We went to Bar Harbor’s Criterion Theatre Saturday night to catch David Saderis’s performance and see how the historic Art Deco Theatre’s restoration was going. All is going well with both outrageous phenomena. It’s great to have another live performance venue nearby. (For Jimmy [“Margaritaville”] Buffet fans: That’s not a typo on the marquee, that’s the name of an unrelated “tribute band” that played there 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 process and 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 sardonic comments and 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.)