The restoration of the Helen Hayes Tappan Zee Playhouse took another step forward yesterday, as a crane began lowering steel beams through the roof to support a rebuilt frame for the Nyack landmark.
A Total of 10 beams, each 30 feet long and weighing about 1000 pounds each, were to be lowered into the structure yesterday by the Montana Contracting Corp. of Nyack.
Joe Montana, of the Montana firm, said he expected all the beams to be lowered into place by last night. It will take another week for steelworkers to secure them.
After workers finish securing the beams, construction on the new roof will begin. The renovation is scheduled to be finished in the winter of 1991. Montana Construction is managing the entire project.

“This is the result of a lot of planning over the past 10 months,” said David Mallison, executive directory of the Helen Hayes/Tappan Zee Performing Arts Center.
Built in 1907, the South Broadway theater was closed after a series of fires in the 1970s. A number of efforts to raise funds to rebuild the theater were unsuccessful, until Mallison was hired this year to direct the project, and Helen Hayes threw her support into the effort as well.
The most recent effort to renovate the theater began in earnest last spring, and has raised just of $1 million of the $4.5 million needed to complete the reconstruction, Mallison said yesterday.