10 Most Haunted Theaters in the World
The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesBoston University Theatre
Boston, MA
Opened: 1923
In the mid-1920s, Australian actor and stage impresario Henry Jewett established the Repertory Theatre of Boston as a home for his acting troupe, the Henry Jewett Players. Within five years, the company went bankrupt and the theater became a movie house. Legend has it that an inconsolable Jewett, who died in 1930, hanged himself under the stage. His ghost continued to linger after the Huntington Theatre Company took over the theater in the 1980s, appearing the in back row during rehearsals and messing around with lighting cues. And he’s not the only haunter here: "The Lady in White," the ghost of a wardrobe mistress, hangs out in the lounge.
AlamyHuguan Huiguan Opera House
Beijing, China
Opened: 1807
Part of a complex of traditional buildings, this bright-red opera house–cum-museum is one of the main performance sites of the famous Beijing Opera. During World War II, a philanthropist built housing for the poor near the theater—and according to creepy lore, he leveled an ancient burial ground in the process. These days, disembodied screaming and wailing is supposedly heard in the theater’s courtyard. And if you throw a stone while you’re standing in it, a ghostly voice will shout at you to cut it out.
AlamyFord Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theater
Chicago, IL
Opened: 1903 (Current building: 1926)
Just as the Titanic was declared "unsinkable," Chicago’s Iroquois Theatre was advertised as "absolutely fireproof." The opposite turned out to be true when the deadliest theater fire in American history occurred here a month after the theater opened, during a sold-out performance of Mr. Bluebeard. More than 600 perished. The Iroquois was eventually torn down and the Oriental built on the same site, but spirits of the dead remained: apparitions have been seen in the alley behind the theater where bodies were stacked in the wake of the disaster, dubbed "Death Alley." SNL alum Ana Gasteyer claims to have gotten the creeps while performing at the theater in Wicked.
AlamyDock Street Theatre
Charleston, SC
Opened: 1736 (Current building: 1809)
One of the oldest theaters in America, this site in downtown Charleston racked up a lot of tumult and history over the years. After a fire burned down the original theater, the Planters Inn was built on the spot; it was converted back to a theater in the 1930s. The most flamboyant ghost here is Nettie Dickerson, a prostitute who, legend has it, was struck by lightning while standing on the balcony of the hotel. Her shade has been reported gliding along the second floor of the theater, crazy-eyed and dressed in a red gown. Also in otherworldly attendance: Junius Brutus Booth, a renowned 19th-century actor (and the father of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes) who used to frequent the inn.
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Public DomainNew Amsterdam Theatre
New York, NY
Opened: 1903
Olive Thomas’s story reads like the plot of a Broadway musical: She came to Manhattan at the age of 16, quickly won the title of "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City," and became a member of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies. She died in 1920 at the age of 25 after swallowing mercury pills; but it wasn’t long before her specter was spotted backstage at the New Amsterdam, in full Follies regalia and carrying a blue pill bottle. She’s been spotted many times since at the theater, almost exclusively by men. Theater employees still bid good morning and good night to her portraits hanging backstage.
GettyPalace Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
Opened: 1911
This space, which began life as a vaudeville house, had a second life as a movie theater—and it’s still the oldest one in L.A. The marquee was famously the backdrop for Michael Jackson’s "Thriller," but there are some real chills here, too. Its upper balcony, built to seat African-American audience members during the bad old days of segregation, has a separate entrance from the rest of the Palace that’s been closed to the public for years; but that hasn’t stopped mysterious figures from materializing there. A woman in a lace gown has been spotted crossing the stage before vanishing behind the curtain.
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Bettmann/CorbisPalace Theatre
New York, NY
Opened: 1913
In its heyday, the Palace was the nerve center of the vaudeville circuit—and some of those who made it here apparently never left, with more than 100 spirits supposedly stalking the theater. The most illustrious phantom is Judy Garland, who performed there in the 1950s and appears near a door in the orchestra pit. The shade of Louis Bossalina, an acrobat who was gravely injured during a high-wire act in 1935, sometimes recreates his botched performance. Other phantoms include a white-gowned cellist, a little boy playing with toy trucks, and a melancholy young girl in the balcony.
AlamyPalais Garnier
Paris, France
Opened: 1875
Thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber and his power chords, the Phantom of the Opera is the first name that springs to mind when most people think of theatrical phantasms. But there’s a surprising amount of fact embedded into Gastón Leroux’s 1910 novel: There really is an underground lake (well, a giant water tank) beneath the Paris Opera’s Palais Garnier, and the theater’s opulent chandelier really did fall in 1896, killing a construction worker. Depending on who you talk to, there might have even been a deformed guy named Erik who helped build the opera house and lived in a secret apartment underneath. And while his skeleton was never found, something else from Leroux’s novel was: a collection of phonographic recordings of some of the Paris Opera’s most famous singers, uncovered in the cellars in 2007.
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AlamyTheatre Royal, Drury Lane
London, U.K.
Opened: 1663 (Current building: 1812)
There’s been a theater on the site of this Covent Garden playhouse since 1663, making it the oldest continually operating theater in London. Over the centuries, it’s racked up its fair share of ghosts. The most famous is “The Man in Grey,” an 18th-century gentleman in a tricorner hat whose apparition has been spotted in the upper box by countless actors, audience members and stage hands over the years, His appearance is said to bring good luck to shows.
AlamySt. James Theatre
Wellington, New Zealand
Opened: 1912
This storied theater in New Zealand’s capital has a long history of presenting all sorts of culture, including operas, ballets, and movies. It also happens to be lousy with supernatural phenomena. A friendly ghost named Yuri, a Russian dancer who fell to his death onstage, has been responsible for strange electrical occurrences—and, supposedly, for twice saving the life of one of the St. James’s projectionists. Less benevolent is "The Wailing Woman," the spirit of a failed actress who has been known to weep in the dressing rooms and is blamed for unfortunate circumstances that have befallen other female performers at the theater.