Latest news with #UptownTheatre
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
The cast of ‘Twin Peaks' is coming to the Bay Area to share their stories. Here's how to get tickets
The celebration of the late David Lynch's legacy continues as cast members of his hit series 'Twin Peaks' tour the country to discuss the groundbreaking TV show with fans. But Bay Area devotees will get an extra treat. 'Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars' will hit 18 cities, beginning in Tysons, Va. on Aug. 4, and ending Oct. 20 at the Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo, Wash., where interiors of the Great Northern Hotel were shot. The venue's exterior is where Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee) was found dead in the 1990 pilot episode, which provided the plot for the series. Lee, who also starred in Lynch's 1992 film 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,' is only making select appearances during the tour's West Coast swing — including at Uptown Theatre in Napa on Oct. 17. Actors Ray Wise (who played attorney Leland Palmer), Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy Brennan) and Kimmy Robertson (kooky receptionist Lucy Moran) as well as Sabrina S. Sutherland, the executive producer of the 2017 limited series ' Twin Peaks: The Return,' are scheduled to make appearances at every stop of the tour to talk about their experiences and the legacy of the show, which is credited as a forerunner of prestige television with its continuous storyline and cinematic look. Lynch died on Jan. 16 at age 78. Sutherland told the Hollywood Reporter, which first broke news of the tour on Thursday, May 22, that Lynch signed off on the tour before his death. 'David was very happy that we were going to have this cast tour to celebrate 'Twin Peaks' with the fans all around the U.S.,' Sutherland said. 'It's sad that I won't be able to call him each night to let him know how the show went as I had promised. But I look forward to celebrating his work each night and having him in my heart instead.' 'Welcome to Lynchland,' a documentary about the filmmaker and his work, made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
William Shatner is coming to the Bay Area. Here's how to get tickets
William Shatner once went to space. Now he's beaming to Northern California as part of a national tour scheduled for later this year. The 10-city ' William Shatner: Live on Stage ' tour, which begins in Dallas on July 30, ends with stops at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey on Nov. 15 and the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Nov. 16. The evenings are scheduled to begin with a screening of the 1982 classic ' Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.' Afterward, Shatner, 94, takes the stage to discuss his seven-decade career, including a behind-the-scenes look at playing his signature role, Captain James T. Kirk, the star of 'Star Trek' television series and movies. Shatner might even discuss his trip aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin in 2021, during which he became the oldest person to visit space (90 years, 253 days). He'll also take audience questions. Widely considered the best 'Star Trek' film ever made, 'The Wrath of Khan' co-stars series regulars Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, as well as a great performance by Ricardo Montalbán as the title villain. Tickets for the Monterey stop run from $66.60-$82.57; in Napa, they are $79.30-$116.80. Each show includes two levels of VIP add-ons for an extra fee. For $137.93, fans will have a post-show photo opportunity with Shatner. Premium VIP tickets at $261.36 include an exclusive signed poster in addition to the photo opportunity. Orpheum Theatre in 2012 and the Warfield in 2016 as well as an appearance at Fan Expo at Moscone Center in 2023. 'Because life is so temporary, I'm living as hard as I can,' Shatner told the Chronicle in 2016.
