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Detroit's Senate Theater is preparing to show a first-run feature for the first time in decades.
The 100-year-old theater, which is known for its revival showings and its Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, will show "Maddie's Secret" on Friday, marking the first time since the late 1950s the theater has screened a first-run movie.
"Maddie's Secret" is writer-director John Early's comedy about a Los Angeles food influencer (Early) and her hidden demons. It boldly mixes elements of satire and sincerity, part Lifetime Original Movie and part alt-comedy skit about Lifetime Original Movies, and it makes for a smart, fresh, original vision.
The Senate's Nick Baldwin says it has been part of the theater's mission to screen newer films.
"Within last year, with the absence of indie cinema around Metro Detroit, we have tried to fill that gap," says Baldwin, the Senate's senior programmer.
One hurdle is the theater is not outfitted with a Digital Cinema Package, which is how most movies screen in theaters and multiplexes these days.
But conversations with distributor Magnolia Pictures revealed a workaround, and it was happy to offer "Maddie's Secret" to the theater. The film will screen just once, at 8 p.m. Friday, and Baldwin says response has already been positive.
"I talked to one person who said they were bringing 15 people, and said I better have some seats saved for them," Baldwin says. "It's boding well for the future of first-run films at the Senate."
The Senate was a first-run theater from its opening in 1926 until around 1959, Baldwin says. The building then became primarily a venue for organ concerts, and as those audiences dwindled over the decades, the theater began showing screenings of revival films in 2010.
Today the theater programs a full slate of classics, B-movies and cult films; the theater hosted a Barbara Stanwyck tribute weekend in March.
In October, the Senate will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a screening of 1926's "The Volga Boatman," which was the first movie to ever screen at the theater. Tickets, $15, are on sale now through the Senate's website.
"Maddie's Secret" opened in limited release in Metro Detroit earlier this month, and has earned about $1 million in its theatrical run to-date.
Baldwin hasn't seen it yet — he's waiting, he says — but he's heard it favorably compared to the work of John Waters.
"It seems like it's going to be very much in our wheelhouse," he says.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Senate Theater prepares to show its first 'new' movie since 1950s
