Radio City Music Hall was envisioned as a "palace for the people," an auditorium of beauty and affordability during the trying times that were the 1930s. Designer Donald Deskey purposely "chose elegance over excess, grandeur above glitz" in order to fulfill the vision that has since secured Radio City's legacy. Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia is America's oldest theater, having celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2009. The Marx Brothers, Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, Will Rogers, Sidney Poitier, and so many more have stood on its legendary stage where the first curtain call took place. The Chicago Theatre was dubbed "the Wonder Theatre of the World" when it opened in 1921. With various sections inspired by the Paris Opera House and Royal Chapel at Versailles, the French Baroque venue brings majesty to America. Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. is, perhaps, the country's most famous theatre due to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln during a performance there in 1865. Since it reopened in 1968, Ford's has served as a bastion of our nation's history as well as a world-class house in its own right. Palace of Fine Arts was born out of San Francisco's Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915. What was originally meant as a temporary design was refurbished into a lasting monument that was even used by the Army as a motor pool in World War II. An extensive renovation was done in the early 1970s to bring the Palace back to its original wonder. The Town Hall in New York City was built as a home for the suffragists of The League for Political Education and has held within its marvelously acoustic walls the work of everyone from Austrian composer Richard Strauss to women's rights activist Margaret Sanger to poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to Broadway legend Betty Buckley. With no obstructed views, the Hall gave rise to the saying that there's "not a bad seat in the house." The Wang Center in Boston boasts one of the five largest stages in the country. Originally known as The Metropolitan, the 1925 venue has the elegance of a Louis XIV palace and was a community hub during the Roaring Twenties. Since its 1983 renovation, the Wang Center has staged everything from Riverdance to Lady Gaga. Ahmanson Theatre is a youngster in theatrical terms, having opened in 1967. Still, the Los Angeles hall has made a name for itself by staging the world premieres of six Neil Simon plays, as well as works by August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, and other giants of the craft. American Conservatory Theater, better known as A.C.T., has long been known as "the traditional seat of legitimate drama in San Francisco since 1910." Its late Victorian style, with flourishes of neoclassicism and baroque, has been graced by the work of Edward G. Robinson, Paul Robeson, Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Vivien Leigh, and Tallulah Bankhead. Ford Center for the Performing Arts (Oriental Theatre) was once a thorough ode to Asian art replete with ushers in turbans and a "hasheesh-dream décor" consisting of Indian mosaics, elephant-throne chairs, and glazed Buddha statues. After a period of disrepair, the Chicago landmark was restored to its original glory in the mid-1990s.
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Beginning with Radio City Music Hall, Kelly documents ten favorite vacation spots that allow you to take in a play or musical...
Kelly McCartney writes for the Best Show Tickets Blog, a site that specializes in Broadway musical tickets and Vegas show tickets. Learn more at: http://www.BestShowTicketsLasVegas.com/blog/
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