Teatre Poliorama

Teatre Poliorama brings concert-scale productions into a 705-seat, seated house on Barcelona’s Rambla. Its defining fact reaches back to 13 April 1899, when the ground-floor room in the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts opened as the Cine Martí, Barcelona’s first purpose-built cinema. That beginning gives current musical tributes, flamenco productions and soul shows a theatrical frame designed around a stage-facing audience.

A cinema with a front-row view of history

Cinema came first: Cine Martí opened in 1899 in the academy building designed by Josep Domènech i Estapà. A 1906 remodel adopted the Poliorama name and made room for films and theatre. During Barcelona’s May Days of 1937, with the site under CNT-FAI control, George Orwell spent three nights guarding a POUM position from the roof of the academy building above the theatre; his experience entered Homage to Catalonia. The wartime venue carried the name Teatre Català de la Comèdia from 1937 to 1939. Balañà acquired it in 1939 and revived Cine Poliorama, while the 1996 arrival of TRES PER 3 established the private management identified by the theatre today.

What the room delivers now

Expect a seated, theatrical evening. The current programme pairs long-running comedy, magic and family shows with date-specific concerts and tribute productions. Rock leads the music calendar, alongside Latin-flamenco presentation and R&B-adjacent soul bills. The 705-person room includes a ground-level platea and an upper level; the accessible ground floor has a ramp, adapted box office and toilets, plus designated platea seats. A 1983–85 renovation removed columns from the stalls and amphitheatre to improve visibility and expanded the stage depth, useful assets for productions with substantial visual staging.