Marigny Theater , 170 years of varied and original entertainment

The Marigny theater is located in the Marigny square of the Champs-Élysées gardens, at the corner of the avenue des Champs-Élysées and the avenue de Marigny, in the 8th district of Paris.

Origin of the Marigny Theater

After the revolution of 1848, a small theater, called "the Château d'enfer", directed by Lacaze, presented shows of "amusing physics, phantasmagoria and curiosity" - in fact, prestidigitation.

This modest attraction had to close its doors, but Jacques Offenbach obtained the right to use it, judging it to be the ideal location in view of the 1855 Universal Exhibition. After some work, he opened the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens on July 5, 1855, which was soon renamed Bouffes d'été, as Offenbach's troupe found refuge during the winter at the Bouffes d'hiver, on rue Monsigny (this theatre was to retain the name of the Bouffes-Parisiens theater until today).

The fashion of the "panoramas"

After a succession of owners, the theater was demolished in 1881 to give way in 1883 to a "panorama" built by Charles Garnier, the architect of the Paris Opera. In 1885, one can admire the dioramas Paris through the ages in eight paintings by Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer (1839-1922) and Jerusalem by Olivier Pichat.

The birth of the Marigny Theater

The Panorama was transformed into a rotunda theater in 1894 by the architect Édouard Niermans. Directed by Abel Deval from 1910 onwards, the theatre continued to produce successful productions. The theatre was further enlarged and modernized in 1925 by its new director, Léon Volterra, who was already at the head of the Théâtre de Paris and the Eden.

The Renaud-Barrault Company

In 1946, he handed over the management of the theater to his wife, Simone Volterra, who called on former members of the Comédie-Française to form an "in-house" troupe around Jean-Louis Barrault: the Renaud-Barrault Company was born.

In 1954, Jean-Louis Barrault built a second small room in the theater, the Petit-Marigny.

Finally, from 1966 to 1978, the direction was assured by the actress Elvire Popesco, assisted by Hubert de Malet and Robert Manuel. Jean Bodson succeeded them and undertook important renovation works, as well as the total transformation of the second room into a small theater with 311 seats, the Gabriel room, renamed a few years later the Popesco room.

Recent evolution of the Marigny Theater

The concession of the theater (the walls belonging to the City of Paris) is granted in 2000 to the holding Artemis of François Pinault. The management is entrusted to Robert Hossein from 2000 to 2008, then to Pierre Lescure from 2008.

Closed since July 2013, rehabilitation work must be done at the end of which the company Fimalac replaces the Vinci group. The artistic direction of the place is entrusted to Jean-Luc Choplin, former director of the Châtelet theater, which focuses its programming on musical theater. The reopening takes place in November 2018 with the stage adaptation of the musical film by Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand, Peau d'âne

The television show "Au théâtre ce soir"

The Marigny theater hosted, from 1966 to 1988, the television show "Au théâtre ce soir", as well as several Molières ceremonies.

Small story of a miscellaneous event

On June 1, 1938, Ödön von Horváth, a German playwright and writer, died in front of the theater, killed by a chestnut tree branch torn off by a storm. In 1998, a plaque in homage to Ödön von Horváth was affixed by his publisher, Thomas Sessler Verlag, on the left façade of the Théâtre Marigny (Paris 8e).