VSC has grown to be a highly respected regional theatre company, attracting artists from Broadway, off-Broadway, and other leading theaters across the country, as well as from the worlds of film and television. The downstairs lobby facing Tazewell Street housed Doumar's Cones and BBQ's first location in Norfolk. A system of stairs made inside access easy, allowing waiters from Wong Ping's Chinese Restaurant to serve patrons on the second floor roof garden before and after performances. The top balcony served as a segregated balcony "For Negro Audiences Only," and had its own entrance and box office. The Theatre originally had 1,650 seats with 12 boxes and three balconies. The backstage area became the Jamaican Room, one of Norfolk’s infamous gin mills and brothels. The Wells was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
LITTLE THEATER OF VIRGINIA BEACH SCHEDULE MOVIE
In the 1960s, the Wells shared in the general decline of downtown Norfolk by converting to an X-rated movie house and occasionally staging live burlesque shows. Moviegoers of the 1940s and 50s remember its double and triple features. By the beginning of World War II, burlesque was added to the Theatre’s repertoire, which provided a steady source of income by attracting thousands of sailors stationed in Norfolk. Throughout the Great Depression, the Wells continued to stage vaudeville shows and movies. Many of America’s leading performers appeared at the Wells: John Drew, Maude Adams, Otis Skinner, John Philip Sousa, Billie Burke, Fred and Adele Astaire, and Will Rogers, among many others. In 1916, Jake Wells installed a movie screen and projector, making the Wells the most dazzling, first-run movie house in the southeast, although theatrical bookings continued to occupy most of the Theatre’s schedule.
LITTLE THEATER OF VIRGINIA BEACH SCHEDULE FULL
On August 26, 1913, the Wells opened to a full house with The Merry Countess, a Schubert musical. The poured-in-place, steel-reinforced concrete structure was technologically advanced for the period, while the ornate decoration that is still visible today is a well-preserved example of Beaux-Arts neoclassicism. Horn and Sons, the Wells Theatre is significant both as a representative of early 20th-century popular culture and as an outstanding example of Beaux Arts theatre architecture in Virginia. The Wells was built in 1912 and served as the opulent flagship for Wells Amusement Enterprises, a string of forty vaudeville theaters owned by Jake and Otto Wells throughout the South.
ABOUT VIRGINIA STAGE COMPANY AND THE WELLS THEATREĭesigned by the New York firm of E.
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