Victoria Theatre, Movie theater and stage in Mission District, San Francisco, United States.
Victoria Theatre is a theater and movie house in the Mission District with approximately 480 seats located at 16th Street. It presents musicals, drag shows, and independent films in a venue equipped with video and 35mm projection along with surround sound technology.
The building opened in 1908 as Brown's Opera House and ranks among San Francisco's oldest operating theaters. During the 1940s and 1950s it operated as El Teatro Victoria, serving the community with Spanish-language film screenings.
The name Victoria dates from the theatre's 1979 reopening after renovation, not from its 1908 construction as Brown's Opera House. Before that it was El Teatro Victoria, showing Spanish-language films in the 1940s and 1950s, and from 1963 to 1978 the New Follies Burlesk. The building is San Francisco Designated Landmark no. 215, listed in 1996.
The venue sits centrally in the Mission District and is easily accessible by foot or public transportation. Plan to arrive before shows start so you can find a good seat and appreciate the theater's historic interior.
In 1984 Whoopi Goldberg performed her one-woman show as comedian Moms Mabley at the Victoria, a run that brought her national prominence; the Oakland Museum of California keeps a poster advertising it. The show had first been staged in Berkeley before moving here.
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