By Heidi Glaus
St. Louis (KSDK) -- NewsChannel 5 viewer Marge Paszek grew up going to the Peabody Opera House, so she wanted to know if the acoustics have changed since it reopened. NewsChannel 5's Heidi Glaus found out the answer in this week's Hey Heidi! segment.
It is the place the Rat Pack played, where the Rolling Stones owned the stage and Bob Hope shared his sense humor.
The Peabody Opera house is back in business.
"I think the original structure of the building in 1934 is what did it all we didn't have to come back in and redesign anything," explains Matthew Dewey, director of operations at Peabody Opera House.
And yes it sounds as good, maybe even better than it did before.
"Back when it was built it didn't have the acoustical enhancements that they have today with PA, so it was designed for an actor or singer to be able to project their voice all on their own to get it to the back of the room," Dewey says.
These days, it has all the bells and whistles of today's technology plus sound panels have been added, but that's not what Matthew Dewey thinks is most amazing.
"I think people would be most amazed to be able to stand where we are and to the back of the theater at 155 feet and actually hear our conversations in an empty house," Dewey goes on to say.
To demonstrate that, I did my entire interview with Marty Brooks, the general manager of Peabody Opera House and Scottrade Center, with me standing on the stage and Marty sitting in the very last seat, in the very top row.
"Well, just as important as the acoustics are inside of the building, as far as presenting what the show has brought to us, it was equally important to us the two buildings Scottrade Center and Peabody Opera House are acoustically separated," Brooks explains.
They had to make sure if there was a show at the Peabody, the crowd wouldn't know if the St. Louis Blues scored at Scottrade.
"So we built a 60 foot high by approximately 100 foot wide wall, three foot cinder block wall between the two buildings," Brooks adds.
So you won't hear what's going on at Scottrade Center if you're at the Peabody, but be careful what you whisper to your neighbor because the guy in the last row might hear you.
Tours of the Peabody Opera House are available for groups of 20 or more. Reservations are required two weeks in advance. To make a reservation call 314-499-7602.
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