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Friday, March 29, 2024

The ManRay website went live last week with an RSVP space for its reopening night.

A website accepting RSVPs for opening night at a new ManRay nightclub in Central Square went live last week, though owner Don Holland said Monday that there is still no date he can offer for when the first beat drops.

It’s still good news for once and future patrons of the club, which had a storied existence at another location from 1985 to 2005 and finally announced it would have an October reopening – then missed the date and has been silent since, prompting questions and some skepticism as the weeks have passed.

More good news for people eager to get back to ManRay’s music and community: The RSVP function on the website is working, even though submitted emails aren’t acknowledged when they’re entered. Holland said that after the RSVP function went live Saturday, more than 200 names had been registered by the time he spoke Sunday with the site’s administrator – his granddaughter.

Holland offered no more updates except that contractors remained onsite at 40 Prospect St., the former home of the ImprovBoston comedy club, and that construction was going well.

Seeing the email RSVP box on the website was good enough news for Shawn Driscoll, author of the just-published “We Are But Your Children: An Oral History of the Nightclub ManRay.”

“I am extremely happy that that we are at this point. It is breathing much-needed life into the Cambridge area. As a former ManRay regular, this is what we’ve wanted for years – like, we’ve really been waiting. I know how tirelessly Don’s worked on trying to make this happen, and I’m just happy that the fruits of his labor are starting to pay off,” Driscoll said Monday.

Of course Driscoll RSVP’d on the website. “There’s nothing that would keep me away from opening night at this club,” he said.

“We Are But Your Children” sold out of its initial print run and has a second printing underway, though there are still a few copies available at Hubba Hubba, 2 Ellery St., Mid-Cambridge, he said. An event for the book is planned for that adult toy store eventually, but Driscoll has a reading set in the meantime for 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 26 at Tatnuck Bookseller & Cafe in the Westborough Shopping Center, 18 Lyman St., Westborough.