Venue: Colonial Theatre
Address: 106 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
Town: Boston, US
Capacity: 1,700

The Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, opened in 1900, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the city. It is located at 106 Boylston Street on Boston Common at the former site of the Boston Public Library's central branch. It is a pending Boston Landmark. The Colonial Theatre was designed by the architectural firm of Clarence Blackall and paid for by Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. The theatre first opened its doors for a performance of Ben-Hur on December 20, 1900 with a sold out show and Winston Churchill attending. Ben-Hur operated with a cast and crew of 350 people and featured eight live horses on stage in full gallop during the chariot race scene. The play was so mechanically and technically extraordinary it was featured on the cover of Scientific American. George Bernard Shaw's play Too True To Be Good received its world premiere at the Colonial Theatre on February 29, 1932. In the 1990s, Colonial president Jon Platt led a renovation of the Colonial. In 1998, Platt sold his Boston theater interests to SFX Entertainment (now Live Nation). In 2003, Emerson College leased the building with an option to purchase it. In 2006, Emerson invoked its purchase option with the intent of using the upper floors for dormitories. In 2008, Key Brand Entertainment purchased most of Live Nation's theatrical assets, including its lease on the Colonial Theatre. When KBE's lease ended, the Citi Performing Arts Center assumed operation of the venue and continued booking in partnership with KBE. Through the succession of operators until 2015, the Colonial Theater housed Pre-Broadway shows and was often the first stop for national tours of Broadway shows. Because of its size, the Colonial can often host highly technical musicals that the smaller houses, such as the Shubert and the Wilbur Theatres, cannot accommodate. The Colonial has also played host to much larger shows such as Les Misérables, but after the renovation of the newly restored Boston Opera House, some of its