Welcome to the Eccles! Salt Lake City's New Performing Arts Center Kicks Off Its 2016-17 Broadway Season

The opening of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical wasn't the only thing making the earth move under people's feet in Salt Lake City. The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater in downtown SLC kicked off its 2016-17 Broadway season on November 15 with the opening of the hit bio-musical that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King. Beautiful ran at the Eccles Theater through November 20; and next up is Irving Berlin's White Christmas, which will play December 6 through December 11.

Designed by world-renowned architect César Pelli, co-owned by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, and operated by the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts, the state-of-the-art theater features the 2,500-seat Delta Performance Hall, the 140-seat Regent Street Theater, event and rehearsal spaces, a five-story grand lobby, the outdoor McCarthey Plaza and the in-venue Encore Bistro.

The $119 million theater, built to attract traveling Broadway musicals, boasts a facade of steel and glass that lets light pour into a vaulted five-story lobby, while giving theatergoers a panoramic view of Main Street. The stage and seating inside allow perfect sight-lines from all vantage points.

"The opening of the beautiful Eccles Theater will bring new opportunity for the arts right in the heart of the downtown cultural core," said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, in a statement. "This space will bring with it unique creative energy helping further establish Salt Lake City as the arts and culture destination it is today."

In addition to Beautiful and White Christmas, the Zions Bank Broadway at the Eccles 2016-2017 season includes Broadway blockbusters Kinky Boots, Matilda The Musical, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, Dirty Dancing—The Classic Story On Stage, the farewell tour of Mamma Mia!, Disney's The Lion King and The Book of Mormon.

To get a spectacular in-depth look at the Eccles Theater and to learn more about the story of the performance space, featuring interviews with the team of visionary leaders, legacy donors, lead architect and public officials, watch the videos below!