Columbus Theatre Announces It Is Closing UPDATED
Sunday, May 05, 2024
The Columbus Theatre announced it will close in June.
“After 12 years, the Columbus Theatre will be ceasing operations in June 2024. The last show will be on June 9th,” the Columbus posted to social media.
Jon Berberian and his family have owned the theatre for more than 60 years.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn 2015, its resurrection was the focus of a New York Times feature, “The Columbus Theatre in Providence, R.I., was designed to look outdated. In the late 1920s, while the rest of the country was doing Art Deco, this vaudeville house was a 19th-century Italianate palace. It still is. The aesthetic of revivalism has always held a special appeal for artists with an interest in old forms — and so it was for the folk musician Jeff Prystowsky from the band the Low Anthem, who in the summer of 2011 began to wonder why the Columbus had been closed for years, perpetually ‘Opening Soon.’”
According to the social post, “all currently scheduled events will go on as planned. There may be a few more events added before we close - check our website for more details.”
The announcement added:
I want to thank everyone who has supported the theatre since 2012 - we have done incredible things together in this building. Thank you to everyone who ever worked a show, played a show, screened a film, or attended an event. Special thanks to Q, Sam, Glenna, Jerome and Lara, who have contributed so much in these past few years.
Biggest thanks of all to Jon Berberian, who has given us such a gift by letting us work in his theatre. I’m committed to helping Jon and his family find the path forward with the theatre, to find someone who has the passion, energy, resources and vision necessary to keep this beautiful space a home for the arts in Providence.
Tom [Weyman]
Columbus Theatre
The Theatre was originally named the Uptown. According to the RI Preservation Commission:
Oresto di Sala, architect. Art elaborate, brick-and-cast-stone building with a highly articulated 2-story facade organized into alternating wide and narrow bays, with round-arch windows capping the wide bays above the 2nd-floor level. The entablature is decorated with Adamesque swags and a modillion cornice. A prominent, polychrome-brick clock tower is centered over the entrance, One of several neighborhood theatres built in the city following the First World War. It was built for West Side real estate magnate and builder Domenic Annotti.
UPDATED: 6:00 AM 4/5/24
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