The "U-Neptune Theatre" was opened by the Puritan Theatre Company on November 16, 1921, featuring the silent movie
Serenade and seating an audience of 1,000 people. The theater was built with a
Kimball orchestral
theater organ, The theater went through several management changes during the coming decades, suffering from erratic bookings and poor equipment. It was kept afloat in the 1970s by showings of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a cult classic film. In 1981, the Neptune came under the ownership of the
Landmark Theatres chain, which also owned the
Harvard Exit Theatre in Seattle. The company renovated the theater with a new sound and projection system, hoping to bring out the venue's "long-sought potential". Landmark renovated the theater again in 1994, replacing seating and adding a
Dolby Digital and
Sony Dynamic Digital Sound system, along with a
16 mm film projector.
Rocky Horror In 1991, the theater set a record by playing
The Rocky Horror Picture Show every week for 14 years, longer than any other movie had played in Seattle. one of several U.S. theaters playing it in a
midnight movie format.
Recent renovation Landmark lost its lease in 2010 to the
Seattle Theatre Group, a non-profit organization that also operates the
Moore Theatre and
Paramount Theatre. The 2011 renovation saved the building from demolition for the adjoining
U District Link light rail station on NE 45th Street.
Sound Transit was forced to re-engineer the station to avoid the theater building, and to
underpin the Neptune's foundation. After the theater's 2011 renovation, its first act was Pacific Northwest musician
Mark Lanegan at a
soft opening in June; the official opening in September was marked by a screening of
Rocky Horror. The building was nominated to become a
city landmark in 2012. The
Seattle City Council passed an ordinance in 2014 designating the Neptune Building as a city landmark, levying certain protections on the property. ==See also==