What's To Become of the Majestic?

The Club Majestic is now officially for sale. The Majestic was built in 1905 as a vaudeville theater before having a third story added and morphing into a cinema. For the last few years, it's been a music club. The last time I went to the Majestic was a year or more ago for a Cherry Pop Burlesque performance. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed when I first heard that it would cease to be a cinema and instead be a club. Being a dorky white guy in my mid-30s, I'm more interested in hearing a bunch of Swiss folk play alphorns or some fellow Poles crank up the squeeze box for a polka than I am in techno or hip-hop. But hip-hop fans need a place to socialize and better a club than closed.

Unfortunately, the past couple years of the club's existence have been marred by violence at bar time. Patrons funnel out onto the street and stay there. There have been brawls, stabbings, shootings, etc. Neighborhood residents, owners of nearby businesses, and the city have been up in arms about the problem so it seems unlikely that a new owner would come in and continue hip-hop nights. So what's to become of the Majestic?

Personally, I'd like to see it become a movie theater again. It would be really neat if someone came in and put in decent seats and screen and a quality sound system. The University Square Cinemas are gone and the Orpheum can't pick up all of the slack. It'd be nice to have it run a mix of films. Perhaps a current Hollywood film in addition to arty fair. It would also be great if it could be a part-time revival house. Older films get a run at a commercial theater but only if it's there's a newly-struck print circulating and/or a director's cut. Why not play an old film just because it's good? Classics, cult faves - there's so many great films to choose from. We're a college town which means that each fall thousands of kids move here needing indoctrination. Yet there's a a paucity of Monty Python films, David Lynch, Mel Brooks, et al. How about a blue movie to remind them that people used to watch pr0n in actual theaters and not at home on a computer screen? I suppose this wouldn't fly here, Madison being too PC. (30+ years ago, there were blue movies at the Union, if I'm not mistaken. And back then they rioted to end a war. Nowadays, there's no porn and no riots. Is there a connection here?)

Hell, the owner could make a pitch to families. I attended a showing of Mary Poppins last year in Chicago which was jam-packed with parents and their kids. It was a sing-along version with the lyrics to the songs put onscreen with a little ball bouncing atop them to help the audience.

While the joint certainly can't be all things to all people, I think they'd have to do some counterprogramming to survive. Find some way to complement the Orpheum's programming yet, at the same time, carve out a niche of its own.