Architect B. Marcus Priteca designed the Pantages Theatre in the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular for entertainment venues in the 1920s. The 2,203-seat theater featured elaborate plasterwork, painted ceilings, and the kind of ornamental excess that was intended to make working-class audiences feel, for an evening, like royalty. Pantages' vaudeville circuit brought comedians, singers, acrobats, and novelty acts to the stage. When vaudeville declined in the 1930s, the theater transitioned to motion pictures and live musical performances.

The Orpheum is now one of San Francisco's premier venues for Broadway touring productions, operated by BroadwaySF. Shows like Hamilton, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, and Dear Evan Hansen have played extended runs to sold-out houses. The theater's intimate scale, with no seat particularly far from the stage, makes it a favorite among performers and audiences alike. The Civic Center location, near City Hall and the Asian Art Museum, places it in San Francisco's cultural core. The theater underwent renovations that preserved its original architectural character while upgrading acoustics, lighting, and comfort.

The Orpheum sits on the stretch of Market Street between the Castro and the Financial District that has long been San Francisco's most challenging urban corridor. Mid-Market has cycled through periods of decline and attempted revival for decades. The theater has been a constant through those cycles, drawing audiences from across the Bay Area regardless of the neighborhood's condition. On performance nights, the sidewalks fill with dressed-up theatergoers navigating past the rougher edges of mid-Market, a juxtaposition that captures San Francisco's refusal to segregate its glamour from its grit.