The Landmark Theatre in downtown Syracuse is celebrating its 90th anniversary. The theater has recovered from financial troubles it has had in previous years.
Landmark Executive Director Mike Intaglietta said 2017 was a breakout year for the theater with 145,000 people walking through the doors.
“That was buoyed by some really fantastic touring shows," Intaglietta said. "Famous Artists managed to arrange for both ‘Wicked’ and Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ to come here in one calendar year. Those are two of the three most popular shows in Broadway history.”
He credited the theater’s turnaround to focusing more on national touring artists and less on smaller scale productions. The idea is to fill as many of their 2,800 seats as possible. A few years ago, the theater was in debt, and not making enough money to support their operations.
“We took steps to control our overhead expenses, as well as to make sure we bring in events that can generate revenue and then making sure we generate enough revenue from those events to make it worth the time,” Intaglietta said.
In the future, he said they want to do more restorations to the auditorium, which would entail work on the seats and the decorative art on the ceiling and walls.
Syracuse’s symphony, Symphoria will perform music from the Harry Potter film series at the Landmark later this month. WRVO is sponsoring an evening with writer David Sedaris at the Landmark in April.
