Page 13 - Summer 2022 inLEAGUE with 46th National Conference Program

MONDAY MORNING Theatre Tours Theatre Tours Hosted by

Playhouse Square
9:00AM-11:00AM

The largest performing arts center in the country outside of New York, the not-for-profit Playhouse
Square is Northeast Ohio’s destination for Broadway and more great entertainment. A thriving
downtown neighborhood, residents, office workers and visitors can dine and relax at area restaurants
or on U.S. Bank Plaza under the glow of North America’s largest outdoor chandelier – the GE
Chandelier. Playhouse Square is a champion of arts education and downtown Cleveland, and
proud to be the home of seven resident companies. Five of Playhouse Square’s 11 performance
spaces are fully restored historic theaters first opened 1921-22. Today we are touring three of them:

Mimi Ohio Theatre

• Opened: February 14, 1921
• Closed: February 2, 1969
• Purpose: Legitimate Theater
• Style: Italian Renaissance
• Features: Italian Renaissance lobby contained 3 murals by Sampitrotti,
entitled “Cycle of Venus.” Two paintings by P. Pizzi, in balcony of 14th
century Venetian designed auditorium (All lost in lobby fire of 1964)
• First Show: Play - The Return of Peter Grimm with David Warfield
• Re-Opened: July 9, 1982

Connor Palace Theatre

• Opened: November 6, 1922
• Closed: July 20, 1969
• Purpose: Vaudeville (B.F. Keith); (Modified movies, 1926)
• Style: French Imperial
• Features: Grand Hall, Czechoslovakian crystal
chandeliers, blue urn made in Serves, France before
WWI. Seven floors of dressing rooms backstage
• First Show: Vaudeville- Elsie Janis, the Cansinos, and
Grace Hayes, several additional acts, and a big band.
(Orch. seat was $1.65)
• Re-Opened: April 30, 1988

KeyBank State Theatre

• Opened: February 5, 1921
• Closed: February 2, 1969
• Purpose: Movies & Vaudeville
• Style: Combines Roman, Greek & European Baroque
• Features: Four 50-foot murals by American Modernist
James Daugherty (1890-1974). Fifth mural by Arnold
Englander. Total length of lobby from street to theater is
320 feet (said to be the longest in the world)
• First Show: Movie - Polly with a Past & Buster Keaton
short, Neighbors. Hyman Spitalny and his orchestra
• Re-Opened: June 9, 1984

46th National Conference & Theatre Tour July 2022 INLEAGUE | PAGE 11