Curtain drops on Pantages; future hangs on purchase bids

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/12/2018 (2451 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The historic Pantages Playhouse has gone dark after 104 years of hosting live theatre, music and dance performances.

The stage, which has seen the likes of Buster Keaton, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Laurel and boxer Jack Dempsey perform during its long history, saw its final scheduled performance last Friday by Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival stalwarts James and Jamesy, the last act booked before it closed its doors.

Now the performing community — as well as heritage advocates and Winnipeggers — are waiting to see when the city will announce a successful bidder for the theatre. A source told the Free Press there are five proposals and all involve the Pantages remaining a theatre.

Alastair Knowles (a.k.a. Jamesy), said he would hate to think his seasonal show with Aaron Malkin (James), O Christmas Tea, would be the final one to grace the theatre.

“It was such a cool experience for us there,” Knowles said Monday.

“I hope we can say we’re the finale for this point of time. I definitely hope Pantages is sold and brought back to its former glory.”

Knowles, who was raised in Winnipeg, said the theatre needs some money put into it.

“You do get the sense it needs a major upgrade,” he said. “The dressing rooms are not glorified. But there’s something charming about being in an old building. There’s no writing on the walls from past performers, but the history oozes from the bricks and the wood.

“You feel the power of the history; you don’t get that in the modern theatres.”

The city put the 1,475-seat theatre up for sale earlier this year. The city first took over the building during the Depression in the 1930s, sold it in the early 1940s, and then was forced to take it over a second time a few years later, when it was seized for unpaid taxes.

The city has owned it ever since.

For the past seven years, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has operated the Pantages at no cost to the city. The city decided to look at selling the theatre and request bids only after the WSO inquired about purchasing it.

No details are known about any other bids, but the WSO advanced a bid that would see it spend either $12 million to renovate the interior or $20 million to also build new space for its administrative offices.

City spokesman Kalen Qually said the city’s request for proposals for the theatre closed Sept. 28.

“The city anticipates awarding an applicant in early 2019,” Qualley said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca