Refurbished Warfield to open Saturday

posted by KahunaBob on September 12, 2008 at 9:20 am

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — After a brief stint out of commission for renovations, the Warfield Theatre is reopening tomorrow with George Lopez as the headliner.

San Francisco’s baroque Warfield Theatre, a 1922 vaudeville and movie house that became a prime venue for Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and countless other performers, was looking a little shabby when it closed in May after the lease changed hands. But the Market Street rock palace has a fresh glow after a four-month renovation that spruced up the ornate interior and installed permanent new lighting and sound systems.

Run for 30 years by Bill Graham Presents, then Live Nation, the Warfield, which reopens Saturday night with a show by comedian George Lopez, is now managed by Goldenvoice, a wing of the giant Anschutz Entertainment Group (billionaire Chairman Philip Anschutz owns the San Francisco Examiner). Among the changes: The mixing console has been moved downstairs from the front of the balcony, making space for 30 more prime reserved seats, the lobby walls were painted a deep blue to match the new carpets and the brass chandeliers got a polish.

Read the full story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Comments (1)

terrywade
terrywade on September 15, 2008 at 11:43 am

I hope the new people running the Fox Warfield will not only fix up the inside but the outside also. I was by the front a week ago and the old plastic marquee was still painted dusty brown with pigeon mess all around it. If they put in new dark blue rugs how about repainting the front a shade of blue and get rid of the old brown. We hope the new renters at the Fox Warfield have good security at night as that part of Market St is very rough at night still. It’s to bad my THS friend ‘Fred Beall’ has passed on last week. He had many photos/slides in his collection of The ‘Warfield’ and had many stories to tell of all the grand SF Market St movie palaces. Goodbye ‘Fred’ I will miss you and our many movie theatre photo shoots.

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