Nirvana played a century-old vaudeville house in Riverdale, and the proscenium arch they stood under still frames every show. The Opera House at 735 Queen Street East in Toronto opened in 1909 as the La Plaza Theatre, an Edwardian vaudeville stage designed by architect Charles Wagner for the working-class east end. The building followed the century's script: vaudeville gave way to cinema, the balcony was added in the late 1930s for growing demand, and the house ran films under a parade of names - La Plaza, Acropolis, Dundas, Cinema Ellas - until multiplexes killed the single screen. In 1989 the Ellinas family bought the building and renamed it the Opera House - a nod to its vaudeville bones - converting it into the live music venue it has been ever since, family-owned across the decades since. The room holds 950 between a tiered main floor and balcony, with the original 35-foot proscenium arch lit for every show, two vintage projectors on display and 12,000 square feet of Edwardian theatre kept in working order. The guest book is arena-heavy: Nirvana, Metallica, Eminem, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Radiohead, the Tragically Hip, My Chemical Romance, the Killers, Travis Scott and Chappell Roan have all played the room on their way up or on deliberate underplays. Beyond concerts the venue takes film shoots, comedy, weddings and corporate bookings, its heritage-designated architecture doubling as a period set a few minutes east of downtown. A hundred and fifteen years after the first vaudeville bill, the Opera House remains Riverdale's working landmark - the east end's mid-size stage with the best-dressed arch in Toronto. The family ownership is the quiet constant behind the longevity: the Ellinas family has run the room since 1989 without a corporate operator, keeping booking decisions local through three decades in which most of Toronto's independent mid-size stages were absorbed or closed - a survival that heritage advocates cite alongside the building's 1984 designation.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 735 Queen Street East, Toronto, Canada

Website: https://www.theoperahousetoronto.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 950

Opening Date: 01/01/1909