CineVita Brings Cinema To Life With Old Hollywood Aesthetic

It’s not every day one has an opportunity to experience live music in a spiegeltent, especially in a greater Los Angeles area chock full of venues of all sizes with busy schedules. But in a world of innovative pop-ups and demand for unique experiences, theatrical production company For The Record teamed up with West Coast Spiegeltents and Hollywood Park to take cinephiles and music aficionados back to the Golden Age of entertainment.

They call it CineVita, the largest double-decker tent in the world that will host series that bring films to life with live music from the soundtrack along with a narrative that weaves plots and characters from beloved movies. The 750-capacity venue located across from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and designed like a 1920s theater officially opened Feb. 13 with “Tarantino: Pulp Rock,” culminating what’s been a 15-year journey that began at a 50-seat bar in Los Feliz.

“We had this lightning in a bottle that we created in Los Angeles, and we had this really special way of reexperiencing the movies and music in a way that nobody else was doing,” Anderson Davis, For The Record’s co-creator and artistic director, told Pollstar. “But we realized early on that the venue is really a major part of the experience, and not just as in where you perform the show but the entire experience. From the moment [the audience] walks through the door, the service, the food, the beverage and the way seating is arranged, everything about it was so vital to the success of our shows.”

After years of bouncing from venue to venue in L.A. and taking the show on the road to as far as London, For The Record was looking for a place they could call home, one that they could pack up and take with them wherever there was demand.

That line of thinking is how Shane Scheel, the production company’s executive producer and co-creator, found Peter Goossens of West Coast Spiegeltents, a company based in Santa Clarita with close ties to the Klessens family, who are fourth-generation spiegeltent builders from Belgium. Goossens showed them what is referred to as the Queen of Flanders, and it was love at first sight.

Spiegeltents are essentially known as “magic mirror tents” and were originally built in the late 19^th century. The Klessens family has built such structures for over 100 years.

For The Record reportedly raised over $4 million to build the tent amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and Goossens and the Klessens quickly got to work on a portable venue unlike they’ve ever constructed. The 15,000-square-foot spiegeltent was carefully built using ornate wood-carved detailing and about 3,000 hand-cut stained-glass windows. It features seating booths as well as tables and chairs near the stage with aisle space in between, allowing the performers to explore just about every part of the tent to deliver an intimate experience.

“It took us altogether two-and-a-half years to get it together, but we are absolutely in love with not only the venue we created but also with the shows that Anderson and Shane put in it because the venue really comes alive,” said Goossens, who has attended more than a dozen shows so far. “… I believe it’s the most beautiful one we’ve ever built.”

CineVita was designed with Art Deco and Art Nouveau in mind, which meant rounding out stained glass and beveled mirrors used for the venue, three times as long to create. Another challenge for Goossens and his team was that For The Record wanted a black box theater space, a design choice that, coupled with the mirrors, would allow lighting designers to “go crazy and just have any color that they want,” Goossens said.

“It really felt like we had to stand on our toes and really challenge ourselves on every corner,” he added. “In the end, we challenged each other, and that’s what made it such a phenomenal venue.”

CineVita will be in Inglewood through the end of the year and is expected to travel to other cities across the U.S. Goossens said the venue can be packed in ocean freight containers or using up 20 semitrucks.

“A very important part of that is also the maintenance while it’s up,” Goossens said. “We can’t let things go to waste. The moment something is broken or is slightly damaged, we repair it right away. My mom always used to say in the old days that taking care of your stuff is saving money, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Once For The Record found its spiegeltent, it then needed find the right space for such a unique venue. When Scheel was looking at other buildings for the live show, he visited YouTube Theater within Hollywood Park and told Jen Sandstrom, vice president of programming and booking at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, about his ambitious idea of building a spiegeltent and taking his production on the road.

“You could just sense his passion from the very first time we talked,” Sandstrom said. “I laughed and said, ‘Well, we’re on 298 acres. Maybe we could figure it out.’ As time progressed and months of conversation, then it was, ‘Where could we fit it on Hollywood Park?’”

Hollywood Park had the perfect spot and an opportunity to maximize its property with events like music festivals and now CineVita, which rests near Rivers Lake and is just a short walk away from SoFi Stadium and complements a city that boasts an NFL building, the high-tech Intuit Dome and the iconic Kia Forum.

Sandstrom doesn’t believe the addition of another venue takes away business from other venues in Inglewood but rather allows audiences who don’t frequent the city to see how it has evolved to become the mecca of live entertainment.

“For us, I think this was such an interesting juxtaposition because it’s so immersive and interactive, yet it’s such an ode to old Hollywood,” Sandstrom said. “To be able to have something that celebrates L.A., where it all started, just made such sense to our overall booking strategy. … We’ve now looked at that and said, okay, this is a really cool space. It doesn’t have to be brick and mortar stores, restaurants, bars. What else can we create in this environment that complements all the venues in that area? We’re fortunate we have a very creative, driven team and leadership that promotes that.”

The show itself adds another wrinkle to L.A.’s diverse live scene, and CineVita’s successful kickoff only proves that audiences are open to new experiences.

“Even before the pandemic, you could sense that there was a growing craving for experiences that justified all the effort it takes to get out of your house,” Anderson said. “In the comfort of your home, entertainment is getting better. There’s no denying it. That is why we’ve seen this incredible wave of interest in pop culture and these experiences that are hard to define. We were immersive because being immersive was cool, and how we’re just continuing our personal trend. … It’s not just a nostalgic experience, but it truly is one of a kind.”

It’s especially unique because of the setting itself, in a large spiegeltent with a bar and themed menu items that include cocktails, snacks (like popcorn called Pop Fiction) and eats such as burgers (called a Royale with Cheese, of course) and hot dogs (the Reservoir Dog).

CineVita is not only a testament to the growth and evolution of live entertainment but also to the growing trend of pop-up venues. Goossens believes the temporality of events like Adele’s run in Germany last year and For The Record’s productions is an important factor to drawing audiences.

“People know it’s a wonderful venue and it looks like it’s been there forever or it should be there forever … but you better go and see the show because at some point it’s going to leave,” Goossens said.

For The Record added nine dates to “Tarantino: Pulp Rock,” which now runs through April 6. Future programming includes productions celebrating the films of Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis and the Coen Brothers as well as movies with the Brat Pack.

“I think Inglewood is killing it,” Sandstrom says about the diverse offerings from all the venues. “You just have to embrace it and be open to all of it. You can see Beyoncé [who will perform five nights at SoFi Stadium this year], you can see Tarantino and catch a show at YouTube Theater, all within a matter of days.”

Only in L.A.