Overview:
After decades of restoration, Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre marks 135 years with a new season and renewed purpose.
On a gray April afternoon, while photographing the exterior of the Historic Elitch Theatre at the original Elitch Gardens location on West 37th Place, a side door unexpectedly opened. Inside, the theater’s seasonal manager greeted us and offered a tour that went far beyond the standard route.
What followed felt less like a guided visit and more like stepping into a living archive.
Behind office doors and tucked into quiet corners were fragments of the theater’s past: a massive hand-compiled document listing decades of productions and casts; original signage; even a worn trash can from the old Elitch Gardens park. Upstairs, hidden from public view, signatures from generations of actors covered the walls. On the stage, the cavernous space opened wide, intact, and still carrying the weight of everything that has happened there.
“One challenging thing is it’s a huge venue,” said Denver playwright Mike Broemmel, whose play “The Bonfils Girl” was the Elitch’s first theater production since 1991 in the summer of 2024. “A large cast can really feel the space. Actors have to command the stage, which is a benefit and a challenge. We have to find ways to honor the space.”
The details are everywhere if you know where to look. Seats from the 1950s remain in use, with a few older ones still mixed in. Behind the stage sits the original electrical switchboard once used to run lighting and stage effects, preserved but no longer operational. The theater’s 1954 Fly Building expansion still defines the backstage area, adding dressing rooms and the larger stage capacity that productions rely on today.
Built in 1891 as part of the original Elitch Gardens, the theater is widely considered the first summer stock theater in the United States and Denver’s first professional theater. It quickly became a cultural hotspot, hosting national touring performers and even showing the first motion picture in Colorado, “Edison’s Vitascope,” in 1896.
For decades, the theater anchored the city’s arts scene. Stars including Grace Kelly, Douglas Fairbanks and Vincent Price performed here early in their careers, helping cement the venue’s reputation as a launching ground for major talent.
“It was the first theater of its kind. It’s amazing how many stars have performed here,” Broemmel said. “To me, the theater is like a sacred space. There is a kind of responsibility to honor these actors and actresses’ memories.”
However, that legacy nearly disappeared. When Elitch Gardens relocated downtown in 1994, the theater was left behind. It sat empty for years, weathered, damaged and mostly forgotten.
“It thrived for about 100 years until Elitch Gardens moved downtown and the building was left abandoned,” said Rex Fuller, the theater’s executive director. “It sat empty for about a decade until a group of neighborhood volunteers wanted to restore it.”
That effort is still ongoing.
“It took about 20 years to get to the point where we are now,” Fuller said. “There have been setbacks over the years, including weather events that forced the replacement of the roof. Extensive foundation work and other structural repairs had to be done. And as anyone who has done any kind of renovation work knows, there are always surprises that are uncovered, especially in a historic structure.”
Restoration has unfolded in multiple phases since the early 2000s, including structural stabilization, roof replacement, electrical upgrades and the addition of modern safety systems—all while preserving the building’s historic character.
The 2026 season intentionally reflects that history. It opens May 16 with “The Pirates of Penzance,” echoing one of the productions staged during the theater’s earliest years.
“We are very excited about opening night this year, our 135th anniversary year,” Fuller said. “We are able to work with Opera Colorado, who will bring their production of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ by Gilbert and Sullivan to the theater on May 16. We were surprised and delighted to learn that ‘Pirates’ was actually performed at the theater during our very first season in 1891.”
Additional programming will include the Denver Community Film Festival on May 21, which is supported by Bucket List Community News, children’s theater camps in June and early July, a ghost tour launching in mid-July and ongoing volunteer-led history tours, with more performances expected to be announced. To Fuller, restoration is about more than just preserving a structure. The goal of revitalizing the Elitch is to reintroduce it into the community.
“I think the most exciting part of restoring the theater is sharing the building with others,” he said. “While there are many older residents who remember the Elitch Theatre in its glory days, there are many younger folks who never had that experience. When we are able to welcome new audiences into the theater, they are often amazed by its history and by the building itself. Sharing that is very rewarding.”
