Theater Spotlight: The Fitzgerald Theatre

The Fitzgerald Theater is Saint Paul's oldest surviving theater space. It opened in 1910 at 45 Exchange Street East and was originally named the Sam S. Shubert Theater. The Fitzgerald was one of four memorial theaters erected by entertainment-industry leaders Lee and J. J. Shubert after the death of their brother Sam. In 1933, the Fitzgerald Theater became a movie house screening foreign films and was thus christened the World Theater.

Minnesota Public Radio purchased the theater in 1980 and restored it in 1986 for their live radio program, A Prairie Home Companion® with Garrison Keillor. The theater was again renamed in 1994, this time for author F. Scott Fitzgerald, a native of Saint Paul. Over the years, the Fitzgerald's stage has played host to Broadway musicals, vaudeville shows, film festivals, and concerts of all sorts.

When the Fitzgerald first opened it was hailed as one of the most beautiful theaters of its day. The Fitzgerald Theatre seats 996 and is one of those treasures of theater construction known as a "two-balcony dramatic house," of which only a few remain across the country. Audiences are provided a unique sense of intimacy as no seat is farther than 87 feet from the stage.

The lobby opens to a beautiful Beaux Arts interior with red plush seats that are of a hue found only in elegant theaters of the same era. Eight opera boxes curve gently toward the stage, each backed by a privacy curtain made from the same burgundy velour used to make the stage curtain.

Fitzgerald Theatre is one of the Twin Cities' exemplary theaters, with admirable acoustics and three tiers of seating plus a collection of opera boxes. The theater's many assets make it popular with touring acts that could probably sell out much larger venues. If a show at the Fitzgerald interests you, don't wait to purchase Fitzgerald event tickets -- this intimate location is known for its fast ticket sell outs.