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The Phantom of the Opera opened the 1997-1998 Broadway series on a newly extended stage that was 50 feet deep. Since then, the Orpheum has brought Disney’s The Lion King, Wicked, CATS, Les Misérables, and countless other Broadway favorites to Memphis. World-class musicians, comedians, and other entertainers have performed on the Orpheum stage.
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- Technical Information
The new Orpheum Theatre was built on the site of the Grand Opera House in 1928. On November 19, 1928, the new Orpheum theatre opened on the original site of the Grand Opera House. Designed by architects Rapp and Rapp of Chicago, the Orpheum seats just over 2,300 people at a cost of $1.6 million. The new Orpheum was twice as large as her ...
Aug 2, 2023 · Commercial Appeal, October 21, 1923. Within weeks of the devastating fire, both city leadership as well as the Orpheum Circuit were determined to rebuild the Orpheum. Investors came together, and a new theatre was financed by the Orpheum Circuit and members of the local Memphis Theatre and Realty Company.
- The Original Orpheum
- From The Ashes… to The Movies
- Ghosts of Orpheum Past
- The Orpheum’s Bright Future
Although the Orpheum Theatrehad its 90th birthday last year, technically it’s the “new” Orpheum. A performance hall called the Grand Opera House was built in 1890 on the corner of Beale Street and Main, over the site of a former coal yard. When vaudeville arrived, the venue was sold to the Orpheum Circuit, a national chain of theaters specializing ...
The fraternal architecture firm of Rapp and Rapp designed the replacement theater, along with 400 other venues across the country. Unfortunately, the rebuild was followed shortly thereafter by the Great Depression, and the Orpheum Theatre had to come up with novel ideas to bring in entertainment dollars. One of these was essentially a trivia contes...
“The Memphis Development Foundation [now Orpheum Theatre Group] was involved in a restaurant around here that had a liquor license, and you couldn’t have a liquor license within so many feet of a church, so what actually motivated them to think about buying the Orpheum was to protect their liquor license,” says Brett. “All of the people involved at...
As the Orpheum Theatre moves forward, the space has adjusted to the increasing grandeur of touring productions and the needs of its changing audiences. In 1997, the back wall was blown out to make way for Broadway-sized sets. The Halloran Center next door was completed in 2015 to provide a smaller performance space and increased room for educationa...
Jun 24, 2023 · Lucia Gilliland, board member of the Memphis Development Foundation (which purchased the Orpheum in 1976), said that “downtown was at its absolute darkest moment.” The historic aerials above (1981 at left, 1949 at right) illustrate the devastation of the Beale Street area under the federal urban renewal projects that were implemented by the Memphis Housing Authority (MHA) from 1957 to 1977.
Jun 2, 2023 · In the fall of 2018, StoryBoard Memphis published a feature article on the mostly-unknown and almost-forgotten history of the revival of the Orpheum Theatre by a young group of professionals in truly grassroots, “two boards and a passion” style, who with the help of key influencers and many others, brought life back to downtown and to the historic theatre from 1975 to 1980, before the Pat ...
People also ask
When was the Memphis Orpheum built?
When was the Orpheum Theatre built?
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What is the 'new' Orpheum Theatre?
What happened to the Orpheum in Memphis?
What happened to the Orpheum Theatre?
On September 22, 1890, Memphis patrons flocked to the opening of the new Grand Opera House, called the ‘social event of 1890’. It was designed by J.B. McElfatrick & Sons, a prominent architectural firm specializing in theatres, which built several theatres on Broadway.
