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Built in 1892 as a theater and started working as a movie theater from 1920, projecting back then silent films and nowadays is still active, making it the oldest theater in San José. In 1999 it was declared Historic Architectural Heritage. The Municipality of San José wants to buy it to use it as the Municipal Theater. The theater has witnessed all sorts of cultural and social events throughout its history.
In August 1890, the Spanish businessman, Tomás Garita, began the construction of a new theater building, inaugurated in 1891 under the name “Variedades Theater” (Varieties Theater) with 384 seats. Its facade was decorated with images of 
dance, theater, lira, as well as masks and dragons. For the inauguration, the featured presentation was the French opera “La Mascota” (The Mascot) by Edouard Audran and by the Fajardo Vazcona company of Spanish Zarzuela and Operetta.
Once built the National Theater, the Variedades Theater functioned as an alternative to this. Costa Rica did not have a theatrical culture and that’s why the National Theater attracted a little public, while the presentations of zarzuelas at the Variedades Theater sold out. Artistic presentations that couldn’t be presented at the National theater for space reasons, were mounted at the Variedades.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s, the Variedades Theater gave significant space to social, cultural and politicalevents of the then burgeoning Costa Rican society. Presentation of silent movies began in 1906, together with zarzuelas and plays, becoming one of the most important cultural spots in the capital, as audience was very diverse, given the characteristics of the different shows that housed.
Its walls and three floors of seats, were the first to hear on June 10th, 1906, the powerful voice of the national tenor Manuel “Melico Salazar”. Beginning in the twenties, the Variedades Theater was devoted to the cinema. In November 1930, the theater projected the first Costa Rican film, “El Retorno” (The Return), directed by the Italian Romolo Bertoni and produced by Mario Urbini, owner of the theater at that time.
The theater was declared Architectural Heritage of Costa Rica, according to Executive Decree No. 28249-C, published in La Gaceta No. 232 on November 30th, 1999. Currently owned by the Leasing Company S.A., the theater remains projecting movie films, but several upgrades have been made to have the same technology in sound and image as the modern cinema malls. In recent years, there have been some activities such as the Costa Rican Film Festival, plays, concerts with groups like Malpais or the Nicaraguan Perrozompopo and other cultural activities and comedy shows such as “La media docena” (The half-dozen), among others.
The municipality of San José, has raised the idea of acquiring the property to make the Municipal Theater, and give a permanent place to the newly created “San Jose Theater Company”. If this goal becomes a reality, San José would have three big theaters, the beautiful National Theater, the grandiose Melico Salazar and the most ancient of the three, the Variedades Theater, which would end up turning San José into an icon of the Latin American theatrical culture.
Address: On 5 St., between central and 1st avenues, district: Carmen, canton: San Jose, province: San Jose, Costa Rica. Zone postal code: 10101.
GPS Coordinates: 9.934417,-84.076322 (9°56’3.90″N 84°4’34.76″W)
Website: www.teatrovariedades.com
Phone:+(506) 2222-6108
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