What Happened to the Drake: How Oklahoma City Lost a Theater Landmark

The Drake Theatre closed its doors in downtown Oklahoma City, marking the end of nearly a century of live performance history in one of the city's oldest cultural venues. This piece explains the closure's timeline, what it meant for the local arts scene, and what options remain for patrons who relied on the Drake for theater, concerts, and comedy.

The Drake's Final Years

The Drake opened in 1931 as a movie palace in the Midtown district, a five-story building designed for film exhibition with a capacity around 1,400 seats. By the 2010s, it had transitioned to hosting live performances: touring Broadway productions, regional theater, comedy acts, and concerts. For decades it functioned as the second-largest theater venue in Oklahoma City, after the Civic Center Music Hall (which seats 2,100 and hosts the Oklahoma City Ballet and Broadway productions under the Broadway Oklahoma! series).

The Drake ceased regular operations in 2020. The immediate cause was the pandemic shutdown that affected performance venues nationwide, but the underlying challenge was structural and financial. Aging theater buildings across the country faced rising maintenance costs, declining attendance at certain performance categories, and competition from newer multipurpose venues. The Drake's ownership was unable to generate sufficient revenue post-reopening to sustain operations, and the building remained dark.

The Gap in Oklahoma City's Theater Capacity

Oklahoma City's live performance infrastructure now relies heavily on three main venues, creating a specific distribution of programming:

Civic Center Music Hall (405 W Reno Ave, near downtown) is the primary stage for large Broadway productions, symphony, ballet, and opera. It operates under Broadway Oklahoma!, a nonprofit organization, and typically books productions in the 1,500 to 2,100 seat range. Ticket prices for Broadway Oklahoma! shows generally range from $35 to $100, depending on seat location and production.

Aperture Theater (10 E Main St, in the Bricktown district) operates as a smaller black-box and proscenium theater with a capacity of roughly 275 seats. It hosts regional theater companies, experimental work, and local productions, filling a niche for mid-scale and intimate performance. Admission is typically $15 to $25.

Woody Grill Theater and other smaller independent venues operate in the Midtown and Plaza districts but function primarily for independent theater companies rather than touring acts.

The Drake's closure removed roughly 1,400 seats from the middle tier. This gap means that mid-size touring productions (with audiences between 400 and 1,200) often route to Tulsa's venues instead, or Oklahoma City loses the booking entirely. Smaller Broadway productions that might have played the Drake now either squeeze into Civic Center or skip the market.

What This Meant for Arts Programmers

Theater companies in Oklahoma City adjusted by either booking Civic Center at higher rental costs (the venue operates on a user-fee model, not a subsidy-based one) or pivoting to smaller spaces. Tulsa's Performing Arts Center, 100 miles northeast, became a more frequent destination for touring productions that would previously have stopped in Oklahoma City. This matters not just for convenience but for accessibility: tickets, travel, and timing all shift when the nearest venue moves an hour away.

Comedy touring acts, which the Drake had hosted regularly alongside theater, found fewer options in Oklahoma City. The city has comedy clubs and smaller live music venues, but a 500 to 800-seat theater is a specific performance scale that comedy promoters valued. Without it, acts either play larger halls at Civic Center or avoid Oklahoma City bookings altogether.

The Building's Current Status

The Drake building itself remains standing but unused. It is privately owned and has not been redeveloped. Proposals for conversion (to retail, residential, or other use) have not materialized, leaving it as a vacant structure in the Midtown corridor. The architectural loss is real: the 1931 theater is a deco-era building with original detailing, the kind of structure that downtown revitalization efforts elsewhere have tried to preserve and repurpose.

What Alternatives Exist Now

For touring Broadway productions, tickets remain available through Broadway Oklahoma! at Civic Center. The series books roughly 8 to 10 productions per season (running October through May), with prices reflecting Broadway touring rates, typically $40 to $120 depending on the show.

For regional theater, Aperture Theater and independent companies like Carpenter Square Theatre (which operates in a smaller venue in Midtown) continue programming, but at reduced scale compared to the Drake era.

For concert and music acts in the 400-1,400 seat range, Oklahoma City venues split among Civic Center, smaller clubs in Bricktown and Film Row, and larger venues like Chesapeake Energy Arena (now Paycom Center) for anything exceeding 1,500 seats. This creates a cramped middle ground where a 600-capacity show either scales down or scales up with no optimal fit.

The Practical Impact

If you are looking for touring performance in Oklahoma City now, verify the venue before booking: Civic Center hosts Broadway and large productions; Aperture hosts regional theater; smaller clubs handle comedy and music acts. Be prepared that some tours skip Oklahoma City entirely, or appear only if Civic Center is available. Tulsa's Performing Arts Center has become a supplementary option for productions that would once have stopped in Oklahoma City.

The Drake's closure reflects a national pattern: mid-size performance venues in regional cities struggle to survive without institutional support, and their absence reduces the diversity of what a city can host. Oklahoma City has not lost theater entirely, but it has lost capacity at a specific scale that touring productions and local arts organizations depended on.