Miramar Theatre temporarily shut down
Closure stems from liquor licensing issue
Long-running east side venue the Miramar Theatre abruptly closed a few hours before a scheduled show Thursday, shut down by the state Department of Revenue over a licensing issue.
Promoters have been scrambling to relocate concerts slated for the 327-capacity venue, best known for hosting electronic dance music acts catering to nearby University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students. It will be closed for at least a month.
Miramar operator Aaron Ohlsson was running the Miramar with a liquor license under the name of former Miramar owner William Stace, prompting the closure.
Stace was evicted last June after falling behind in his rent to landlord John Karampelas, who also owns Oakland Gyros.
Ohlsson, who runs EDM promotion company Brew City Bass, has been Stace’s partner at the Miramar for about seven years, and officially took over the lease in September, according to a Milwaukee police report.
“Aaron Ohlsson had no authority to operate the Miramar Theatre under William Stace’s liquor license after he and the owners terminated his tenancy and Bill was no longer involved in the management and operation of the tavern,” Stace’s attorney, David Halbrooks, told the Journal Sentinel. “They thought they were being clever by terminating his tenancy and moving him out, but they’ve ended up with a problem.”
Ohlsson said he had applied for a liquor license under his name but had yet to receive one, according to a Milwaukee police report from Feb. 10. The issue is scheduled to go before the city’s Licenses Committee on Tuesday, then heads to the full Common Council.
“If the full council approves the matter in late March they would be allowed to reopen,” said Ald. Tony Zie-
linski, chair of the licenses committee.
Thursday night, a Miramar performance with EDM act Autograf was suddenly moved to Walkers Point nightclub Site 1A “due to venue circumstances beyond our control,” according to the Miramar’s Facebook page. Ohlsson is a co-owner of Site 1A.
A scheduled Miramar gig with local performance troupe Dead Man’s Carnival on Friday was moved to Company Brewing in Riverwest.
A Saturday show with metal group We Came As Romans took place at Plankinton Hall at the Miller High Life Theatre downtown.
Nine other shows scheduled for the Miramar this month will move, likely to Plankinton Hall or Site 1A, Ohlsson told the Journal Sentinel. New locations will be announced on the Miramar’s Facebook page.
“We are looking forward to working this out for all of Milwaukee’s music scene,” Ohlsson said.
Halbrooks, a former assistant city attorney, first contacted Milwaukee police alleging the Miramar was operating illegally, asking police to close the venue or prohibit guests from entering.
Last year Halbrooks went on a failed crusade to shut down Freaky Deaky, a two-day EDM festival at the Wisconsin Center in October.
Halbrooks sent a series of letters to the Wisconsin Center District urging the event cancelation, beginning last June.
“People die at EDM events. People die because of drug use,” Halbrooks wrote in one letter. “EDM may appear to be music events to you and me. They are not. They exist for one main reason, to accentuate the drug-use experience.”
The building that houses the Miramar, at 2844 N. Oakland Ave., began as a movie theater in 1913. In 1954 it became the Fred Miller Theatre, named after the head of Miller Brewing Co. The theater hosted a series of Broadway shows and became the home base for the Milwaukee Rep during the company’s early years in the 1960s. The venue was also a rock club called Metropole from the late ‘70s until the early ‘80s.
Stace opened the Miramar in 1998, booking theater events. He changed the venue’s business model about eight years ago to focus on live music.