Alhambra

About

The Alhambra is a theater which opened in April 2008 at 21, rue Yves-Toudic in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, 300 meters from the site of the old Alhambra-Maurice Chevalier.

History: The Alhambra occupied a building originally opened in 1920 by the Paris Fraternal Railway Association as a 600-seat theater called the Théâtre Art Deco des Cheminots (Art Deco Theatre of the Railways). The elaborate furnishings included beautiful mahogany doors, geometric candlesticks, and stucco pills — highlighted all by a bas-relief of a locomotive. The theater, which had never been legally recognized as a theater by the Paris authorities, was converted to a commercial building in 1933, but it still contained a drive-in theater reserved for railway workers. Unfortunately, this drive-in theater was rarely open. In 2005 the quaint charm and history of the site captured the attention of theatrical producer Jean-Claude Auclair; he immediately bought the building with the intention of restoring it. Unfortunately, modern standards of safety, and the fact that the theater had no acoustic insulation and no air conditioning forced Auclair to demolish much of the original structure and to rebuild it...