Millwald Theatre ready for reopening

WYTHEVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - There’s a lot of history in Millwald Theatre and on Dec. 9, more will be made.

Live music is returning to the theatre’s stage.

”For all the people that came and came to this theater from 1928 until it shut down in early 2000s, when they come in this theater, we see people break down and cry,” Millwald Theatre Board Member Randy Jones said. “I mean, it’s that emotional.”

The Millwald Theatre first opened 94 years ago.

“It’s an old art deco theater,” Executive Director of the Millwald Theatre Jeff Potts said. “We’ve updated everything with modern technology so our concert system, state of the art, our cinema system is going to be amazing.”

With around 500 seats, he hopes to make this a concert hot spot for southwest Virginia.

“Our goal is 45,000 visitors every calendar year so we hope to do about 150 events in 2023,” Potts said.

With numbers like that, the entire community will benefit.

“People are going to come early, they’re going to eat out at restaurants, they’re going to stay late and go to our breweries,” Potts said. “Hopefully they spend a night in our hotels and before you know it, they spent a whole weekend down here.”

In the meantime, the Millwald is excited to bring in over 400 people for its first show on December 9..

“It’s always been a dream to bring this theater back to its true glory,” Jones said.

Now that dream is a reality.

This will be one of the most emotional nights ever, I think in Wytheville’s history,” Jones said.

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