Visitors gather onstage Sunday at the Orpheum in San Francisco before “Curtain Up” for an open house at the 100-year-old theater.
Sam Whiting/S.F. Chronicle
The Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco opened as the Pantages in 1926. “Cimarron” played at the Market Street theater in 1931.
Chronicle file photo
Photographer Claudine Gossett takes photos of patrons onstage at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco during an open house on Sunday,
Sam Whiting/S.F.Chronicle
Lisa Ennis, left, and Jeanne Whatmore stand onstage at the Orpheum in San Francisco during an open house Sunday.
Sam Whiting/S.F. Chronicle
A 100-year-old theater holds lots of secrets. San Francisco’s Orpheum opened itself up Sunday afternoon for anyone to come in from the rain and try to find them.
The grand old palace on Market Street, which is marking its centennial this year, was free to walk through — backstage, front stage, both wings, the wardrobe room, the orchestra pit, the opulent lobby and all 2,200 seats. Stagehands and ushers were on duty to demonstrate all that goes into raising the big curtain on one of the major Broadway touring productions that keep the Orpheum lit.
“It’s fun to see what’s behind the scenes,” said Jeanne Whatmore of South San Francisco, a subscriber since 2005. “When you see the polished performance it’s different than seeing the nuts and bolts that go into it.”
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A ticket was required for the tour, but admission was free. The hosts, ATG San Francisco, just wanted a head count because space was limited to 800 people for each of two sessions, at 1 and 3 p.m., and both were oversubscribed.
The Orpheum Theatre on Market Street in San Francisco, seen Sunday, turned 100 this year.
Sam Whiting/S Chronicle
The first group huddled in the foyer during a noon downpour, then scurried down Market Street to the stage door. They then gathered on the stage itself, packed in tight with the curtain still down, while general manager Jamie Budgett gave a welcome speech.
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“This open house is about you,” said Budgett, a transplanted Londoner who previously ran the Ambassador and the Savoy in the West End. “The theater is yours to explore.”
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Budgett led a group countdown chant: “Curtain up!” Then the flyman, Dante Clark, pulled the ropes to raise it, and the visitors suddenly found themselves looking out into the audience where they normally sit. It was a spellbinding moment and before going any further, most had their picture taken by a stage staffer just to prove they were there.
“It’s like Christmas morning. There’s the thrill of it,” said Katie Levine, who had come with her daughter Abigail, 13. “It’s my ‘Sunset Boulevard’ moment.”
This is the third year of an open house at the Orpheum, timed to the announcement of a new subscription to the 2026-27 Broadway season for ATG San Francisco. Previously known as Broadway SF, it operates the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate theaters in the city. The Orpheum is the only one of the three with an open house.
“It’s just something totally different, a way to see the theater in a completely new light,” said Budgett, 33. “The fact that the Orpheum is still standing a hundred years on and letting in hundreds of thousands a year for live entertainment is an extraordinary testament to how live entertainment is still so important today.”
The house started in 1926 as the Pantages Theatre, part of a national chain of over-the-top venues used for a combination of vaudeville and movies, under the ownership of Alexander Pantages. All the Pantages theatres were ostentatious, with themes based on exotic far-flung civilizations. San Francisco was grandest of all, its exterior facade meant to evoke a 12th century French cathedral, while inside a central chandelier was surrounded by more than 130 decoratively carved lions. The grand opening, Feb. 20, 1926, was a spectacular affair, marked by glittering lights up and down Market Street and a parade of automobiles delivering theatergoers in formal attire.
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The Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco opened as the Pantages in 1926. Patrons gather outside the Market Street theater after seeing “Passion Play” in 1932.
Chronicle file photo
But Pantages had mistimed the market. The Great Crash of 1929 undercut his business plan, and he sold out to RKO Theatres, which renamed the San Francisco theater the Orpheum.
It eventually became the flagship of the Shorenstein Nederlander Hays (SHN) empire, which included the Golden Gate Theatre around the corner and the Curran on Geary. Under the ownership of downtown real estate magnate Walter Shorenstein and his daughter Carole Shorenstein Hays, the Orpheum received a $20 million renovation in 1997-98 that included new plush red seats.
That was the last major upgrade, and those seats are now 30 years old — 2,197 of them, down from the vaudeville years when capacity was 2,500.
“New seats are in the five year plan,” said Budgett, who has been with ATG Entertainment since he graduated from college in 2014. ATG is a conglomerate, with headquarters in London and 72 major stages worldwide. It retired the name BroadwaySF because the ATG offerings are broader, including genres such as comedy and hip-hop.
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The 2026-27 subscription season will be solely at the Orpheum, leaving both the Golden Gate and the Curran open to special engagements — starting with “Oh Mary,” a 2025 Tony Award-winning comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln, coming to the Curran in October.
“Beauty and the Beast” will be the final show at the Orpheum of the 2025-26 season, ending in July. The 2026-27 season opens in December with “The Outsiders,” which won the Tony for best new musical in 2024. It will be followed by “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “The Great Gatsby.”
Sunday’s open house kicked off a year of centennial celebrations for the Orpheum.
“This is about encouraging people to become a subscriber and enjoy six incredible shows here at the Orpheum,” said Budgett. “That’s what this day is about.”
Once inside, the ticketed guest had an hour and 45 minutes to wander around and see how everything works. That was plenty of time to get lost, according to Abigail Levine, who was wandering around with her friend Alina Call, also 13. They are both in the theater crowd at Benicia Middle School.
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“We always come to the musicals and plays here, so it is amazing to see a professional stage,” she said. “Our stage is not professional.”
The stage at the Orpheum is big enough for three instructors to conduct simultaneous salsa classes as a promo for “Buena Vista Social Club.” It was not quite as crowded as the Marquee Lounge in the main lobby, where complimentary cocktails were being given away to promote “The Great Gatsby.”
The Ghost Light stage right at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco.
Sam Whiting/S.F.Chronicle
Sunday’s dark and stormy weather inspired some guests to search for the Theater Ghost. “Every theater has one,” said Budgett.
Whatmore, who was a self-described “theater geek” at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, was familiar with the lore — and she noticed a standing lamp at stage right, beneath a sign that read “Ghost Light Parking.”
A theater rep explained that at the end of every show it is brought to center stage and turned on overnight while the theater is empty.
There was one at St. Mary’s too, Whatmore said. “Every theater has a ghost,” she explained. “That’s why there is a ghost light that stays on.”
Budgett said he has not actually met the Orpheum’s resident specter, but Sunday would have been a good day for it, with the rain and gloom.
“I’m always ready,” he said.