TRAGIC LESSON
Play revisits nation’s deadliest nightclub fire
A nightclub fire that claimed an astounding 492 lives — but has since been largely forgotten — is being revisited in an off-Broadway play.
“Inferno! Fire at the Cocoanut Grove: 1942” will premiere Friday at Theater 80 St. Marks in the East Village for a 25-show run. The show promises to take theatergoers back to the night of the horrific blaze that tore through the popular Boston nightspot.
The inferno is considered the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history.
Many in the cast of 12 will play two roles — sometimes three — to give viewers an overview of the many lives affected by the Boston blaze. The 76th anniversary of the horrific event is Wednesday.
The body count at the Cocoanut Grove was nearly six times that of the infamous Bronx’s Happy Land fire in 1990, which took 87 lives. Scores more were left physically and psychologically scarred — with some suffering PTSD the rest of their lives.
The blaze led to safety reforms and innovations in treatment of burn patients.
At the time, the blaze was major news. Yet more than 75 years later, few outside Boston know about it. Playwright James Prince hopes to remedy that.
“The story has never been told like this before. It truly is a behind-the-scenes look into what happened that night,” says Prince, artistic director and founder of The Core Theatre. “It brings this immense tragedy down to the human level, revealing the lives of those who perished and the ways their stories echo down through time.”
Prince has a personal connection to the event. One of the victims was a distant relative of his wife.
According to family lore, the relative had no intention of going to the Cocoanut Grove that night but was drafted by his roommate, who needed a wingman to sit with his date’s girlfriend.
“Inferno!” was meticulously researched as Prince pored over newspaper articles and interviewed survivors. Several victims’ relatives saw versions of the play in Texas and Boston and were left in tears — stunned by how accurate it is, Prince said.
Today, stories like the Cocoanut Grove fire are more important than ever, he said.
“Since 2000 some 4,000 people have died in nightclub fires, so tragedies like this are still happening all over the world,” he said.