San Francisco Chronicle
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
David Sedaris on extreme fashion, meeting the pope and a second Trump term
David Sedaris has the ability to make his readers laugh one minute and then recognize a strange, shared truth the next. The essayist and author of 'Happy Go-Lucky' (2022) and the collected diaries 'A Carnival of Snackery' (2021) also has a love of avant garde clothing by brands like the Japanese house Comme des Garcons: It's fashion that's just as cutting edge and at times, absurd and specific as his writing. 'When I stand in front of the mirror, all I see are the clothes, I don't see me,' Sedaris, 68, said over a phone call from New York. 'It's not something that's ever too young for you, it's not sexy clothing.' More Information David Sedaris: 8 p.m. May 9-10. $136.98-$383.82. Uptown Theatre, 1350 3rd St., Napa. 707-259-0123. Both Sedaris and his sister, performer Amy Sedaris ('At Home with Amy Sedaris'), are both clients of the San Francisco boutique Modern Appealing Clothing, which specializes in innovative fashion. The humorist, who divides his time between England and New York, is touring to the Uptown Theatre in Napa on May 9-10, spoke to the Chronicle about fashion, his visit with the late Pope Francis at the Vatican and his thoughts on the second Trump administration. 'Last night I read that 36% of the population didn't vote,' said Sedaris. 'In a way, it was nice because I thought, 'OK, that's who I blame.' Then I googled people who didn't vote so I could just get a picture in my head of who to hate.' This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: What attracts you to extreme fashion? A: I guess if you looked at the pieces separately, you'd think, 'Oh that's really silly.' Comme des Garcons to me is like (how) the pope should dress. Well, actually papal clothing is really nice. … Last summer when I went to the Comme des Garcons show in Paris, I had this pair of shorts that I bought that look like you're wearing two pairs of shorts and the second pair is falling down. I thought, I'm going to bring them there and give them to somebody, and there was a young man outside of the hall, there's no way he was getting into the show. I went up to him and I said in French, 'Excuse me, are you poor? Can I give you these shorts?' He said, 'Find someone else.' I've worn them once. Q: There's someone in the world who said no to Comme des Garcons shorts from David Sedaris? A: Yes, but I found this kid in Chicago who came to one of my shows wearing a Comme des Garcons shirt. We're the same size, so I send him stuff all the time now. When you take it to a thrift store, the problem now is so many people buy it just to resell it, so the person who doesn't have any money is never getting it. A: No, and I'm so mad. The best dressed person was Conan O'Brien's wife (Liza Powel O'Brien.) I wore this suit that I bought a couple of years ago because I was in London at the time. I should have just gone full, flat-out wild Comme des Garcons. Q: So many Comme des Garcons pieces already feel papal, so I wasn't surprised to hear you bought a priest's cassock in Rome. A: It's really well made and a great piece of clothing. I wore it one night going out to dinner. It was so interesting the reactions it got. Q: Did you wear the Roman collar? A: Yes. Q: Did people greet you as 'Father?' A: No. People who saw me from a distance, they watched me and as we got up close, they averted their eyes. But I was in England, I wasn't in a Catholic country. Q: One of the things I've admired in your work is how through finding the peculiar detail, you find something universal that people recognize. I wonder if that's the answer to some of our cultural divisions? A: I was in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago doing a show. I had written in a graduation speech, 'Find one thing to be angry at instead of spreading your anger too thin.' A woman asked, 'What are you angry about?' I said, 'I'm really angry about the way that (Volodymyr) Zelensky was treated in the White House.' So many people came up afterwards, I think they just wanted to be in a room full of people who felt that way. You don't want to preach to the converted. That's what fables are so good for — you can take a step back and you can write about something that's current, and then there comes a point at the end where they think, 'Oh, that's me.' There's a way to sneak up on people, but you have to sneak up on them because I feel like if somebody says what I expect them to, my defenses go up. A: I was reading an article in the New York Times, then I looked at responses. They really take care with it. You get the idea that they are auditioning for a job as an op ed editor. Everyone's heard it all, and outrage isn't comforting to me. How many times can you say, 'This person's a dangerous monster?' I do feel it's interesting right now before we plunge headlong into a recession, that people want to laugh. I don't know what's going to happen if the economy keeps going like this and they won't be able to afford to spend money to laugh, but right now anyway, they see that as a pretty good use of their dollars.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Editorial: West Loop entertainment district should not come at the cost of historic venues such as Chicago's Uptown Theatre
