On a balmy Tuesday evening in April 2005, the Arcade Fire took to the Danforth Music Hall’s fabled stage for the first of three sold-out shows. The Montreal art-pop ensemble was capping off its highly successful Funeral tour, a journey that had taken them around North America while systematically blowing the roof off small clubs and bars. But when the band arrived in Toronto and jumped into the aisles of the 1,100-seat Music Hall, beginning “In the Backseat” for their final encore, the audience clearly saw a transformation taking place. The smokers outside Allen’s pub next door couldn’t have missed Rgine Chassagne belting out the song’s refrain: “I’ve been learning to drive /My whole life / I’ve been learning.” The Arcade Fire had graduated from playing small clubs to mastering large concert halls and were now ready to take over the world.
Sadly, the Arcade Fire’s memorable April show would come to parallel the Danforth Music Hall’s spectacular end. Its owners had fallen into debt, and in August of 2010, just two months after the Arcade Fire returned to play back-to-back shows, the doors to the 92-year-old theatre were locked. For over a year there was no sign of life in the storied venue near Danforth and Broadview, but then a notice appeared in the hall’s front window one late November day, announcing: “Under Renovations. Re-opening Dec 1, 2011.” Although they were off by a day, Impresario Inc., the group that had leased the Music Hall, completed the resurrection and opened its doors to the public on December 2nd. It now has a new lobby, two new bars, fresh carpet, and renovated coat check and box office areas. And, most importantly, it now has a liquor license that allows you to take drinks to your seat. “The renovations are amazing,” says Danforth BIA Executive Director Susan Puff. “Impresario has taken a great Toronto landmark and honoured some of its historical architecture, while at the same time bringing the venue up to current standards both for performers coming in and for audience members.” Michael Sherman, the general manager of the hall and lead partner of Impresario,believes that the theatre is poised to return to its former glory in this east end neighbourhood. “We all know how valuable the Music Hall is to everyone,” he says. “If we can hit our goal of 100 to 150 shows per year, it means 2000 to 3000 more visitors per week to the area. The domino effect is massive.”
While it sounds like a fine goal, it’s still just that. It would be remiss not to question the goal’s feasibility, especially when you consider the struggles of the previous tenant and the perplexing decision to book The Musical Box, a rock opera originally performed by Genesis, as the first performance after the latest re-opening. Nothing against Genesis, but there is something off-putting about a cover band playing in a theatre that’s hosted the Ramones and the Clash, not to mention first-run movies in the early 1920s. Those movies were what drew brothers Jule and Jay Allen to Toronto in 1915 and to eventually open the 1,600-seat Allen’s Danforth Theatre on August 18th, 1919, near Broadview and Danforth. On opening night, audiences came from around the booming neighbourhood or across the recently finished Prince Edward Viaduct to see the silent film Through the Wrong Door, starring Madge Kennedy. Those first crowds were treated to a theatre that had red quarry tile on the lobby floor, Venetian marble stairs leading to the mezzanine and gold-trimmed rose velour curtains. The Allen brothers dubbed it “Canada’s First Super-Suburban Photoplay Place.” The beautiful threads and flashy title couldn’t save the theatre in a highly competitive industry, however, and Famous Players bought it just three years after its Madge Kennedy opening, renaming it Century Theatre.
The venue remained a first-run movie house until the 1960s, and it wasn’t until the late 1970s that it acquired the Music Hall name and began hosting live acts like the Police and Iggy Pop, and later Oasis and Beirut. Sherman is well aware of the big shoes his group is trying to fill and the trials of past tenants. “Operating such a large venue in the middle of the city is not an easy task,” he says. “We’re a very experienced group of entertainment professionals who want nothing more than to take the Music Hall into a bright future. Hopefully with the right mix of programming and support from everyone, we’ll be here for the long haul.”
Before the Arcade Fire took to the Danforth Music Hall’s aisles for its famed second encore in April 2005, the group played the anthemic “No Cars Go,” a song about the moment of escape. During the song’s bridge, Win Butler and Rgine Chassagne quietly chant “between the click of the light and the start of the dream” over and over again. Impresario has lowered the lights and opened the curtains on the Danforth Music Hall, offering the space its own encore performance. The show will begin any second. The audience waits, wondering if it will be a thrilling dream or a forgettable facsimile of the recent past.
