# Pantages Theater

The 1918 vaudeville house on Broadway, now Tacoma's touring Broadway and symphony stage. 1,274 seats, a box office that opens one afternoon a week, and a full calendar of one-night shows.

Canonical URL: https://tacomairl.com/places/pantages-theater/
Section: places
Area: Downtown
Published: 2026-10-25
Last fact check: 2026-10-25
Status: Not marked closed; check official information
Location: Downtown, Broadway
Address: 901 Broadway, Tacoma, WA, 98402, US
Price: Per show. Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster and each event page; the box office sells in person at 901 Broadway.
Official information: https://www.tacomacitytheaters.org/about/history
Box office: Wednesday 12–4pm. Closed other days, with extended hours on performance days.
Performances: Evening and matinee times vary by show. Check the venue calendar.

The Pantages Theater opened in **January 1918** as a vaudeville and motion picture house, one of the theatres Alexander Pantages booked through a circuit that ran from Tacoma to the rest of the continent. It holds **1,274 seats** and the venue's own history describes the interior as designed in the tradition of the Palace at Versailles.

Today it is the biggest of the Tacoma City Theaters venues and the one touring shows, the symphony and the ballet use. If a national tour comes through Tacoma, it is usually here.

## Buying a ticket

Tickets run through Ticketmaster and through each show's own event page, not from a single season box office. The in-person box office sits just outside the theatre at **901 Broadway**: it is open **Wednesdays from noon to 4pm**, closed the rest of the week, and extends its hours on performance days. The number is 253-591-5894.

That one-afternoon-a-week schedule catches people out. If you want to buy in person, Wednesday afternoon is the window; otherwise buy online and treat the box office as a place to ask questions on the night.

## Before you pick seats

The venue publishes seating charts for each theater, and a 1918 house does not have the same sightlines as a modern road venue. If the show matters, look at the chart rather than taking the cheapest pair at the back.

## Nearby

The [Rialto Theater](https://tacomairl.com/places/rialto-theater/) around the corner on South 9th is the smaller, older Tacoma City Theaters room and hosts the funkier bookings. [Theatre on the Square](https://www.tacomacitytheaters.org/about/history) is the third venue in the group.

For a full evening downtown, [Museum of Glass](https://tacomairl.com/places/museum-of-glass/) and [Tacoma Art Museum](https://tacomairl.com/places/tam/) are a few blocks downhill, [McMenamins Elks Temple](https://tacomairl.com/places/mcmenamins-elks-temple/) is the nearest place for a drink afterwards, and [King's Books](https://tacomairl.com/places/kings-books/) is the best way to spend an hour before a show. Our [rainy Sunday guide](https://tacomairl.com/guides/rainy-sunday/) covers the daytime version of the same downtown walk.

Image: https://tacomairl.com/images/pantages-theater.webp
Alt: The white stone facade of the Pantages Theater, with arched windows, a decorative cornice and its vertical blade sign, seen up the Broadway slope under a grey sky.
Image credit: Photo: Visitor7
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pantages_(Tacoma,_Washington).jpg
Image rights: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Photo details: https://tacomairl.com/photo-details/pantages-theater/

## Sources

- [Tacoma City Theaters: Pantages history, opening year, seat count and design](https://www.tacomacitytheaters.org/about/history)
- [Tacoma City Theaters: box office location and hours](https://www.tacomacitytheaters.org/events/box-office)