rink for this year’s star, former Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan.
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One part of the sprawling compound visitors won’t get to see is the grand ballroom that was attached to the former resort hotel. Legend has it that a local man fell for one of the cast and was banished from the grounds. Jilted, he set it on fire. One piece of history that’s still appreciated today by those fortunate to stay at the mansion is its spacious swimming pool. Built in the 1880s, it’s the first-ever pool of its kind on Long Island. Sadly, a once-majestic windmill that delivered water to the old farm has fallen into disrepair.
The playhouse’s director of development and public relations—the man on the other side of the curtain—Scott Allan, no relation to the original Allans—has his plate full booking shows and keeping everyone on their toes. A Broadway veteran as well having worked with Frankie Avalon over a two-year run and a role in a hit production of Grease, Allan wheeled off the Gateway shows he’s been involved in over the last 12 years like they were yesterday.
Having graced the local stage were Sally Struthers of All in the Family fame, Saturday Night Live alum Joe Piscopo, Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, and Olympic skater Oksana Baiul star of the Gateway production Cold as Ice. Prospering from the theater’s School of Performing Arts and its programs for kids have been Michelle Veintimilla, who played the villain Firefly in the Fox television series Gotham, as well as Hayden on the Netflix science fiction miniseries, The I-Land, and Jesse James Kitel, who is famed for playing TV Land's first non-binary character on Younger.
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Next on tap after Evita, which runs until May 28, is the Donna Summer Musical, the “Queen of Disco,” which will feature three actors representing different stages in the Diva’s life, Scott Allan pointed out. Jersey Boys comes next and then it’s the haunted Halloween followed by the Holiday Spectacular on Ice featuring Kerrigan. “And then we start all over again,” Allan said with 2024 promising the classic Fiddler on the Roof and In the Heights, a Tony Award-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton.
The playhouse, in its 74th season, also features an exciting Children’s Theater with productions of Matilda, Jr., Jeff Boyer’s Big Bubble Bonanza, and Finding Nemo.
For more information about this popular community asset, call 631-286-1133 or visit thegateway.org.
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Robert Chartuk
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