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Not too late to save the Orpheum
By adamg on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 1:43pm
Spatch tours the Orpheum, takes photos:
... It's heartbreaking to see it in its current condition, all run-down and stuff, and I know that it's definitely renovatable if one had the money and time, but for now, it has the appearance of a grande dame who's seen much better days. A lot of people still love this house, however, and would do whatever they could to fix it up... if they could. ...
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Comments
Well his fun facts help
Well his fun facts help explain why the Orpheum appears to have a grand entrance into an alley lol, I never understood how that could have possibily of happened. Now it makes sense.
Yeah I always felt out of place going into the Orpheum for rock concerts, I always kind of felt like I was having a party in my grand mothers old formal living room and dining room when she wasnt home and the place got thrashed (not that she had those rooms in such a formal way, but if she could thats how she would have deocrated.) It never seemed like the right place for these groups, yet it has its charm as that sort of venue as well.
They were tacking on
They were tacking on "theater restoration fees" to the tickets at least as far back as the late 1970s and I never saw any signs that there was any "restoration" happening.
Class Action Suit?
I think I'm owed a good $20 at least for all those "restoration" fees the Don Lawbreaker Concert Screw extracted from tickets that I bought over the years.
Where the hell did that money go? Oh, wait, Mr. Big Pants Concert Tycoon owns everybody who could dare ask that.
history of the orpheum
does anyone have any links detailing the history of the theater? did john wilkes booth perform there? ive seen some great shows there over the years. U2 being the most memorable.i can remember seeing someone a couple of years ago and during a rocking song you could look back and see the balcony bouncing.i remember thinking of how glad i was to not be sitting in or under the balcony.
Orpheum history
The theatre's CinemaTreasures page is a good place to start. It was originally called the Boston Music Hall, and was the first home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Bouncing balconies
We actually discussed this while checking out the mezz. The bad news was that the place was definitely not built for stompin' music fans, and that visible bouncing is really disconcerting.
The "good news" was that the elevated section will "sag before it breaks" so they get a bit of an early warning on it. That's good news only in that the thing won't just collapse out of the blue, apparently. Once it does sag, of course, it pretty much means that entire section is out of commission and would probably require one hell of a rebuild, and there goes half your house revenue.
If the theater is carrying
If the theater is carrying debt and the owner runs into cash problems, Suffolk will end up buying it.
Suffolk?
Suffolk is not especially rich, and they are already buying and renovating the Modern Theatre further south on Washington Street.
Well they can always just
Well they can always just make it into student dorms! lol
Actually if they were to sell into the market 3 years ago some contractor would have swooped in, renovated the building and sold luxury condos carved out of the theatre for a milion each. In this market, not so much.
If schools keep buying up buildings at this rate,
there won't be any culture, or neighborhoods left in this city.
Why do you say that?
What condition would the Majestic, Paramount, and Modern theatres be in if Emerson and Suffolk hadn't bought them? Very likely demolished, or converted to an entirely non-cultural use.
really?
What's the Paramount Theatre presently being used for? Just curious.
Ive got news for you, most
Ive got news for you, most of what we consider to be Boston has been scrubbed of its soul and we have been left with the mostly hollow shell we see today. A few lone holdouts hold on but even the historic parts of town are not quite what they used to be, The North End for instance was once a thriving Italian immigrant hotbed but lately has been gentrifying at a rapid clip. As sleezy as it sounded I kind of wish I could have had the chance to walk through Scolley Square, or visit the North End when it was truely a little Italian enclave or any number of Boston squares and communities before the modern era washed over them.