El Rey Theatre

El Rey Theatre is a 771-capacity concert room on Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile, occupying an Art Deco movie house built in 1936. Its distinction sits in the architecture: Clifford A. Balch’s Streamline Moderne façade, neon signage, terrazzo and lobby remain part of the experience, while the performance space operates as a grand ballroom with a full stage. For a showgoer, that means a club-scale crowd inside a building made for old Hollywood’s theatrical arrival.

A cinema’s second act

Built in 1936 as an independent neighborhood cinema, the El Rey screened films for roughly five decades. Its intervening chapters were unusually varied: the building hosted spiritual services and adult-film programming, then left movie exhibition behind during the 1980s. It spent part of that period as the dance club Wall Street, followed by a Russian restaurant and banquet hall; the Los Angeles Conservancy backed revival efforts during the decade. In 1994, the property became the live-music venue that concertgoers know today. That conversion placed performances inside the original theater’s retained public spaces instead of replacing its visual identity.

One recorded night shows the room’s continuing utility for career-spanning artists. Dennis DeYoung performed at the El Rey on March 18, 2014; recordings from that date became the release Dennis DeYoung and the Music of Styx: Live in Los Angeles, including “The Grand Illusion,” “Lady” and “Come Sail Away.”

The room today

Goldenvoice handles the El Rey’s concert booking, and its programming reaches across indie, rock, hip-hop, pop, alternative, country, electronic and folk bills. The layout centers on the ballroom and full stage, with sweeping staircases leading through the Art Deco lobby and a VIP balcony lounge at the back. Sightlines favor the main floor and the raised rear balcony; the venue also has a full bar, giving the room the feel of a formal theater adapted for a close-range, high-volume concert.