Barbara and I went to Bar Harbor’s Criterion Theatre Saturday night to catch David Sedaris’s performance and see how the historic Art Deco Theatre’s restoration was going. (There also was the calamari and wine at Testa’s around the corner, but I digress.) Short report: Both David’s sardonic raconteuring and the Theatre’s historic facelifting were deserving of a standing ovation. It’s great to have that live performance venue nearby.
By the way, for Jimmy (“Margaritaville”) Buffet fans who have studied the accompanying image of the entrance to the Criterion: That’s not a typo on the marquee, “Jammy Buffet” is the name of an unrelated tribute band that played at the Theatre yesterday night.
The Theatre was opened in 1932 by a well-off resident who had served a jail term for bootlegging. Its smartly-decorated premises reportedly included a then-modern floating balcony, a state-of-the-art “Inter-Phone” system, and a basement “speakeasy.” It apparently is one of only two extant Art Deco theaters in Maine.
The Criterion’s restoration is a courageous undertaking and still a work in progress, as well as a learning process. (Saturday’s sound and lights had to be corrected early in David’s talk.) And, of course, David was courageously hilarious in his unique takes on life and his ridiculous dress – he wore a white imprinted sport coat and bright red, knee-length “balloon pants.”
(Images taken in Bar Harbor, Maine, on July 12, 2025.)