The theatre earned its name by fighting to keep the Milwaukee River out of its basement - and more than one piece of scenery has ended up in the water off the cramped loading alley. The Riverside Theater at 116 West Wisconsin Avenue opened on 29 April 1928 inside the 12-storey Empire Building, a French Baroque vaudeville and movie palace commissioned by RKO. Architects Kirchhoff and Rose - designers of New York's Palace Theatre - dressed the hall in ivory, gilt and peacock blue, with roughly 2,500 seats across a vast orchestra level, wall boxes beneath the organ screens and a huge balcony reached by a lobby elevator. The stage carried vaudeville and big bands - Abbott and Costello, the Andrews Sisters and Jack Benny era bills - before first-run films took over by the 1950s; a 1966 fire started by a discarded cigarette destroyed the decorated ceiling and curtains, and the palace faded toward closure by the early 1980s. Salvation came from local millionaire Joseph Zilber, whose Towne Realty had owned the building since 1962: a 1.5-million-dollar restoration relit, regilded and re-draped the auditorium for a 1984 reopening that returned live performance to the room. The modern era began in October 2005 when the Pabst Theater Group took over the lease - the Moody Blues opened the new chapter - and a ticket-surcharge conservation fund has since financed a retro vertical marquee in 2015, replaced balcony seating, a rebuilt stage floor and continuous plasterwork repair. Now seating 2,480, the Riverside runs a full calendar of touring rock, comedy and podcasts as the largest room in the Pabst group's portfolio, its Wisconsin Avenue marquee once again the brightest thing on the block. The conservation surcharge model - a small per-ticket fee dedicated to maintenance of the Pabst group's three historic rooms - has become a case study in how old halls stay solvent without public subsidy.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 116 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee, WI, United States, 53203

Website: https://www.pabsttheatergroup.com/venues/detail/the-riverside-theater

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 2480

Opening Date: 29/04/1928

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