Elegant old bones of Tacoma's Pantages Theater brace for another 100 years
Tacoma’s beautiful Pantages Theater is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, and if you’ve sat under the original stained-glass skylight recently, you’ve probably noticed long-overdue repairs are in order.
The peeling paint and creaky seats are just a few signs the grand dame of Tacoma entertainment venues is in dire need of some work. It’s why we’re excited about the centennial renovation that began May 14, despite it closing the theater for six months.
At a time when social ills scream for our dollars and attention, $24.5 million might seem like a lot to spend on entertainment. But the edifice at the corner of 9th Street and Broadway deserves our attention every bit as much as the Tacoma Dome, which is also closing for a major makeover this year.
The Pantages, which is listed on U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is nothing short of a brick-and-mortar testament to the power of Tacoma’s grit. Unlike Seattle’s theater of the same name, which was torn down in 1965 to make room for a parking garage, Tacoma was wise enough to purchase our Pantages in 1979.
It survives because city and state government and private donors place a premium on the performing arts and Tacoma’s architectural heritage. Tacoma’s Pantages is one of a few original theaters built by vaudeville and movie impressario Alexander Pantages that’s still in operation. The upgrades will help ensure she lives another century.
The theater will get new paint inside and out, interior and exterior plaster work, terra cotta repair, new windows, flooring, acoustic improvements, seismic and structural reinforcements and new signage featuring a bright, red blade.
Not all of it will get done in six months. For tax reasons,the renovation is happening in phases. Final completion of outside work and earthquake-proofing won’t happen until the end of 2022, but no further closures are anticipated.
To avoid a disruption in programming this summer and fall, the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, which manages a cluster of downtown venues, was smart to spend $1.1 million to outfit the old Armory for performances. Other arts organizations will use the Rialto Theater or Theater on the Square.
Never let it be said this was the summer the music stopped in Tacoma.
Come mid-November, just in time for a Hip-Hop Nutcracker and other holiday shows, audiences will experience the Pantages much as it was on opening night in 1918.
The most noticeable difference will be the return to a center aisle — good news for anyone who’s done that awkward sideways shuffle along unnaturally long theater rows. The new main floor aisle not only pays homage to the original seating, it also cuts emergency evacuation time in half.
Capacity will increase from 1,169 to 1,274, and new seats will come with cup holders — a nod to contemporary convenience, and certainly preferable to carpet stains and dry cleaning bills.
And speaking of seats, for a $1,000 donation, donors can have their names, or those of loved ones, engraved on seat plaques. A gift of $25,000 or more could get you naming rights on dressing rooms, rehearsal studios and the renaming of Theater on the Square.
This call to action is indicative of how Broadway Center gets the mix of public and private partnerships right.
A century ago, Alexander Pantages said he built grand halls around the Western U.S. and Canada because he wanted people to be transported out of everyday life. For 100 years, one of the last remaining Pantages theaters has done just that. We’re grateful there’s no end in sight.
This story was originally published June 21, 2018 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Elegant old bones of Tacoma's Pantages Theater brace for another 100 years."