Orpheum Theatre, Historic theater in downtown Madison, United States.
The Orpheum Theatre is a performance venue on State Street in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, housed in a Beaux-Arts building with a limestone facade. A tall vertical marquee marks the entrance and makes the building easy to spot from a distance.
The theater opened in 1927 as a movie palace, funded in part by a local dentist named William Beecroft. Over the following decades, it shifted away from cinema and became a venue for live performances.
The vertical marquee on State Street is a familiar sight for locals heading out for an evening show. Inside, the hall is used for concerts, comedy nights, and stage productions, drawing audiences from across the region.
The theater is in the center of downtown and easy to reach on foot from many parts of the city. On show nights, arriving early makes it easier to find nearby parking and settle in before the performance starts.
When the theater opened in 1927, it was among the first buildings in Wisconsin to have air conditioning, which required an entire basement room just to house the system. This was unusual enough that it drew attention well beyond Madison.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
