Teatro Sala Umberto

Teatro Sala Umberto

Venerable performing arts venue with a 650-seat auditorium staging contemporary plays, plus a cafe. The Sala Umberto Theatre, designed by the architect. Andrea Busiri Vici with decorations by the renowned set designer Alessandro Bazzani, inaugurated in 1882 as a concert hall with the name of Teatro della Piccola Borsa.

In 1890 the intervention of the Arch. Giulio Podesti expanded the capacity of the hall to 650 seats and around 1900 it was renamed with its current name. In 1906 it was also used as a cinema. After Petrolini’s debut on 25 May 1911, a series of renovations to the room were carried out on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, by Attilio Spaccarelli and Arnaldo Foschini, which were completed in 1913. In 1928 it was further renovated, equipped with a large stage with a 12-meter proscenium and modern equipment for film projection.

In its artistic history it stands out between the 1910s and the 1940s as the Temple of Variety and the Italian Magazine. Ettore Petrolini, Raffaele Viviani, Nicola Maldacea, Totò, Aldo Fabrizi, the De Filippo brothers, Anna Fougez, Odoardo Spadaro, the De Rege brothers, Lydia Johnson, Riviera Five, Renato Rascel, Rossano Brazzi, the three Bonos brothers take its stage , Cuttica, Alfredo Bambi, the De Vico brothers, Michele Galdieri, the Isa Lysette company, Libero Bovio, Anna Magnani and Walter Chiari. In the fifties, sixties and seventies, the Sala Umberto was used for cinematographic activities. In 1980 it was completely renovated and in 1981 it returned to being a theater in all respects. The first season directed by Luigi Longobardi was inaugurated by the great Domenico Modugno in The Man Who Met Himself by Luigi Antonelli, directed by Edmo Fenoglio. From 1983 to 1991 the artistic programming was taken over by the ETI (Italian Theater Authority) led by the esteemed Bruno D’Alessandro. From 1991 to 2001 the structure returned to being an arthouse cinema programmed by the Istituto Luce, and later by Medusa.