Current FBC director Alex H. Savitsky praised the Cambridge residents who have made the cast feel at home for 28 years.

“Occasionally, we’ll have a complaint from a parent whose kid snuck out to see the show,” Savitsky said.  “But it’s been a very positive community.”

The show was popular with Harvard students.

“I loved the enthusiasm of the audience and the performers,” said Ari M. Albanese ’15, who attended the show with a group of other Harvard students. “Everyone was dressed up and singing along and just really enjoying themselves. I had a great time.”

According to Savitsky, Full Body Cast staged two shows a week until 1997, when they switched to a weekly performance. Over 28 years, that would mean that approximately 2,100 showings took place at the theater.

For co-director Gary A. Greenbaum, this rigorous schedule distinguishes Full Body Cast. “This is the only Rocky cast that has been performing consistently in the same theater,” he said.  “Others put on a show once a month or so, but this is the only show that did it once a week.”

Greenbaum and Laurie both said that the Halloween weekend shows are among their favorites.

“We do three shows with an expanded pre-show before the show,” Laurie said. “Those are always awesome, and those are always full house. You can wait all year for that and always be satisfied.”

Despite the loss of the venue, the cast has no plans to end the performances and is currently scouting for a new location.

“We’ve always been in contact with other theaters for just such an occasion,” Greenbaum said.

Hinkle said that for those in the theater business, the writing has been on the wall for the Harvard Square theater for quite some time.

“It’s been rumored on and off for a long time that it would be closing,” he said. “Anyone who’s been there recently has seen it was neglected by AMC.”

Laurie sounded a somber note of farewell. “I’m sad to see it go,” he said. “Even though this theater closed and we will hopefully get another theater, [the dynamic] is lost forever. And that’s sad.”

At the Brattle Theater, an artsier cinema which was not direct competition to the AMC theater, Hinkle was sympathetic rather than triumphant at the closing of a peer.

“'Disappointment' is the best word,” he said. “Any time a movie theater closes is a tragedy.”

—Staff writer Petey E. Menz can be reached at menz@college.harvard.edu.