The Teatro Gran Rex is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style theatre in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

which opened on July 8, 1937, as the largest cinema in Argentina. Located near the centre of the city at 857

Corrientes Avenue Avenida Corrientes () is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. The street is intimately tied to the tango and the porteño sense of identity. Like the parallel avenues Santa Fe, Córdoba, and San Juan, it ...

, it was designed by the architect

Alberto Prebisch Alberto Prebisch (February 1, 1899 – October 13, 1970) was a distinguished Argentine architect whose numerous works included private houses, apartment and office blocks, cinemas, shops and banks. Prebisch was born in Tucumán, Argentina, to Ge ...

, who was also in charge of the construction of the

Obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

, one of the main icons of the city. The design of the interior was influenced by that of

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and construction of the theatre was completed in just seven months in association with the engineer Adolfo Moret. The opening caused a sensation and the Argentine intellectual

Victoria Ocampo Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...

praised the theatre as an outstanding example of modern architecture from the pages of her influential literary journal, '' Sur''. Today, the theatre has 3,300 seats and, together with the

Teatro Opera The Teatro Opera (''Opera Theatre'') is a prominent cinema and theatre house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Introduction The Teatro Opera (officially called Opera Orbis Seguros for commercial advertising reasons), is located at 860 Avenida Corriente ...

on the opposite side of the street, is one of the city's most important venues for the staging of international shows. ''Chiquititas'' was the highest-grossing event in the history of the theater (''Casi ángeles'' was the second). Based on the children-oriented soap of the same name and with the complete cast of the show, six seasons of live musicals were performed at the Gran Rex from 1996 to 2001 during the Winter Holidays. Over 1 million tickets were sold, with the 1998 season being the highest-selling season ever (and the highest attendance ever at the Gran Rex to this day): 240,000 tickets sold.

International performers

References

*Ernesto Katzenstein. ''Argentine Architecture of the Thirties'', J. Decorative & Propaganda Arts, Argentine Theme Issue, 1992. *Mimi Bohm. 'Buenos Aires Art Deco y Racionalismo''. Ediciones Xavier Verstraeten, Buenos Aires, 2008.
Arquitectura: Raúl Prebisch

External links

* {{Authority control Theatres in Buenos Aires Theatres completed in 1937 Art Deco architecture in Argentina 1937 establishments in Argentina