Walking Tour: Top Five Entertainment Venues

The Goodman Theatre (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Although New York is better known for their theatres, since New York is where Broadway shows are born, Chicago has many important entertainment venues with rich history and stories. Five of Chicago's well known theatres are shown below in a walking tour. Click on the star icons in the map below to see photos and videos of these historical venues. 

 

We start our walking tour on North Michigan Avenue, where The Lookingglass Theatre Company is located. Founded in 1988, the Lookingglass Theatre Company has performed more than 50 world-premiere original works. In 2003, the theater found a permanent space on the Magnificent Mile in the Water Tower building. Going down south to the Loop is where you will find The Chicago Theatre and The Goodman Theatre. The Chicago Theatre, built in 1921, was the first large movie palace in America and became the prototype for other theatres to come. The first performance was the showing of a movie with a live orchestra, but today the theatre mostly hosts comedians, orchestras, and bands never really theatrical performances. The Goodman Theatre, established in 1922, was made with a gift of $250,000 from William and Erna Goodman to the Art Institute of Chicago to memorialize their late son, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman. Their son wrote, published and produced many plays in Chicago and had expressed his vision for an ideal theater. So after passing away his parents wanted to bring his vision into reality. If you continue traveling south towards W Monroe St., there you will find The CIBC Theatre, opened in 1906. It was originally named the Majestic Theatre and was known for its popular vaudeville shows before closing down during the Great Depression. It went through renovations in 2005-2006 and was an official site of touring Broadway shows. The last venue on the walking tour is The Auditorium Theatre located East Ida B. Wells Drive. Originally constructed in 1889, the Auditorium Theatre went bankrupt after decades of declining revenues and shut down in 1941. Then purchased by Roosevelt University and had its revival in 1967. Since then they hosted legends such as Elton John and Aretha Franklin. 

Below is a split screen image of the popular Chicago Theatre from the 1920s and a current image.