Moat undergoes a sea change

By Tien-Shun Lee | Staff Writer

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The Jones Beach Theater has rocked all summer long, with big-name performers from Santana to Tom Petty giving concerts to crowds of up to 14,000 people. But the Jones Beach audience didn't always come for pop music. In the 1940s and 1950s, the theater was mainly known for shows, performed both onstage and on watercraft that skimmed the salt water in a wide moat.

The original Jones Beach Marine Stadium on Zach's Bay was a temporary wooden structure built in the 1930s as a work-relief project. It was torn down in 1945 as unsafe. A new steel, concrete and brick theater opened in 1953 and had seating for 8,200.

The moat separated the audience from the 104-foot-wide stage with a 76-foot revolving center. Entertainers crossed the moat from the seating area to the stage by going through a tunnel or across a plank. The water was an essential part of many of the Broadway-style plays, which featured grand voyage scenes on barges and boats. Waterskiers and divers performed acrobatic aquatic acts that attracted thousands.

The moat was removed in 1991, when the seating capacity was increased to 11,200 people. Three thousand seats were added in the space where water used to flow between actors and audience.

"The main reason was the complaints from the public," says George Gorman, a spokesman for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. "There was a wide gap between where performers were and where the public was seated."

Additional renovations completed last year brought the seating capacity at the theater to 14,000.

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