New stage opens in Seattle

If you think you are hip to the theater scene in Seattle, answer this question: What is WaMu?

It’s OK if you don’t know. You’re in good company. And you haven’t missed anything either because it hasn’t even opened yet.

WaMu is Seattle’s latest theater venue. It has a flexible seating arrangement of between 3,300 and 7,000 within Seattle’s Qwest Field Event Center.

It’s actually a portable theater, put up and taken down when needed.

The state-of-the-art music and live entertainment venue will showcase the industry’s newest sound, lighting and other technological features. The theater’s unusual design and versatility can accommodate corporate and special events, seminars and television productions all in record changeover time.

Opening night for the theater is Nov. 3, and performer Seal is the headline act, with appearances by Paul Allen’s band and members of the Seattle Seahawks. Seal is followed by singer Van Morrison Nov. 4.

WaMu came about in a partnership between AEG Live, an entertainment company that deals with live acts, and Seattle-based First &Goal Inc., a company formed by Paul Allen in 1997 after voters in Washington state approved the construction of a new football and soccer stadium and adjoining event center on the site of the former Kingdome. FGI is the developer and operator of Qwest Field and Qwest Field Event Center.

Seattle-based Washington Mutual agreed to a 10-year naming rights agreement for the new venue, hence the name WaMu Theater.

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