Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:11:00

Jacksonville's big stage has carried everything from Elvis to Hamilton: the Jim and Jan Moran Theater, the 2,910-seat mainstage of the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts at 300 West Water Street, is the First Coast's home for touring Broadway, headline concerts, opera and ballet. The bones date to 1962, when the Jacksonville Civic Auditorium opened on riverfront land bulkheaded out of the St. Johns; its 3,200-seat main hall spent three decades as the city's premier stage. The 1995-97 River City Renaissance rebuild - 35 million dollars, led by original architects KBJ with theatre consultants Fisher Dachs and acoustician Kirkegaard - reconstructed it as the Moran, adding sidewall seating tiers that pulled the vast room into theatrical intimacy. The naming honours automotive magnate and philanthropist Jim Moran and his wife Jan, whose gift anchored the renovation campaign. The modified-thrust stage, full fly system and orchestra pit equip the room for the biggest touring productions, and the FSCJ Artist Series has used it as Jacksonville's Broadway address across decades of national tours. The calendar covers the waterfront genre-wise: Broadway runs anchor the season, joined by rock, hip-hop and gospel concerts, comedy tours, opera and dance - plus Extravaganza, the annual showcase of the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, which has treated the Moran as its home stage since 2006. Practical notes: the theater shares the riverfront complex with Jacoby Symphony Hall and the Terry Theater; garages line Water Street with the Times-Union Center ramp closest, and the Riverwalk connects the lobby doors to downtown's restaurants - build in time, as pre-show traffic over the Acosta and Main Street bridges stacks up on big nights. The guest book spans the auditorium era and the theatre era alike: Elvis Presley played the Civic Auditorium stage in its arena-configured heyday, and the rebuilt Moran has carried the touring editions of Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King and every major Broadway property of the last quarter century - multi-week runs that rank among the highest-grossing engagements in Florida outside the Orlando and Miami markets. The 1997 rebuild's added side tiers did double duty, improving acoustics for amplified shows while bringing the farthest seat dramatically closer to the proscenium than the old hall's barn-like geometry allowed.