Napa Goes Uptown

The town of Napa, Calif., is known for the surrounding namesake valley and wine country but, thanks to George Altamura, it’s also beginning to make a name for itself as a live music haven thanks to his restoration of the city’s Uptown Theatre.

The onetime movie palace, like so many others that have since been converted to concert halls, had become decrepit, thanks in part to former owners who divided the original 2,000-seat theatre into a four-screen multiplex.

But with the help of Altamura, his family and concert pros like Meyers Sound and consultants who have worked on the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, the Uptown has been restored to its 1937 Art Deco glory while sporting modern touches.

Altamura told the San Francisco Chronicle he has no idea how much he spent on the restoration since purchasing the property in 2000. “When I first came in it was a piece of sh—,” he told the paper. “The walls were all plaster. There were cheap curtains all the way down to the floor. The ceiling was all smashed. The whole place was cut up.”

He began construction in 2005, including restoration of a freestanding box office, original Art Deco murals, sconces and other architectural touches. A demolition crew discovered a Greco-Roman style mural underneath a wall of Sheetrock. Altamura enlisted artists that worked on ceilings at the Bellagio in Las Vegas to restore fine details.

The capacity was reduced to about 850 to accommodate a stage expansion for concerts and the installation of wider seats, according to the Chronicle.

Altamura enlisted the help of talent buyer Elizabeth Rush, based in New York, to assist executive director Sheila Groves-Tracy in booking artists.

In the last seven months since Altamura reopened the Uptown’s doors, the venue has hosted artists such as Rosanne Cash, B.B. King, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Satriani and Boz Scaggs.

And in a nod to its location, the Uptown Theatre offers packages that include hotel stays and dinner or lunch for two at world-class dining destinations such as the French Laundry, Morimoto Napa, La Tocque and Michael Chiarello’s Bottega.