The Square hosts Ideastream public broadcasting, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland International Film Festival, Cleveland Play House, DANCECleveland, Great Lakes Theater, Tri-C JazzFest, and Cleveland State University Arts Campus.īefore the pandemic, Playhouse Sqaure had some 2,000 RedCoat volunteers, welcomed more than one million spectators per year, and a nation-leading pack of about 46,000 subscribers to Broadway tours. Theaters are more than property, of course. It also manages a somewhat equal amount of space for other property owners. It owns at least 1 million square feet of property, including most of the theaters’ buildings, the Crowne Plaza hotel, and the new Lumen apartments. The foundation claims a unique blend of art and real estate. Its chandelier over Euclid Avenue is the continent’s biggest outdoor one. The Square’s capacity of more than 9,300 seats is second in the U.S. It also has a dressing room kept “Yul Brynner brown” in memory of the star’s visit in 1984. The State still has a 325-pound French urn, four acclaimed murals by rising painter James Daugherty, and a 320-foot lobby that is believed to be the world’s biggest for a single theater. The Palace still has five huge Czech chandeliers. Today, many of those luxuries are gone, but the theaters still have original Carrara marble, black walnut, mahogany, grand staircases, and much more.

Behind the Palace’s stagewere seven stories of dressing rooms, animal pens, a nursery, a barbershop, a beauty parlor, a putting green, even a satinwood and brass commode. The fanciest venue, the $3.5 million Palace, featured paintings by Corot and other masters and what were believed to be the world’s biggest hand-woven carpet and biggest electric sign. When the lights dimmed stars began to twinkle. With the house lights on, the Allen’s ceiling looked like a cloudy sky. Playhouse Square from the intersection of Huron Road and Euclid Boulevard, looking east during a wet evening on April 7, 1933.At the theaters’ openings,theatergoers admired lavish appointments. Albee (the adoptive grandfather of the famous playwright sharing his name)spent $9.4 million to open buildingsin 19 up to 21 stories tall -holding what are now the KeyBank State, Mimi Ohio, Connor Palace, Allen, and Upper Allen (originally the Allen’s balcony, The Upper Allen separated from the main theater in 2018 and hold up to 750 guests). We don’t know the Hanna Theatre’s cost, but various owners, including local developer Joseph Laronge and nationwide impresarios Marcus Loew, B.F. “We will do something to celebrate our 100 th at some point, when our staff is all back,” says spokeswoman Cindi Szymanski.ĭuring the past century, the theaters have spoken loudly for themselves, dramatizing the power of performance and the tenacity of our town. With an undisclosed number of employees on furlough, t he foundation has not announced further commemorations. Both times, competition was rising from broadcasts and outlying theaters.Both times, though, the crowds came back to Playhouse Square and they kept coming.ĭazzle the District at Playhouse Square new chandelier first lighting on May 2, 2014.Now the COVID-19 pandemic, has temporarilyshut down the district since last March, and the Playhouse Square Foundation is marking the centennial of its oldest surviving theaters quietly, with a short post linked to a 2012 documentary about the place called “Staging Success.” In both eras,skeptics wondered whether locals would gather in the city again for entertainment and connection. One hundred years ago, in 1921, after a world war and the Spanish Flu pandemic, the five lavish theaters that anchor Playhouse Square began to open.įifty-one years ago in 1970,in an increasingly deserteddowntown, obscure school board functionaryRay Shepardsonbegan trying to save the decaying, rat-ridden theaters from the wrecking ball.

Lumen apartments at playhouse square