St. Louis, MO

The Fabulous Fox Theatre
Friday & Saturday, December 17-18, 2021

In 2016, on tour with Rudolph, we played in the city of Detroit, MI. We played the Fox Theatre there, and it was most impressive. Turns out, that theatre has a twin -- and it's in St. Louis, MO. I know many of the cast and crew were looking forward to playing St. Louis (a different touring cast/crew actually played St. Louis years ago). 

It was rainy and cold and we wouldn't have much free time there (one performance the day we arrived, and three the next day), but I did what I could to enjoy it. I walked with my buddy Ryan to the theater (a 2.5 mile walk) and found an amazingly delicious BBQ place for dinner -- Pappy's Smokehouse. 

The theater was everything I'd hoped it would be (again, a twin to Detroit), and I spent a great deal of time walking through the entire theater building taking over 1,000 pictures. Before I overload you with way too many pictures, let's go over the basic information from the theaters this year, as a point of interesting comparison. In my opinion, seeing this information helps the Fox (and classic theatres like it) stand out!

Overview:

Ames Center, Masquerade Dance Theater, Burnsville, MN - opened January 2009, seats 1,014
Chester Fritz Auditorium, Grand Forks, ND (on the campus of the University of North Dakota) - opened October 1972, seats 2,384
Mendel Center, Benton Harbor, MI (on the campus of Lake Michigan College) - opened Fall 1992, seats 1,517
Midland Center, Midland, MI - opened December 1970, seats 1,500
Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, IL - opened June 1982, seats 2,173
DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids, MI - opened 1980, seats 2,543
Palace Theatre, Greensburg, PA - opened September 1926, seats 1,369
Mid-Hudson Civic Center, Mair Hall, Poughkeepsie, NY - opened December 1976, seats 3,050 (we didn't have that many available, but that's its maximum)
Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, MA - opened September 1922, seats 2,800
Palace Theatre, Stamford, CT - opened June 1927, seats 1,580
Bushnell Theatre, Hartford, CT - opened 1930, seats 2,799
State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ - opened December 26, 1921, seats 1,850
Hershey Theatre, Hershey, PA - opened September 1933, seats 1,904
Santander Performing Arts Center, Reading, PA - opened November 1922, seats 1,752
Veterans Auditorium, Providence, RI - opened January 27, 1950, seats 1,931
Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, NY - opened February 18, 1928, seats 2,908
Hanover Theatre, Worcester, MA - opened in 1904!, updated to current size in 1926, seats 2,300
Clemens Center, Elmira, NY - opened December 21, 1925, seats 1,618
Soldiers & Sailors Auditorium, Chattanooga, TN - opened November 11, 1922, seats 3,866 (we didn't have that many open -- the upper levels were curtained off)
Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, TN - opened October 1, 1928, seats 1,645
Bell Auditorium, Augusta, GA - opened March 1940, seats 2,800
Gogue Performing Arts Center, Woltosz Theatre, Auburn, AL (on the campus of Auburn University) - opened August 2019, seats 1,202
Oxford Performing Arts Center, Oxford, AL - opened May 2013, seats 1,230
Strand Theatre, Shreveport, LA - opened July 3, 1925, seats 1,536
Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center, Kristen Chenoweth Theatre, Broken Arrow, OK - opened Summer 2009, seats 1,500
Fabulous Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO - opened January 31, 1929, seats 4,500
Gallagher Bluedorn (on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa), Cedar Falls, IA - opened April 6, 2000, seats 1,680
Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, FL - opened April 8, 1927, seats 1,930
Broward Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL - opened February 26, 1991, seats 2,658
Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, FL - opened September 19, 1992, seats 2,195

Boiling that all down -- the Fox in St. Louis was by far the largest theater with 4,500 seats (smallest was our first stop in Burnsville, Minnesota), and the oldest, from 1921, was the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ (newest was at Auburn University, opened in 2019).

But let's get back to the Fox!

Fabulous Fox Website

Click that link above to go to the Fox website and learn all you could ever wanna learn about this place. 

Though there were a few older theaters we played this year, there was no theater with more history than this one. A tradition within many of the theaters, as you've probably noticed, is signatures and artwork on the walls. But it's almost like wallpaper at the Fox (same was true in Detroit).

Here are pictures -- ENJOY!

First the outside and into the lobby --

A RIDICULOUS lobby. And massive. 

Before I show you pictures inside the theater, let me show you some of the famous signatures and shows/murals that I found throughout the theater, lastly showing our own.

I cannot overstate how awesome it is to be amongst the legends who have come before.

NOW...to the theater. Get ready. It's ridiculous.

The saddest thing is that you cannot possibly know the grand scope and size of this place unless you've been inside. Just enormous and amazing -- bigger than any other theater we'd been to.

Tour is almost over! Only 4 more cities! Coming soon.