Music Box Theatre Announces Historic Name Change Back to Loring Theater

Music Box Theatre, Minneapolis, will return to its roots this month when it changes its name back to Loring Theater.

The timing celebrates the 90th birthday of the historic building, which opened its doors as a silent film and vaudeville house in December 1920.

The name change honors the history of the building while solidifying its fresh identity, which has been in development since June when new management turned the nearly vacant space in to a modern day variety house.

The 440-seat theater, formerly home to long-running hit comedy Triple Espresso, is now injecting an eclectic mix of entertainment and artistic events in to Loring Park and the greater Twin Cities community.

The opening season presents a broad mix of events including the Dave King Trucking Company, New York visual perfor-mance artist Billy The Artist, indie rock band Zoo Animal, Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, burlesque performances by Le Cirque Rouge and a Sunday afternoon Mimosa Movies series presented with Loring Kitchen & Bar.

"The opportunity to program the venue as a variety house has brought this place back to life with jazz, theater, dance and comedy. The renaming of the theater is an apt birthday present for this Minneapolis landmark" said Steve Barberio, Producing Artistic Director.

To mark the historic name-change, the theater plans to restore the original Loring marquee sign, which has been sitting untouched in the building's basement for decades.

"We see these letters as a part of Loring Theater's past and future identity," said Paul Anderton, Marketing Director. "We are hoping to partner with local businesses and organizations from the community to restore the sign to its former glory.