The Neptune Theatre, formerly known as U-Neptune Theatre, is a

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

venue in the University District neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States. Opened in 1921, the 1,000 capacity venue hosts a variety of events, including dance and music performances, film screenings, and arts education. It was primarily used for screening classic films prior to a 2011 renovation. In 2014, the theater and building were designated a Seattle landmark. The Neptune Theatre is operated by the non-profit Seattle Theatre Group, which also operates the Paramount Theatre and

Moore Theatre Moore Theatre is an 1,800-seat performing arts venue in Seattle, Washington, United States, located two blocks away from Pike Place Market at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street. It opened in 1907 and is Seattle's oldest active theater ...

. It is one of several venues that host the annual

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

Architecture

The Neptune Building, which houses the Neptune Theatre and several small businesses, is described as a "vaguely

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style", three-story building with a

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

facade. Its north facade, facing NE 45th Street, has a prominent marquee with the word "Neptune" in

neon lighting Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode ...

; the final letter "e" in the marquee is stylized as a

trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other marine ...

that appears to pierce the other letters. It was designed by

Henderson Ryan Henderson Ryan (January 16, 1856 – August 29, 1927) was an American architect notable for designing buildings in Seattle Washington in the early 20th century, including several theaters and a significant number of residential apartment buildin ...

, a Kentucky-born architect who also worked on the

and

Ballard Carnegie Library The Ballard Carnegie Library is a historic Carnegie library in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. The institution was preceded by a freeholders' library in the 1860s, which was eventually replaced in 1901 by a readi ...

. The interior of the Neptune Theatre features a

nautical Seamanship is the art, knowledge and competence of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topics a ...

theme, with a central concession stand shaped like a

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on inl ...

, marble finishes, and statues of

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

History

The "U-Neptune Theatre" was opened by the Puritan Theatre Company on November 16, 1921, featuring the silent movie ''Serenade'' and seating an audience of 1,000 people. The theater was built with a

Kimball Kimball may refer to: People *Kimball (surname) * Kimball (given name) Places Canada * Kimball, Alberta United States * Kellogg, Iowa, formerly known as Kimball * Kimball, Kansas * Kimball, Minnesota * Kimball, Nebraska, a city * Kimball, South ...

orchestral

theater organ A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...

, which was removed in 1943. By the end of the 1940s, the theater was renamed the Neptune, given a small renovation and changed ownership. The theater went through several management changes during the coming decades, suffering from erratic bookings and poor equipment. It was kept afloat in the 1970s by showings of ''

The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also ...

'', a cult classic film. In 1981, the Neptune came under the ownership of the

Landmark Theatres Landmark Theatres is a movie theatre chain in the United States. It was formerly dedicated to exhibiting and marketing independent film, independent and foreign film, foreign films. Since its founding in 1974, Landmark has grown to 35 Indepe ...

chain, which also owned the

Harvard Exit Theatre The Harvard Exit Theatre was a cinema located in Seattle, Washington. It was housed in a building built in 1925 by the Woman's Century Club, which still meets there at midday on the third Friday of the month. The building was sold in 1968 on the ...

in Seattle. The company renovated the theater with a new sound and projection system, hoping to bring out the venue's "long-sought potential". Landmark renovated the theater again in 1994, replacing seating and adding a

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

and

Sony Dynamic Digital Sound is a cinema sound system developed by Sony, in which compressed digital sound information is recorded on both outer edges of the 35 mm film release print. The system supports up to eight independent channels of sound: five front channe ...

system, along with a

16 mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

projector.

''Rocky Horror''

In 1991, the theater set a record by playing ''

'' every week for 14 years, longer than any other movie had played in Seattle. By 1993, it was one of four U.S. theaters which had played the show the longest, according to the National Rocky Horror Fan Club in New York, one of several U.S. theaters playing it in a

midnight movie The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic ...

format.

Recent renovation

Landmark lost its lease in 2010 to the Seattle Theatre Group, a non-profit organization that also operates the

and Paramount Theatre. The Neptune was closed for a $700,000 renovation in January 2011 and re-opened on September 25, 2011, becoming a performing arts and music venue in addition to a movie theater. The 2011 renovation saved the building from demolition for the adjoining U District

Link light rail Link light rail is a light rail rapid transit system serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is managed by Sound Transit in partnership with local transit providers, and consists of two non-connected lines: t ...

station on NE 45th Street.

Sound Transit Sound Transit (ST), officially the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, is a public transit agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It operates the Link light rail system in Seattle and Tacoma, r ...

was forced to re-engineer the station to avoid the theater building, and to underpin the Neptune's foundation. After the theater's 2011 renovation, its first act was Pacific Northwest musician

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the St ...

at a

soft opening A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it widely ...

in June; the official opening in September was marked by a screening of ''Rocky Horror''. The building was nominated to become a city landmark in 2012. The

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-lar ...

passed an ordinance in 2014 designating the Neptune Building as a city landmark, levying certain protections on the property.

References

External links