Reopened in 2010, The Modern Theatre Completes The Amazing Revitalization Of The Washington Street Theater District Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre opened in 1913, when admissions to a silent movie were 15 cents. It entered Boston’s history books in 1928, at the height of the Jazz Age movie palaces, as the city’s first venue to show a “talkie”–a film with sound. (The movie was The Jazz Singer.) In 1979, the Modern Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places; in 1995, it was designated as a Boston Landmark. After sitting vacant for several decades, Suffolk University completed a gorgeous restoration of the Modern in 2010. The reborn facility includes an 185-seat theater and 200-bed student dormitory.