Salt Lake City’s new Broadway-style theater is still under construction but officials announced today they’ve already booked a show.
Disney’s The Lion King will hit the stage at the new George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Theater in spring 2017 alongside an entire season of first-run touring Broadway projections. The 2015-2016 Broadway season will be announced in April. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker says while the Lion King has come through Utah before, it was a pared down version of the Broadway show.
“We’re getting a production that Salt Lake City has never seen before,” Becker says. “Because we have a theater now that will be able to accommodate the full show of Lion King.”
The 2,500 seat performance hall is the centerpiece. But the development also boasts a grand lobby, a black box theater and a new Regents Street development to the east that connects City Creek Center and Gallivan Center. Becker expects the street to be bustling year-round with patrons who come for the art and retail.
“All of these things are going on concurrently in a way I think is just going to just add a new exciting dimension and activity generator and economic generator for downtown Salt Lake and the whole region,” Becker says.
The theater is paid for with a combination of private donations and earmarked property taxes intended for downtown redevelopment.
The planned opening is fall 2016.
