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About

 The Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts (known in previous incarnations as the Walker Theatre and the Odeon Cinema) is a 1646-seat theatre designed by Howard Stone C. Stone and built expressly for quality live entertainment in 1907 by C.P. and Harriet Walker. The theatre was built for the then astronomical price of $330,000.00 (ten times the cost of an equivalent wood structure) and was officially opened on February 18th, 1907 with the New England Opera Company’s production of Madame Butterfly, starring Florence Easton. Opening night saw a veritable who’s-who of Canadian society in attendance. Speeches were delivered from Lt. Governor Daniel MacMillan, Premier Rodman Roblin and Mayor James Ashdown.
From opening in 1907 until World War One, the Walker Theatre ran with scarcely a “dark” night and was the center of cultural activity in Winnipeg. Impresario Corliss Powers Walker’s “Bread Basket Circuit” (consisting of theatres in the northern mid-west United States and Winnipeg) had sufficient purchasing power to secure the highest level touring productions of opera, theatre, music, ballet and vaudeville from New York and London. The Walker season ran for twelve months of the year.
The theatre served as a grand live theatre until 1933, when, with crippling competition from the film industry and the effect of the Great Depression at its height, the Walker Theatre closed, only to be seized by the City of Winnipeg for back taxes owing, in 1936.

Since re-opening, the theatre has won recognition as one of the most outstanding live performance theatres in Canada, and has been designated a Grade One Heritage Building and both a Provincial and National Historic site.

In August, 2002, the Walker Theatre was re-named The Burton Cummings Theatre for the Performing Arts, in recognition of one of Winnipeg’s most outstanding singer/songwriter/entertainers, who has distinguished himself on the world’s stage and continues to make his home in Winnipeg.