In December 2018, the city of Chicago unveiled a $75 million plan for the long-awaited restoration of the Uptown Theatre, a stunning 1925 entertainment venue with an incomparably gorgeous interior that befitted its status as the crown jewel of the Baliban and Katz chain of movie palaces. Rahm Emanuel, at the time mayor of Chicago, told the Tribune the plan was 'the fulfillment of a promise,' that 'investments in culture are one of our best drivers of economic growth and job creation in our neighborhoods' and that construction was slated to begin in the fall of 2019. The Uptown was supposed to be glittering and open for business by the end of 2021. The news was celebrated by the scores of volunteers and supporters who had worked tirelessly to guard and save one of Chicago's most significant unrestored historic buildings, a 4,381-seat, 46,000-square-foot colossus that had sat vacant and decaying since a final J. Geils Band concert on Dec. 19, 1981. Alas, vacant and unrestored the theater at 4816 N. Broadway sits still, even as plans are in the works for a brand new music venue, a huge yet seemingly prosaic shed to be built on a parking lot next to the United Center that has the potential to suck away much of the Uptown's potential sustaining business. We generally support the so-called 1901 Project, the latest West Loop development hatched by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, which looks set to create a new, dynamic, walkable neighborhood out of what currently is a bleak sea of surface parking lots and extend the energy of hot restaurants, music venues such as the Salt Shed and the vibrant street life now visible in the West Loop even further west. We admire the private financing and the relatively modest ask from taxpayers in infrastructure support. Moreover, we've long argued that a terrific (and oft-overlooked) tool of neighborhood regeneration is when the crucial urban core radiates out from the city's center, adding private-sector housing and other assets. But some balance is needed as the epicenter of Chicago's vital entertainment and leisure sectors shifts palpably to the west via the rapid growth in the former meatpacking district. We can't let the city's traditional centers suffer as a result. This applies to the Loop, home of such huge, historic venues as the Chicago Theatre, Auditorium Theatre and the Lyric Opera House and also to the lakefront neighborhood of Uptown, once an entertainment locus to rival the Loop and still home to multiple historic music venues such as the Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theatre and the Green Mill. Uptown is one of Chicago's most diverse communities; it hardly is a place of privilege and one of its most important developmental assets remains underexploited. Those behind the 1901 Project's concert hall argue that their new venue will expand the marketplace through long-term, Las Vegas-style residencies rather than cannibalize existing venues. Whether such long-term sit-downs will be viable in Chicago remains to be seen. But there are only so many big acts touring and a lot of existing capacity is available at big, challenged theaters such as the Auditorium. A glut of venues in Chicago raises the danger of giving high-priced talent leverage to extract ever-higher bids, raising ticket prices for concertgoers. The concert business is mostly a for-profit world but the venues themselves are often nonprofit, not just tax-advantaged but also restored with public money. That means Chicagoans have a financial stake in their survival. Yet another issue at work here is that architecturally significant buildings such as the Chicago and the Auditorium are a critical part of the cultural fabric of the entertainment capital of the Midwest. Anyone who has been inside the Uptown, or who remembers the days when Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Prince and the Grateful Dead played there, understands not just its unique importance in the history of ordinary Chicagoans but its cathedral-like beauty and jaw-dropping scale. (Deadheads of a certain age will recall the band playing the Uptown well over a dozen times from 1978 until its 1981 closure.) Demolishing the Uptown would be unthinkable and future generations would find it unforgivable. Much good work has been done by the Uptown's current owner, Jerry Mickelson, to stabilize the building after many prior years of neglect. But the cost of restoration is only going up; the $75 million figure from 2018 is now well over $100 million and, alas, we fear the Uptown has disappeared again from the center of Chicago's conversation. The TIF district that supports the Uptown and its immediate surroundings has been extended through 2037, a positive. The owner, local politicians and volunteers all say they are working on a new public-private restoration plan and a viable, likely nonprofit ownership structure. The grand old palace's 100th birthday arrives this August. There's only one celebration that really matters: construction crews starting to bring one of Chicago's most glorious buildings back to life with an economic roadmap that will benefit the neighborhood and ensure its viability and survival. As eyes increasingly look west for fun and leisure, the Uptown must not be forgotten. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@
Chicago Tribune
