The Politeama, the theater that Sarmiento frequented, reopens

143 years have passed since its inauguration, but 64 of them, after being demolished, remained vacant and subsequently transformed into a parking lot. This Friday, June 17, the Politeama Theater will reopen its doors to the public, returning to its origins and joining the theatrical circuit of Avenida Corrientes.

with the job The truthin a new version with Candela Vetrano, Mery del Cerro, Agustín Sierra and Tomás Fonzi, directed by Ciro Zorzoli and produced by RGB, one of the oldest clubs in the City, will come back to life after being demolished in 1958.

The Politeama was inaugurated in 1879 in the property which has entrances and exits through the Avenida Corrientes at 1400 and via Paraná. Its first room overlooked only the Paraná and on the night of July 16, 1879 the then president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was in the audience. Many years later, with the expansion of Corrientes as it passed from street to avenue, the theater was also enlarged.

Film and theater director Juan José Campanella is the author of this gigantic reconstruction and recovery project, together with his production company 100 Bares. And together with the hall, they relive from dozens of stories, artists and shows that have crossed its stage.

five years of work

After five years of work by around 200 professionals, architects and workers and, as if that weren’t enough, a pandemic in between, the project has become a reality. The hall now has a capacity of 705 seats and is equipped with the most modern technologies.

In its 2,750 square meters, the new space houses a theater room, a foyer suitable for events, a VIP sector, a stage 7 meters deep, 14 meters wide and 12 meters high. In addition to 8 dressing rooms and a cutting-edge technical and lighting system, suitable to all kinds of artistic productions. Indeed, its 23 meters of grid and orchestra are ideal for performing musicals.

“Building this theater is a lifelong dream,” said Juan José Campanella. In addition to the usual shows in this type of theater, spectators will be able to join the Politeama Club and have exclusive access to interviews, backstage, dress rehearsals and add points to take advantage of benefits and discounts.

The place inevitably seems destined for fun, despite the laziness that has left it in oblivion for some decades. Several years before the construction of the old Politeama in that area of ​​the city, a park was already operational where outdoor shows were offered, where there was no lack of dances, a circus and theatrical performances that were staged in a large garden.

With the success of the competition that had the space, the entrepreneur César Ciacchi had the idea of ​​building a theater in a sector of the property, to collect donations from wealthy neighbors and the Politeama was thus inaugurated on January 31, 1879. There he danced, and great deployment and repercussion, thanks to the presence of the then president Sarmiento.

A storm, shortly after, hit the structure of the brand new theater. However, with some reforms, the Politeama could host in addition to opera performances, circus performances, dances and events of all kinds, competing in convocation with the most recent Opera.

Great personalities of the time performed on its stage, among others, the Italian Eleonora Duce and the French Sarah Bernhardt, total protagonists of the theater of the time. However, there was a group of local artists whose history is closely linked to the Politeama: the Podestà.

In 1884, the gaucho work of Eduardo Gutiérrez Giovanni Moreira, played by one of the brothers of the Podestá clan, Pepe, was a resounding success against all odds. In this way, the show, the family and the theater have marked the history of the Argentine theater.

The shows were interspersed with large carnival balls, for which the seats were raised and the whole transformed into a dance floor full of balloons and streamers. Speakers were even installed from the entrance to the front of the building, so that people who were left outside could dance in the street, on the asphalt of Corrientes Avenue.

At the end of the 19th century, the frenzy of building low-cost rental houses, driven by the wave of immigration, put the Politeama at risk. Saved from possible demolitions (then), with the extension of Corrientes in 1936, the Politeama expanded from Paraná Street to the entrance through the turning, on what is now the avenue, thanks to the work of the architect Alejo Luis Pazos .

That demolition from which the theater had managed to escape in 1936, however, unfortunately came in 1958. Despite the protests of the artists and neighbors, they demolished the Politeama and in its place, after years of vacancy, a parking space arrived.

The last play that was presented in the old Politeama was that of the comedian Pablo Palitos. A year after the demolition and due to the scandal it caused, the 14,800 law was enacted, which required the construction of a theater where another one was demolished, something that was only possible now, more than sixty years later.

The relaunch project of the new Politeama was in action until the last moment, to have the final details ready for the premiere this Friday. With an entrance on Paraná street and a restaurant that will later function on one side, on Corrientes there will soon also be another entrance with ticket office and awning.

Campanella and his partners from the production company 100 Bares had already tried their hand at the theater with works such as Lezama Park Y What do we do with Walter?, directed by Juan José. But now the project has gone further and this is how the new theater was born.

The reconstruction of the new Politeama required a total investment of approximately 600 million pesos, financed through a syndicated loan granted in equal parts by the Ciudad and Nación banks.

Before embarking on this mega project, Campanella with part of his team toured the Broadway theaters in order to take note of what could be achieved in Buenos Aires. Due to its size, the reborn Politeama has similarities to a historic theater on 42nd Street in the New York theater circuit, which also had a reconstruction twenty years ago.

With the inauguration of the new Politeama, which is now part of the Buenos Aires program, Buenos Aires confirms that it continues to be one of the cities with the most theatrical activity in the world, along with New York and London, and the most important among those of language Spanish. The new hall joins the renewed reopening of the Astros and the Regina, and the future reopening of the historic Liceo, next month.

POS