The Orpheum Theatre — Boston’s Oldest Entertainment Venue

With a professional background as an IT security engineer, Wayne Nordstrom is also a longtime rock drummer who has toured across North America and Europe. Having played in many of Boston’s most storied venues, Wayne Nordstrom had the privilege of appearing on stage at the Orpheum Theatre.

Established in 1852 as the Music Hall, the Orpheum Theatre is the oldest Boston entertainment venue and played host to the Handel and Haydn Society on its opening night. It subsequently became the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO) home base and hosted numerous oratory engagements by the likes of Frederick Douglass, Oscar Wilde, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

With the BSO moving to the Symphony Hall in the Fenway neighborhood 1900, the music hall turned to vaudeville acts and took the name Orpheum Theatre in 1906. Following a complete renovation, the theater gained its current configuration in 1916 as a movie and vaudeville house.

Shifting to all movies by the 1930s, the Orpheum was renamed Aquarius in the early 1970s and once again featured live artists such as James Brown. After a brief interlude under control of the Boston Opera Company, the venue returned to hosting rock and pop acts, and bands such as U2, Aerosmith, and The Police have graced its stage. Today the Orpheum hosts top music acts and is also a staging ground for family-focused musical extravaganzas.