Farewell (for Now) to the Paramount

For decades, Austin’s theatregoers, movie lovers, and music fans have all shared the same experience. Trying to cram themselves into the small, awkward seats of the Paramount Theatre. They’ve all shared that creak of the hinges, that wobble on the rows with loose bolts. Then there’s the challenging decision for taller guests, of where to stick your legs without ramming them into the back of the seat in front of you or uncomfortably angling them into your neighbor.

I personally will always remember watching a double bill of 1950s 3D monster movies at the Paramount, sat perilously on that oddly crunchy crushed velvet upholstery, and standing up afterwards both queasy from the red-and-blue cardboard glasses and seemingly unable to unbend my knees.

That era of familiar discomfort came to an end today as Austinites gathered for a last look around the Paramount as it has stood for over five decades. Next time they step inside, in mid-2027, it will be like the old saying: Everything old is new again.

It’s been a packed week at the Paramount before it goes dark for an estimated 11 months to allow for a huge renovation and restoration project. Friday saw Ruthie Foster kick off her 2026 tour, while Sunday gave the last pre-revamp performance to Joe Jackson – and in the middle of that, the team crammed in a sold-out screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But closing out this era of the Paramount was Monday night’s Last Call, which Austin Theatre Alliance CEO Jim Ritts described as “a chance for the public to come in, have a happy hour, have a toast to her, and say goodbye to her for the next ten-and-a-half, eleven months.”

That 11 months is just part one of a two-part process: First the Paramount will close for a restoration, then it will be the turn of the State Theatre next door. Between them, two of Austin’s biggest stages will be dark for nearly two years. In these final few hours at the Paramount, guests milled around in the auditorium, holding drinks and popcorn sold to them at 1970s prices ($1 for a Lone Star, anyone?). Areas normally off-limits to the general public were open and staffed with volunteers eager to answer questions about the theatre’s history and future. Many visitors rounded out their trip getting a photo in front of the original painted fire curtain, the same one that hung in the rafters when the building opened as the Majestic in 1915. For many audience members, it’s a sad if temporary goodbye, but for Ritts it’s the culmination of years of planning. “I would not be being truthful if I didn’t say it was incredibly exciting and edifying to see it all taking place.”

Saying goodbye to those chairs is a bittersweet experience. On one hand, this is the biggest outpouring of sentiment for theatre seats since the last night of the original Alamo Drafthouse on Colorado in 2006, when attendees were handed wrenches and took the rickety old chairs home with them. At the same time, no one is really going to miss their unique brand of butt-numbing that much. “Universally,” Ritts said, “the first question people ask me when they ask about the full restoration of the Paramount is, ‘Are you getting new seats?’ and the answer is yes.”

The seating is just one element of the biggest rehab the Paramount has seen since the 1970s. That’s when John Bernardoni, Charles Eckerman, and Stephen Scott saved the now legendary theatre from demolition.

At that point, it was a B-movie cinema, verging on a grindhouse, and scheduled for demolition. It was going to be demolished and turned into a Holiday Inn, but the Three Wise Men, as they were known, stepped in with zero cash and even less experience to rebuild and renew the grande dame of Congress Avenue. As for the neighboring State, that last underwent a refurbishment in 2006 after a major flood destroyed much of the seating and backstage area. Now both will undergo extensive refurbishments, totaling an estimated $55 million.

Yet while the two theatres are neighbors, these are two very different tasks, with different challenges.

Under architectural restoration firm DLR Group, the Paramount will be restored to its former glories, and more so. Later additions will be pulled out, while the sound and light systems that currently hang off scaffolding will be brought up to date and integrated into the design. The work will also entail completing a lost project from the original 1915 designs of architect John Eberson for a lounge on the third floor, to be dubbed JP’s Peace Love and Happiness Lounge. There will be those new seats, but also repairs to the historic structure, like the cracked plaster and peeling paint that will be returned to something closer to its original color scheme. There will also be changes to the lobby, with the removal of the current angled floor and a new ADA-compliant ramp for disability access.

However, Ritts noted, no one will be touching the legendary Houdini Hole, reportedly drilled in the ceiling painting of St. Cecilia in 1916 by the great illusionist, Harry Houdini, for a levitation trick. That would be one repair too far.

In some ways, even though it will be more expensive and take an estimated 14 months, the State will be the easier of the two projects. To begin with, there will be none of the delicacy involved in a historic restoration. Instead, the engineers and architects will be stripping the whole interior back to the struts and building a whole new complex, complete with elevators, new rooftop and basement bars, and a completely redesigned auditorium, with a new balcony, increased seating capacity and the ability to remove the orchestra seating for concerts.

However, none of that can start until the Paramount is restored, and that’s become a longer job. When the ATA first formally announced the restoration back in November 2025, the estimate was that the job would take eight to nine months. Now, after further consultation with the city, that’s gone up to 11 months. Ritts said, “As you go through the entire planning process, the complete sets of drawings and go into the city for approval, you just learn that certain things are going to take a little longer here and there.” The current estimate is that construction should be complete by April 28 of next year, and they’ve also added some buffer and handover time, “so we don’t end up booking shows and having to cancel them. … Our expectation is that, by the end of May or the first week of June, that we would have live shows. If it goes faster than that, then yay.”

The end result is a change to the original renovation timeline, and an impact to Austin’s cultural calendar and footprint. Of course, the Summer Classic Film Series will continue at the State, but for the first time in series history there will also be IMAX screenings at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The season will include large format outings for Interstellar, Mad Max: Fury Road, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and both The Wizard of Oz and Titanic in 3D, and will kick off June 16 with a screening of Steven Spielberg’s original summer blockbuster, Jaws.

That’s one of many partnerships that Ritts and the ATA have been nurturing across town to allow the show to go on. The Paramount has already announced several off-campus … well, actually, on-campus shows for later in the year, with standup legends Comedy Bang! Bang! bringing their Ground Beefing Tour to the Hogg Memorial Auditorium on the UT campus. Plus, rather aptly, the Bored Teachers’ show Is It Friday Yet? makes a September stop at the AISD Performing Arts Center.

Of course, festivals like South by Southwest and the ATX TV Festival that use the Paramount as a central screening room have also made alternative arrangements. Austin Film Festival, the first regular resident to be impacted and the first to announce its plans, will also be using the Hogg Auditorium as a venue. Ritts praised Hogg’s own recent multimillion-dollar renovations, adding, “I’m happy that AFF is going to work with them.”

However, arguably the festival that’s closest to home for the Austin Theatre Alliance is Moontower Comedy, the weeklong laugh-a-thon that they founded and run. The hope with the original eight-month construction schedule was that the Paramount would be back up and running as the marquee stage for the 2027 festival. But the longer timeline means that the team had to make a big decision: Change the dates or just not use their home base. But with so many moving parts, so many touring acts already booking dates for next year, and so many partner venues already involved, Moontower will be holding on to its regular April calendar slot. “The Paramount Theatre won’t be a part of it,” Ritts said, “but the State Theatre will be, all the club shows, and then as in the past we’ll produce at other places with some of those headliners.”

Of course, there may be some bumps along the road, but Ritts is confident that the alliance and its theatres are in a good position to weather the surprise extra time the Paramount will be dark. It’s not just the ongoing Shine On fundraising campaign and continued ticket sales at other venues, but also a dedication to getting the alliance on a strong financial footing. Ritts said, “We’ve been preparing for over 10 years for this.”

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