Posted on 02/24/2015 7:04:59 PM PST by Squawk 8888
If Canada has an equivalent to Carnegie Hall, it has to be Massey Hall, the venerable building on Shuter Street in Toronto that’s been operating for 120 years. But the place is showing its age and it’s time for not just a makeover but a complete rehab. I was part of a big press conference yesterday that officially announced the Massey Hall revitalization project.
As Charles Cutts stood behind a lectern Monday on Massey Hall’s hallowed stage to officially launch the building’s $135-million “revitalization,” a piece of grey fluff fell from the ceiling and drifted slowly to the floor, landing somewhere between the first and second rows, stage right.
“Massey Hall is not only a national historic site that we all treasure, but a place where Canadian music history is made,” said the outgoing CEO and president of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. “It’s been that way for the last 120 years, and will be for the next 120.”
It wasn’t immediately clear for how many of those years the dust bunny had been gathering, but it was a fitting time for it to take flight.
For all its past glories, the hall has a shopworn feel, with those odd reclining seats and scuffed brass railings. The goal of the expensive facelift, paid for largely by corporate and government cash, is to do some sprucing up without sanding away the antique beauty of the place.
“Change nothing but improve everything” is the project’s motto.
My job was to hold a short Q&A with Geddy Lee of Rush, who recalled his first gig at Massey (seeing Cream) and Rush’s first appearance as a headliner on that stage (2112).
More on the project–and it’s a big one–here.
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Thanks for the post. So are the acoustics good there? Will the money for the update be well-spent?
I LOVE the ceiling!
The acoustics are amazing. From the back row of the Gallery you can hear a pin drop onstage.
I think it will be, but I do have a conflict of interest here. My uncle was on the board of Massey Hall & Roy Thomson Hall for several years.
That’s great. There aren’t too many of the old guard left, so it is good that this hall has hung in there.
Love the old theaters.
In the USA only NY has more of the grand old stage theaters than Detroit.
We only have four here now; two that have operated continuously (Massey Hall and Royal Alexandra), and two that were restored after serving for several decades as movie houses (Elgin/Winter Garden and Pantages). Of the four, Massey Hall was the only one built for concerts while the other three were built for vaudeville shows.
Pantages Theatre
Winter Garden
Royal Alexandra
Stunning. Thanks for the photos.
Glad to see it’s still in use. The pictures of the abandoned art deco theatre in Detroit are heartbreaking.
There are several of them in Detroit that are still in use and looking good. Kinda weird that a Guy like Jack White would care about these places but his mother worked in them and he spent a lot of his childhood in them.
Thanks.
Even with crappy video you can tell it sounds great.
Andre Rieu Detroit Fox Theater Wiener Blut 9-19-2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEmSM3StzRY#t=356
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