Vancouver's Fox Theatre to get new lease on life
David Duprey has teamed up with three members of the Waldorf Productions team
A team of entrepreneurs is planning to convert Vancouver's last remaining porn theatre into the city's newest live entertainment venue.
David Duprey, who opened the Rickshaw Theatre as a live music venue in 2009, has signed a lease on the Fox Theatre in Mount Pleasant.
Duprey says he's partnered up with three members of the Waldorf Productions team and will take possession of the 37-year-old building, famous for screening adult films, on August 1.
"I've had my eye on the Fox forever," Duprey told CBC News.
"Like we can do anything in there. We can do theatre. We can do comedy. We can do live music, we can have DJs. I mean the place is 200, 300 seats. It's just the perfect size."
Duprey says he's thrilled to be teaming up with Waldorf Productions' Thomas Anselmi and Ernesto Gomez, after discovering they had been competing for the lease on the theatre.
"Tom and Ernesto and me got together and said, 'Let's just all do this together," Duprey explained.
"And I was like, 'Amazing, great!' They did some great stuff with the Waldorf. They did some really crazy programming and I am really hoping we can do the same stuff at the Fox."
Duprey hopes to open the new venue in the fall, but admits the Fox will need a major makeover.
"There's been some stuff going on there … I'm thinking napalm might be the solution," Duprey told CBC News.
"Other people were saying kerosene, but yeah, it's going to need a little bit of elbow grease."
with files from CBC's Emily Elias