Old Berri cinema to become Theatre TELUS

posted by rivest266 on March 19, 2008 at 10:40 am

MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA — After the Spectrum closed, the cultural landscape of mid-sized concert venues got that much smaller.

But now a new concert hall is born out of a new ten year partnership between cell phone provider Telus and Groupe Laberge, owners of the popular Quebec City showbar Dagobert.

Rumours have been circulating for awhile that they were going to buy up and fix up the old Berri cineplex on St. Denis Street near Ste-Catherine Street.

The old movie theatre will now host mostly rock shows, with discussions underway to book Jazz Festival concerts and Just for Laughs shows. The venue will hold up to 1200 people and feature state-of-the-art sound and lighting.

Telus and Groupe Laberge are keeping mum on how much the new concert hall is costing them, but it will be named after the cell phone company.

Veteran Montreal rock band The Respectable will play opening night April 15.