26-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: West Loop entertainment district should not come at the cost of historic venues such as Chicago's Uptown Theatre
In December 2018, the city of Chicago unveiled a $75 million plan for the long-awaited restoration of the Uptown Theatre, a stunning 1925 entertainment venue with an incomparably gorgeous interior that befitted its status as the crown jewel of the Baliban and Katz chain of movie palaces. Rahm Emanuel, at the time mayor of Chicago, told the Tribune the plan was 'the fulfillment of a promise,' that 'investments in culture are one of our best drivers of economic growth and job creation in our neighborhoods' and that construction was slated to begin in the fall of 2019. The Uptown was supposed to be glittering and open for business by the end of 2021. The news was celebrated by the scores of volunteers and supporters who had worked tirelessly to guard and save one of Chicago's most significant unrestored historic buildings, a 4,381-seat, 46,000-square-foot colossus that had sat vacant and decaying since a final J. Geils Band concert on Dec. 19, 1981. Alas, vacant and unrestored the theater at 4816 N. Broadway sits still, even as plans are in the works for a brand new music venue, a huge yet seemingly prosaic shed to be built on a parking lot next to the United Center that has the potential to suck away much of the Uptown's potential sustaining business. We generally support the so-called 1901 Project, the latest West Loop development hatched by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, which looks set to create a new, dynamic, walkable neighborhood out of what currently is a bleak sea of surface parking lots and extend the energy of hot restaurants, music venues such as the Salt Shed and the vibrant street life now visible in the West Loop even further west. We admire the private financing and the relatively modest ask from taxpayers in infrastructure support. Moreover, we've long argued that a terrific (and oft-overlooked) tool of neighborhood regeneration is when the crucial urban core radiates out from the city's center, adding private-sector housing and other assets. But some balance is needed as the epicenter of Chicago's vital entertainment and leisure sectors shifts palpably to the west via the rapid growth in the former meatpacking district. We can't let the city's traditional centers suffer as a result. This applies to the Loop, home of such huge, historic venues as the Chicago Theatre, Auditorium Theatre and the Lyric Opera House and also to the lakefront neighborhood of Uptown, once an entertainment locus to rival the Loop and still home to multiple historic music venues such as the Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theatre and the Green Mill. Uptown is one of Chicago's most diverse communities; it hardly is a place of privilege and one of its most important developmental assets remains underexploited. Those behind the 1901 Project's concert hall argue that their new venue will expand the marketplace through long-term, Las Vegas-style residencies rather than cannibalize existing venues. Whether such long-term sit-downs will be viable in Chicago remains to be seen. But there are only so many big acts touring and a lot of existing capacity is available at big, challenged theaters such as the Auditorium. A glut of venues in Chicago raises the danger of giving high-priced talent leverage to extract ever-higher bids, raising ticket prices for concertgoers. The concert business is mostly a for-profit world but the venues themselves are often nonprofit, not just tax-advantaged but also restored with public money. That means Chicagoans have a financial stake in their survival. Yet another issue at work here is that architecturally significant buildings such as the Chicago and the Auditorium are a critical part of the cultural fabric of the entertainment capital of the Midwest. Anyone who has been inside the Uptown, or who remembers the days when Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Prince and the Grateful Dead played there, understands not just its unique importance in the history of ordinary Chicagoans but its cathedral-like beauty and jaw-dropping scale. (Deadheads of a certain age will recall the band playing the Uptown well over a dozen times from 1978 until its 1981 closure.) Demolishing the Uptown would be unthinkable and future generations would find it unforgivable. Much good work has been done by the Uptown's current owner, Jerry Mickelson, to stabilize the building after many prior years of neglect. But the cost of restoration is only going up; the $75 million figure from 2018 is now well over $100 million and, alas, we fear the Uptown has disappeared again from the center of Chicago's conversation. The TIF district that supports the Uptown and its immediate surroundings has been extended through 2037, a positive. The owner, local politicians and volunteers all say they are working on a new public-private restoration plan and a viable, likely nonprofit ownership structure. The grand old palace's 100th birthday arrives this August. There's only one celebration that really matters: construction crews starting to bring one of Chicago's most glorious buildings back to life with an economic roadmap that will benefit the neighborhood and ensure its viability and survival. As eyes increasingly look west for fun and leisure, the Uptown must not be forgotten.
