Arie Crown Theater

Last updated
Arie Crown Theater
Arie Crown Theater
Address2301 S. Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive
Location Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates 41°51′10.24″N87°36′56.24″W / 41.8528444°N 87.6156222°W / 41.8528444; -87.6156222
Public transit Cermak–McCormick Place
Owner Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
Operator Oak View Group
Capacity 4,188
Construction
Opened1960
Renovated1971
Website
www.ariecrown.com

The Arie Crown Theater is an entertainment venue named after Lithuanian immigrant Arie Crown, who was the father of Henry Crown, the American industrialist and philanthropist, and situated on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. It opened in 1960, with seating for 5,000 people, one of the largest seating capacities in Chicago. The theater is part of the McCormick Place convention facility, owned by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.

Contents

The theatre was damaged by a fire in 1967 and was closed until 1971. [1] After re-opening in January for Mahalia Jackson's funeral, the Arie Crown has, for more than five decades, presented classical, R&B, and rock music, along with musicals and plays.

Notable performers at the Arie Crown have included iconic stars such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Richard Pryor, Tina Turner, Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr., Whitney Houston, Liza Minnelli, James Brown, Sonny & Cher, Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker, The Temptations, Tyler Perry, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Mary J. Blige, David Bowie, Chicago, and Katt Williams, among others.

In more recent years, the acoustics have been improved by changing the proportions of the auditorium and staging area, and this has reduced the seating capacity to 4,188 people.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McCormick Place</span> Convention center in Chicago, Illinois, United States

McCormick Place is a convention center in Chicago. It is the largest convention center in North America. It consists of four interconnected buildings and one indoor arena sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about 2 mi (3.2 km) south of the Chicago Loop. McCormick Place hosts numerous trade shows and meetings. The largest regular events are the Chicago Auto Show each February, the International Home and Housewares Show each March, the National Restaurant Association Annual Show each May, and the International Manufacturing Technology Show in the fall every other year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Center</span> Indoor arena in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

The United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named after its corporate sponsor United Airlines, which has been based in Chicago since 2007 and has a major hub at O'Hare International Airport. With a capacity of nearly 21,000, the United Center is the largest arena by capacity in the NBA, and second largest arena by capacity in the NHL. It also has a seating capacity of 23,500 for concerts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millennium Park</span> Public park in Chicago, Illinois, US

Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in July 2004, is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) section of northwestern Grant Park. Featuring a variety of public art, outdoor spaces and venues, the park is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive. In 2017, Millennium Park was the top tourist destination in Chicago and in the Midwest, and placed among the top ten in the United States with 25 million annual visitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India Arie</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1975)

India Arie Simpson is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001, and she has since released six more studio albums. Arie has sold over five million records in the US and ten million worldwide, and has won four Grammy Awards from 23 nominations, including Best R&B Album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seating capacity</span> Number of people who can be seated in a specific space

Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The largest sporting venue in the world, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has a permanent seating capacity for more than 235,000 people and infield seating that raises capacity to an approximate 400,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek Theatre (Los Angeles)</span> Music venue in Los Angeles, California, USA

Greek Theatre is an amphitheatre and performance venue located in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California, which has been hosting various live performances and music concerts since its opening in the early 1930s. Today, the theatre is owned by the City of Los Angeles and operated by ASM Global. Designed by architects Samuel Tilden Norton, Frederick Hastings Wallisand, and Tacoma firm Heath, Gove, & Bell, the main stage and seating layout were inspired by Ancient Greek-style amphitheaters.

James W. Miller Auditorium is a performance venue at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It opened on January 12, 1968, with a ceremony that included WMU's third president, James W. Miller, for whom the auditorium was later renamed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beck, Bogert & Appice</span> Hard rock supergroup

Beck, Bogert & Appice was a rock supergroup and power trio formed by English guitarist Jeff Beck, evolving from the Jeff Beck Group. It included bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, Americans who had played together in Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturday in the Park</span> 1972 single by Chicago

"Saturday in the Park" is a song written by Robert Lamm and recorded by the group Chicago for their 1972 album Chicago V. It was very successful upon release, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became the band's highest-charting single at the time, helping lift the album to No. 1. Billboard ranked it as the No. 76 song for 1972. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA, selling over 1,000,000 units in the U.S. alone.

Park West is a concert venue located in Chicago, Illinois. The theater opened in 1916 as a vaudeville and movie theater by the Ascher Brothers. Currently, it can house up to 1,000 guests in a general admission setting.

The Hubert de Blanck Theater is a small theatre situated on Calle Calzada in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba, named after Hubert de Blanck. It has a seating capacity for 267 people, and offers regular performances of contemporary and classical plays. There are also occasional presentations of well-known foreign productions that have toured to Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Crown</span> American industrialist and philanthropist (1896-1990)

Henry Crown was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Among other things, he founded the Material Service Corporation, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. At the time of his death, he was a billionaire. Henry Crown and Company, of which he is the namesake, is an investment firm that owns or has interests in a variety of business assets. From 1951 to 1961, he was the owner of the Empire State Building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Chicago</span>

Chicago, Illinois is a major center for music in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues, and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway Theater District (Los Angeles)</span> United States historic place

The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States. The same six-block stretch of Broadway, and an adjacent section of Seventh Street, was also the city's retail hub for the first half of the twentieth century, lined with large and small department stores and specialty stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regal Theater, Chicago</span> Former music venue in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

The Regal Theater was a night club, theater, and music venue, popular among African Americans, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum, and opened in February 1928. It closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teatro Metropólitan</span>

The Teatro Metropólitan is a theater in Mexico City. It was previously known as the Cine Metropólitan, and was built as a movie palace. The architect was Pedro Gorozpe E. with interior decorations by Aurelio G. Mendoza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Plaza Live</span> Music venue in Orlando, Florida

The Plaza Live is one of Orlando, Florida's oldest theaters. It was transformed from a cinema, to a theatre space, and finally a music venue. Having established a strong grass-roots following by doing many lower profile, local shows and events, the theater eventually started bringing in larger, national acts. The Plaza Live is home to two music halls: the main hall, and a second room for smaller shows.

The 1996 Mr. Olympia contest was an IFBB professional bodybuilding competition held on September 21, 1996, at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliw Theater</span> Events venue in Pasay, Philippines

The Aliw Theater is an events venue in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is located in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, adjacent to the Star City amusement park and the MBC Media Group.

References

  1. "Arie Crown Theater History" . Retrieved 14 December 2022.

Further reading