Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 22:34:00

A nickelodeon called the Crystal Palace when it opened in 1908, the building at 334 South Street in Philadelphia has reinvented itself many times across more than a century. Through its early decades it operated as a movie house under names including the Palace and the New Palace, screening films to South Street audiences while the surrounding neighbourhood changed around it. Its most influential chapter came in the 1960s, when two local women, Celia Silverman and Jean Goldman, established a non-profit regional theatre company in the then-derelict cinema. A Philadelphia architect designed a 431-seat auditorium with a thrust stage, Andre Gregory was hired as artistic director, and the Theatre of the Living Arts opened in January 1965 with a production of Brecht's Galileo, mounting works by major playwrights over its six-year run. In the 1970s the space became the city's premier revival house, famous for midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, before it was reborn yet again. The venue opened as a full-time concert hall in 1988, and after a brief spell branded as the Fillmore at the TLA, it settled into its long-running identity as the Theatre of Living Arts, known simply as the TLA. Now owned and operated by Live Nation, the venue holds around 800, with a flexible main floor and a second-floor balcony with tiered seating and a bar offering clear sight lines of the stage. Most shows are general admission, and the room has become South Street's premier place for live music as well as a venue for private events and receptions. Set in the lively Queen Village stretch of South Street, surrounded by bars and restaurants, the TLA remains a busy mid-sized stop on the national touring circuit. Its long evolution, from nickelodeon to revival house to concert hall, makes it one of the more storied addresses in Philadelphia's music scene.