Charleston Municipal Auditorium is a public

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

in Charleston, West Virginia, as part of the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. It was constructed in 1939 and is a large monolithic concrete and steel structure, situated in the southwestern section of Charleston's central business district. It is an example of the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

architectural style in a public building and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1999. With a capacity of 3,483 (2,377 on the orchestra level and 1,106 on the balcony), the Municipal Auditorium is the largest theater in West Virginia.

Concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...

s, graduations,

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

stage shows and other special events, including the annual presentation of ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

'', are held on the auditorium's 65-by-85.5-foot stage.Municipal Auditorium at CharlestonWVCivicCenter.com
Country music singer Hank Williams (1923-1953) was scheduled to perform a New Year's Eve show at the auditorium on December 31, 1952. Due to bad weather in Nashville, he was not able to fly to the venue. While en route to the New Year's Day show in Canton, Ohio, Williams

died Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

of heart failure in the back seat of his Cadillac near Oak Hill, West Virginia.

References

External links

* Art Deco architecture in West Virginia Theatres completed in 1939 Buildings and structures in Charleston, West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, West Virginia Performing arts centers in West Virginia Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Concert halls in the United States {{KanawhaCountyWV-NRHP-stub