Orpheum Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin Orpheum Theater Information and Tickets

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With the State Street renovation and creation of the arts district looming in the future, one fixture will remain the same–the Orpheum Theatre. Situated at 216 State St., the Orpheum remains the most intact example in Madison of the early twentieth century movie-vaudeville theatre.

Designed by legendary theatre architects Rapp & Rapp of Chicago, the Orpheum opened on March 31, 1927. The program opening night featured a news reel, a feature movie, an organ concert, vaudeville acts and a dedicatory address by the mayor of Madison.

The Orpheum Theatre opened during the heyday of the movie palace era between 1910 and 1930. The movie palaces fused silent pictures, accompanied by rousing organ music, with live variety acts to form a brand of entertainment wildly popular in Madison and across the nation. Movie houses served not only as a source of entertainment, but also as an educational source, with news reels bringing local communities the most significant events from around the globe.

Owner of the Orpheum Theatre, Henry Doane, says the theatre has been a unique structure on State Street since doors opened for the first time almost 75 years ago.

"The Orpheum has a lot of history to it," Doane said. "The theatre's size, central location and architectural grandeur didn't exist anywhere else in Madison".

The demand for this type of entertainment and informational resource gave way to a significant architectural phenomenon–the lavish movie palace. The Orpheum Theatre was created in and still embodies the spirit of this period.

Madisonians could go to the Orpheum and stroll through the 2400 seat theatre and spacious grand lobby created by Rapp & Rapp in the royal palace tradition, with designs drawing specifically from the French Renaissance and French king Louis XIV. For many people, the entertainment was not as important as the experience of going to the theatre.

The Orpheum, however, combined the tradition of the opulent splendor of the lavish movie palace and the excitement of legendary live entertainment.

"The [Orpheum] hosted thousands of local and national acts, as well as untold thousands of movie premiers," Doane said. "Frank Sinatra, Glen Miller, Louis Armstrong, Lucianno Pavoratti, and almost anyone you could think of from that time period has performed at the Orpheum."

But the depression of the 1930s and World War II sobered the American public to the perceived excesses of the 1920s. Americans still went to movies, but the idea of the lavish movie palace became extravagant and outdated.

The Orpheum, like many theatres of its kind, were largely neglected and abandoned. The focus shifted from the spectacle of live entertainment in the theatres to the movie itself.

"Up until 1969, the Orpheum still had main stage and live acts," Doane said.

According to Doane, once the popularity of live acts declined 1969, the main stage of the theatre was divided into two separate stages, the Orpheum Theatre and the Stage Door Theatre, with each stage essentially behaving like its own business.

Even in the midst of a programming decline, the Orpheum still managed to draw such legendary performers as Bob Marley and Elvis Costello.

"The Orpheum continued to do live acts occasionally until 1980," Doane said. "When the Civic Center opened, the Orpheum ceased to do live acts all together and went into its downward spiral like many movie theatres of its kind did at that time."

Fast forward to the Fall of 1999.

The Madison Idea Foundation proposed to revamp the floundering Orpheum Theatre into an Imax theatre. Restauranteur Henry Doane bought the theatre and essentially saved the landmark from destruction, promising to restore some of the theatre's former glory.

"The renovation was really to stabilize the theatre because it had been neglected for some time," Doane said. "We really had to put it back together again."

Doane hopes to renew interest in the Orpheum with ongoing architectural improvements, film festivals and by bringing live entertainment back to the stage.

"It will be hard to recreate the original spirit of the theatre," Doane said, "because the Orpheum has about 75 years of really cool stuff under its belt."

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