Broadway Center for the Performing Arts - Pantages Theater

Venue Type: Performance Theater

Phone: 253-591-5894
Neighborhood: Newtacoma
Web: http://www.broadwaycenter.org/
Parking Details: Street and pay garages

The block now occupied by the Pantages Theater was once the site of a saloon, Tacoma's first library, and Tacoma's first department store. In 1908, William Jones of Walla Walla bought the block and razed the buildings. Then entered the Greek immigrant, Alexander Pantages, who had dreams of owning beautiful and successful vaudeville theaters across the country. With some financial assistance from his mistress and business partner, Kate Rockwell (Klondike Kate)*, Pantages and Jones were able to build the combination office building and theater- the Jones Building and Pantages Theater-at a cost of $400,000.Construction began in 1916, and the new Pantages Theater, the second of the Pantages chain, opened in January 1918. Often regarded as the most beautiful, the Tacoma Pantages was designed by Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca after an ornate theater in the Palace of Versailles. The Tacoma Pantages served as a live theater for only eight years before being converted to a movie house and being sold to RKO, at which time the name was changed to the Orpheum. In 1932, the theater was purchased by Will Conner of Tacoma and was known as the Roxy until the 1980's when it was renamed the Pantages Theater.

A proposal to restore the Pantages as the cornerstone of a revitalized downtown area led to the restoration beginning in 1978 after the city bought the theater. On February 12, 1983, the Pantages Theater officially reopened, making 2005 its 22nd anniversary season, and its 87th birthday. Today it is the oldest of the Pantages Theaters still in operation.

Broadway Center for the Performing Arts - Pantages Theater Event Calendar

Current Shows at this Venue

Tonight Tacoma Concert Band: And the Trumpet Shall Sound Starting at 7:30pm

Sat 11.29.08 Scrooge: The Movie Musical Starting at 3:00pm

Sat 11.29.08 Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Starting at 5:00pm

Sat 12.13.08 Tacoma City Ballet: The Nutcracker Starting at 7:00pm

Sun 01.11.09 The Peking Acrobats Starting at 3:00pm

Wed 01.14.09 Movin' Out: National Tour Starting at 7:30pm

Wed 01.21.09 American Soul and Rock & Roll Choir Starting at 7:30pm

Tue 02.17.09 Afro-Cuban All Stars Starting at 7:30pm

Fri 02.27.09 Tacoma Concert Band: Band With Choral Colors Starting at 7:30pm

Fri 03.06.09 Faust Starting at 8:00pm

Fri 03.06.09 Tacoma Opera: Fasut Starting at 8:00pm

Thu 03.12.09 Bruce Feiler Starting at 7:30pm

Fri 04.03.09 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Starting at 7:30pm

Thu 04.09.09 Altar Boyz: National Tour Starting at 7:30pm

Sun 04.19.09 Tacoma Philharmonic Orchestra Starting at 3:00pm

Sat 04.25.09 Tacoma Concert Band: East Meets West Starting at 7:30pm

Sun 04.26.09 Lily Tomlin Starting at 3:00pm

Fri 05.08.09 Do Jump! Starting at 7:30pm

Sat 05.16.09 Tacoma Symphony Orchestra: Chorus Concert Starting at 7:30pm

Past Shows at this Venue

Sat 11.08.08 Martin Short

Thu 10.30.08 David Sedaris

Wed 10.29.08 The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee: National Tour

Sun 10.12.08 Crystal Aikin: A Tribute to Gospel Music

Fri 10.10.08 Tacoma Concert Band: Broadway and Blue

Sat 09.27.08 A Salute to Vaudeville: Voice of the City

Sat 08.09.08 Judy Collins

Sat 07.12.08 Miss Washington Scholarship Organization

Sat 06.28.08 Action Dance: Coppélia and Dansicals

Sun 06.08.08 An Evening With Bobby McFerrin

Sat 06.07.08 Jo Emery Ballet School: Dances With Dancers

Sun 06.01.08 P.D.Q. Bach in Tacoma: All Things Bright and Baroquen

Sat 05.03.08 Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers

Fri 04.25.08 Tacoma Concert Band - Hands Across the Sea: Sousa on Tour

Thu 04.24.08 New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players: H.M.S. Pinafore

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