“The Milwaukee Theatre will fill a niche for indoor shows with audiences ranging from 2,500 to 4,100, which no other building in the national market can accommodate,” Snyder said.

From the audience perspective, this means more potential shows which typically bypass Wisconsin and Milwaukee due to a lack of a suitable venue.

“And people want to go to shows, not theaters,” Snyder said.

Sandra Netz, 85, from Fox Point, and a routine visitor to the Broadway and off-Broadway performances in Milwaukee, agreed with Snyder.

“I hope this renovation of the Auditorium will bring some of the bigger Broadway shows to Milwaukee so I don’t have to always take the bus to Chicago to watch them with my husband,” she said.

The first show to appear in the new theater will be the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra with Michael Feinstien.

Other visitors see the theatre as a rebirth of an old legend.

“I’m just glad the city of Milwaukee took the initiative to renovate such a historical building that has been the center of entertainment in Milwaukee for years,” said Dan Holstein, 62, from Cudahy. “The new look gives the old auditorium the jazz it was lacking in recent years.”

That’s exactly what the Wisconsin Center District, owners of the Milwaukee Theatre, were looking to do.

“We understood that the former facility had been a center of Milwaukee’s civic and cultural life for nearly a century,” Snyder said. “We wanted to save it, though not necessarily preserve it in its existing form. So we chose to reinvent it as something both old and new.”

However, making ideas come to life was not a small undertaking. According to Snyder, original estimates placed the project budget for the theater at $32 million. The final budget came to over $41 million. Fortunately for taxpayers, Snyder reassured that no “hospitality” taxes will be raised in the city.

“We just didn’t expect to run into such foundation problems,” said William Stone, contractor for GPD/Hunt Construction. The company was forced to drive more piles, or large metal rods used to support the construction of buildings, which was the most significant single factor in the actual cost overruns in the project.

“Other than those unforeseen problems, construction will be done right on schedule for the grand opening of the theater on Nov. 7,” he said.

Vanessa Welter, communication director for the Milwaukee Convention and Visitors Bureau, could not be happier with the approach of the grand opening.

“Not only are audiences awaiting the opening,” she said, “but business executives from many large businesses are waiting to take advantage of this new 4,100-seat building which offers a bigger option for conventions at the Midwest (Airlines) Center.”

The conventions bring revenue to the state-funded Wisconsin Center District and Milwaukee businesses, she said.

“Now that these visiting companies have more options available to them, higher bids will start to come in,” she said.

Many hope the theater will help stimulate economic development.

“The Milwaukee Theatre will support the Wisconsin Center District’s role as an ‘economic engine’ helping to foster development, jobs and opportunity, most immediately, through the proximity to the Park East and Pabst City development areas of Milwaukee,” Snyder said.