The Grand Theater goes dark for $17 million summer renovation

It’s exciting and overwhelming all at once to be at the point where after years of planning, to know that this is real.”

Sean Wright, executive director

The applause has faded, the curtain is down and the lights are off. On Monday, May 11, The Grand Theater went dark.

But only until November.

Starting this week, the doors of Wausau’s historic Grand Theater are temporarily closed as part of the $17 million “Second Century Campaign” that funds the massive transformation of the 99-year-old theater. The renovations will take place over the next six months, with the goal of reopening by early November to kick off the landmark 100th anniversary season for 2027. Work began earlier this week, with an official groundbreaking ceremony held on Wednesday with leadership from the Grand and Miron Construction.

“It’s exciting and overwhelming all at once to be at the point where after years of planning, to know that this is real,” Grand Theater executive director Sean Wright said on the eve of construction. “It’s exciting to see the vision start to come to life.”

Grand Theater leadership and board members remove the final remaining seats from the theater floor on Wednesday, May 13.

Michael Strasburg photo

The first step of the renovation? Ripping out over 1,200 old seats. The old movie theater style seats will be removed and replaced with larger, more comfortable custom-built seats that maintain a historic wood-framed design.

Ahead of this crucial first step, Wright addressed one of the public’s most pressing questions: Will the new seats be more comfortable?

“The seats will be more comfortable, and they will have cup-holders, which is the other thing that patrons have let us know very clearly that they want,” Wright said. “It’s still a historic theater, we’re not going to look like one of those movie houses with reclining seats, but yes, the seats will be more comfortable.”

Because the seats are larger, overall capacity will decrease from 1,208 to about 1,169. Along with the new seats and updated floor plan comes a new seat numbering system, which will make finding your seat much more intuitive.

“We’re going to a much more patron and usher friendly numbering system that will hopefully make people not have to go on an adventure during a sold-out show night,” Wright said.

All 1,208 of the Grand Theater's seats were removed by May 13. This was the crucial first step in the renovation efforts.

Michael Strasburg photo

Once the new seats are installed, the theater will receive new carpeting in a historically accurate blue color. Additionally, artisans from Conrad Schmitt Studios (who worked on the 1987 renovation) will spend 8 to 10 weeks repainting and touching up every inch of the paint and mural work. With a thoughtful eye toward the theater’s history, the process is just as much a historical restoration as it is a renovation.

“We’re trying to truly match the 1927 look and feel,” Wright said. “Our architects at DLR Group have really done a great job diving into archives of newspapers at the time to find descriptions of color palettes and specific things,” Wright said. “We’ve learned things that we never knew [about the theater].”

Backstage, production upgrades and technology will be future-proofed with enhancements to rigging, light positions and data runs to better support large Broadway touring productions and highly desired musical acts.

“A lot of times it’s not about bigger or better artists you can bring in, it’s simply about continuing to bring in the caliber of artists that you have and not losing those opportunities,” Wright said. “From a Broadway perspective, we were right on that edge of in a couple of years we wouldn’t be a viable Broadway house. This will allow us to continue to be so.”

Updates to the green rooms will help attract performers, Wright said, many of whom spend most of their day backstage preparing for their performance.

“We’re trying to bring our amenities up to line with what artists expect these days ... a lot of them are driven by rooms that they like to play, cities that they like to visit, venues that they like to go to,” Wright said.

Grand Theater Executive Director Sean Wright stands outside the theater entrance, days before construction.

Michael Strasburg photo

But it’s not just about the theater. Almost every room in the facility will see some renovations and updates, Wright said. Throughout the building there will be accessibility improvements like leveled floors, updated seating to accommodate larger wheelchairs along with new swing-arm seats installed on the aisles. A new family restroom and a lower-level men’s restroom will also be added within the historic theater space to assist patrons with mobility issues.

One of the most visible improvements will be in the Great Hall, where patrons visit the bar, wait before shows, chat during intermission and, after the renovations, catch a live show! Sound absorbing material will be installed on the walls and floor, along with flexible staging options, which will allow the Great Hall to function as a secondary performance space for events ranging from classical quartets to standing-room general admission shows. This flexibility will allow the Grand to not only diversify performances, but potentially increase the number of shows offered in a season.

“A Broadway show now in our theater takes at least a day on either side to strip the theater down and then restore it, and sometimes even two days to truly restore,” Wright said. “So that’s an opportunity where instead of having two dark days, we have the opportunity to do something in the Great Hall from a performance standpoint. It just opens up a whole new world of possibilities for us from a programming standpoint.”

When the Grand re-opens, the first changes patrons are bound to notice are the re-imagined entrances. The historic entrance, directly outside the theater hall, will be preserved to maintain it’s original beauty and function with beautiful crown molding and stained glass, as well as an improved coat-check and accessibility services area. A set of non-historic interior doors near the original entrance will be removed, and the floor will be leveled to create a new, more intimate pre-show gathering space.

“The original entrance is being brought back to life,” Wright said.

Beneath all the work to restore the theater’s original beauty lies another, urgent part of the project. A whole host of modernizations to the building’s essential systems, including the roof and HVAC system, will be made in order to maintain day-to-day operation of the historic landmark for the long term.

“With historic theaters one of two things always happen: Either you invest in them and they continue to grow and thrive, or they go into disrepair and they slowly die off — or require a substantial $50-100 million project to bring them back to life,” Wright said.

But making that level of investment isn’t a solo act. The $17 million Second Century Campaign has relied heavily on community support, with contributions ranging from $25 donations to seven-figure gifts. By addressing critical infrastructure needs now, the Grand is ensuring it remains a vibrant cornerstone of the community for its upcoming centennial and the years beyond. The applause may have faded for the summer, but when the curtain rises this November, the Grand will be ready for an exciting second century.