The Riverside Theater

The Riverside Theatre opened as an original Orpheum circuit house on April 29, 1928, with seven Vaudeville acts and a film titled “The Big Noise.” The theatre, designed by architects Kirchoff and Rose, is of modified French style and is part of a 12-story downtown office building known as the Empire Building. Located on the west bank of the Milwaukee River, it quickly became the showplace of Milwaukee, with 2,500 seats and excellent acoustics. It continued through the 1940s as a performance venue with big bands and featured entertainers, and through the 1950s as a first-run movie house.

In 1966, The Riverside Theater suffered a fire which destroyed the fancy draperies, swag and elaborate décor around the stage, but the theater was saved by automatic sprinklers, which retarded the fire until help could come. In the following years, the Riverside would experience troubles until it was ultimately saved from demolition and celebrated a grand reopening in 1984.

It is one of the most opulent of Milwaukee’s theaters, welcoming high caliber artists ranging from Kevin Hart and Neil Young to Norah Jones and Aretha Franklin.