Ritz Theatre

Ritz Theatre or Ritz Theater is the name of several facilities in the United States:

See also

Ritz Theatre (Haddon Township, New Jersey)

The Ritz Theatre is an active live producing non-profit theatre located in Haddon Township, Camden County, New Jersey, United States. It is home to The Ritz Theatre Company (formerly Puttin' on the Ritz, Inc.) The company produces mainstage plays and musicals, children's theater, runs a summer theatre arts day camp and reaches out to its community with educational and entertaining programming.

History

The Ritz Theatre, built in a Colonial Revival, opened in September 1927 as a vaudeville theatre and quickly became the focal point of the community. . The architecture is Greek Revival with the auditorium walls featuring 25-foot high neo-classical canvas murals with gilt trimmed columns and velvet draped balconies enclosed by classic carved balustrades.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Ritz was known for its fine art and foreign film showings, drawing audiences from Philadelphia and the Southern New Jersey regions. In the 1970s, the Ritz then became an adult movie theater. The theatre closed until 1985, when the Ritz returned to live theatre when Puttin’ on the Ritz, Inc., a production company led by Producing Artistic Director Bruce A. Curless, took over.

Ritz Theatre (Jacksonville)

The Ritz Theatre is an African-American oriented theatre in the LaVilla neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. The theater, which seats 426, is used for a variety of music, dance and theatrical productions, as well as movies. The spacious lobby is also used for private functions. Just off the lobby is the LaVilla Museum which holds 11,000 square feet (1,000 m²) of exhibits. LaVilla is considered "the mecca for African American culture and heritage" in Florida.

History

The Ritz Theater was designed in the Art Deco style by local architect Jefferson Powell and constructed in 1929. LaVilla had a thriving, vibrant culture from 1921 to 1971, when it was known as the "Harlem of the South". From the 1970s, the entertainment district of LaVilla went into decline and crime increased, but Mayor Ed Austin's River City Renaissance plan included $4.2 million to renovate the theatre and museum. The groundbreaking for the project was in 1998, and the pair were reopened on September 30, 1999. The sign and northwest corner are all that remain of the original building.