Save the Madison!

B.B. King and Ray Charles played there. So did Fiona Apple and the Smashing Pumpkins. And don’t forget Run DMC and John Mayall. Then again, so did Creed, Slayer and Insane Clown Posse. Over the years, the Madison Theater has played host to some of the most talented musicals acts in the world – along with Creed, Slayer and Insane Clown Posse. But having said that,: the theater played no favorites, bringing in acts that Peorians wanted to see (no matter the genre) in an intimate and architecturally beautiful environment.

While the theater has sat barren for going on 10 years, there is a new grass-roots push on Facebook to bring the Madison back to life, led by Becky Hariss. And everyone here at The Peorian thinks it’s about time. It's no secret it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of money (estimates range from $8-12 million). But Becky and the Battle for the Madison team are working on a plan. In the meantime, check out the Battle for the Madison page of Facebook. We’re keeping our eye on this and plan on providing progress updates.

About the Author

A Juilliard-trained writer, Kevin Kizer has fought against numerous world-champion writers during his career, besting the reigning middle weight writing champion in an exhibition bout in Helsinki in 1976. He also played a crucial role on the U.S. gold-medal winning writing team during the 1984 Pan-Am games, where he came off the bench in dramatic fashion to write the winning prepositional phrase just as time expired.