In April, Jay-Z sold out the newly opened iteration of NYC East Village theater legend Webster Hall. Built in 1886, the Hall is the recently remade, hi-tech toast of Manhattan’s live music scene. Ready for action post-HOV, the venue will feature fresh shows from Rosalía, MGMT, Big Thief and more.

Back home, Philadelphia is having its own old theater renaissance. The Uptown Theater, the one-time home of soul and gospel on North Broad Street, is currently being renovated as a new stage space for young talent by the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation, with grant aid from the state of Pennsylvania and Gov. Tom Wolf’s Redevelopment Capital initiative. The Trocadero on Arch Street in Chinatown, opened as a burlesque hall in 1870 and set to close at the end of May or June, must surely have buyers at the ready with rejuvenation in mind.

popMostly, though, the very picture of the old theater remake/remodel, ripe and ready for versatile action, is Live Nation’s The Met Philadelphia, Oscar Hammerstein I’s marvel constructed in 1908 at Broad and Poplar streets and built for opera performances.

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