The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts

The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts is Worcester's grand downtown showplace — a 2,300-seat restored palace at 2 Southbridge Street, in the heart of the city's Theatre District. Opened in 1904 as the Franklin Square Theatre and rebuilt in 1925 by Thomas W. Lamb for vaudeville magnate Sylvester Poli, the house went dark in 1998 and reopened in March 2008 after a $31 million restoration led by the nonprofit Worcester Center for the Performing Arts — work that earned a National Trust for Historic Preservation award. The Main Stage now carries touring Broadway, concerts, dance, family shows, silent films accompanied on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ and marquee standup: Bert Kreischer, Jeff Dunham, John Cleese and Whose Live Anyway? all play the 2026–27 season. The organization also runs its own resident company, The Hanover Theatre Repertory (THT Rep), the 300-seat BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Arts Center a block away on Franklin Street, and a performing-arts conservatory teaching acting, ballet and technical theatre.