The Citi Performing Arts Center (formerly Wang Center for the Performing Arts) is located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. It consists of two theatres, Wang Theatre and Shubert Theatre, both of which are neighbors, on Tremont Street, in Boston's Theatre District. The Center adopted its new name late in 2006, after signing a 15 year agreement with Citigroup

Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...

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The center maintains partnerships with the Boston Lyric Opera

Boston Lyric Opera

Boston Lyric Opera is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976.Each season, BLO produces three mainstage productions at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre in Boston and a fully staged, one-hour English language version of a popular opera for school...

 and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company was formed in 1996 by artistic director Steven Maler and associate Joan Moynagh to bring free, outdoor Shakespeare to the people of the city of Boston. Since 1996, CSC has produced one full Shakespeare production each summer starting with A Midsummer Night's...

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Wang Theatre

The Wang Theatre was originally known as the Metropolitan Theatre when it opened in 1925. It was developed by Max Shoolman and designed by architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Clarence Blackall

Clarence Blackall

Clarence Howard Blackall was an American architect who is estimated to have designed 300 theatres.He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1857. He attended college at the University of Illinois School of Architecture, graduating with a B.S. in 1877, and received training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts...

, with the assistance of Detroit theatre architect C. Howard Crane

C. Howard Crane

Charles Howard Crane was an American architect.Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane established a practice in Detroit, Michigan early in the 20th Century. Like Thomas W. Lamb and John Eberson, Crane specialized in the design of movie palaces in North American...

. It seats more than 3,600 people. In 1962 it became the home of the Boston Ballet and was renamed the Music Hall. During the 1960s and 1970s, audiences could see the Stuttgart Opera, the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

, Bolshoi Ballet

Bolshoi Ballet

The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the...

 and Kirov Ballet as well as popular movies and performing artists. With time though, they could no longer attract the large touring companies because of the size of their stage as well as their outdated production facilities. Converted to a non-profit center in 1980 and renamed the Metropolitan Center, they were able to attract theatrical performances again. In 1983, Dr. An Wang

An Wang

Dr. An Wang was a Chinese American computer engineer and inventor, and co-founder of computer company Wang Laboratories.-Early life and career:...

 made a very large donation and the Wang Center was born. From 1989 - 1992, $9.8 million was raised to restore the Theatre to "its glory days of the 1920s". Boston based architecture firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc

Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc

Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc is an architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. It was established in 1962. Previous firm names include J. Timothy Anderson and Associates, Anderson Notter Associates, Anderson Notter Finegold, Inc., and Notter Finegold + Alexander Inc.The firm is...

 restored the theatre with Conrad Schmitt Studios

Conrad Schmitt Studios

Conrad Schmitt Studios is an architectural arts studio located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. It provides ecclesiastical art, stained glass artistry, art glass, decorative painting, mosaics, murals and sculptural arts. The studio specializes in restoration services for buildings of architectural,...

 performing the elegant decoration, gilded moldings, murals, scagliola and marbleized surfaces.

The lobby was used in the movie The Witches of Eastwick

The Witches of Eastwick

The Witches of Eastwick is a 1984 novel by John Updike.-Plot summary:The story, set in the fictional Rhode Island town of Eastwick in the late 1960s, follows the witches Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont, who acquired their powers after leaving or being left by their husbands....

as part of the house in which Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson

John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...

's character lived.

Shubert Theatre

The Shubert Theatre, located at 263-265 Tremont Street and known as Boston's "little princess", was designed by Boston architects Hill, James, & Whitaker. It opened on January 24, 1910 with a production of Shakespeare's

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

starring E.H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe

Julia Marlowe

Julia Marlowe was an English-born American actress known for her interpretations of William Shakespeare.-Life and career:...

. It seats approximately 1,600 people.

Originally conceived as The Lyric Theatre by developer Charles H. Bond, it was taken over by the Shubert Organization in 1908 after Bond's death.

In February 1996, the Wang Center signed a 40-year lease agreement with the Shubert Organization. In November 1996, the theatre reopened after being renovated with the first national tour of the musical Rent

Rent (musical)

Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...

.

The theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.