Type Theater/Music Venue Opened 1909 Phone +1 416-466-0313 | Built 1909 | |
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Former names La Plaza Theatre, Acropolis, Dundas, Cinema Ellas Capacity 950 (680 Main Floor and 270 Balcony) Similar Danforth Music Hall, Lee's Palace, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Horseshoe Tavern, Massey Hall Profiles | ||
The Opera House is a music venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the city's most historic performing venues, opening in 1909. It has also been a cinema and a live theatre venue. It is located at 735 Queen Street East, east of downtown in the Riverdale neighbourhood.
History
It opened in 1909 as the La Plaza Theatre, a vaudeville stage. Seating almost 700, it was the main entertainment venue in the primarily working-class neighbourhood. As films eclipsed vaudeville the theatre was turned into a cinema, continuing to use the name La Plaza Theatre until the 1960s, and later under a series of other names.
As multiplexes made large single screen venues no longer viable as cinemas, it became a performing arts venue. In the late 1980s it was home to the successful gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing!. In the early 1990s it became The Opera House music venue.