Last updated on 2014.11.14
In somewhat better local economic news, Madison's movie theater is reopening next week. Owner Todd Frager shut the West Twin Theater down at the beginning of October to give the place its first real renovation since it opened back in the late 1970s. The main upgrade is to digital projection equipment, but we can hope the renovation has also upgraded the movie house itself, which over four decades had declined to an embarrassing state of disrepair.
Alas, the rechristened Madison Theatre loses the distinction of being a two-screen cineplex. Evidently we're down to a one-screen house... which is fine, because really, how many good movies are out there?* Update 2014.11.13 09:32 CST: Mistake on my part! Cinema manager Carol Frager calls me today after hearing some confused stories about this blog post at the Community Center and tells me that her son Todd Frager has not gutted the interior and consolidated screens. The newly rechristened Madison Theatre still has two screens! But during this first reinaugural week, the Madison Theatre will show just one film.
The cinema grandly reopens with a special early showing of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 on Thursday, November 20, at 8 p.m. (for seven bucks!).
Note that this community cultural preservation is brought to you by government intervention, in the form of an economic development loan coordinated by the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. LAIC director Julie Gross says the theater renovation "coincides with the mission of the Madison Downtown and Beyond taskforce, which is committed to enhancing the vitality of the Madison area." Emphasis on Beyond, of course, since the Madison Theatre is located one mile west of downtown, at the back of a gravel parking lot, along a state highway with no sidewalks where kids can ride their bicycles.