WHAT AND WHERE: It's midday at the Hawai'i Theatre on Bethel Street in Honolulu. Resplendent onstage and bathed in baby-pink light, organist and docent Don Conover picks up the tempo of "Seventy-Six Trombones." As an hourlong theater tour ends, visitors sink into front-row seats. Conover rips through a medley that includes sounds of a snare drum, piccolos, chimes and a flute plus a few nonmusical sound effects worked pneumatically through the five organ keyboards and pipes.

"It's important to have the organ working for these tours because live performance is what theater is all about," Conover said. The theater's live performances this fall include the Honolulu Symphony's MasterWorks Series, "Kamapua'a" a Hawaiian-language production, the Miss Chinatown pageant, "Hawaii Stars" and a recording session for public radio's "From the Top," altogether an eclectic mix.

In 1922 the theater opened to an equally broad program: vaudeville, plays, musicals and the new medium, silent films. (In a nod to their heritage, the theater screened F.W. Mur-neau's 1922 silent horror masterpiece "Nosferatu" last month on Halloween. And, yes, it was accompanied by a live organ performance with John McCreary on the historic 1922 Robert Morton organ.)

Docent Linda Letta brings the theater's 85-year history alive in historic tours that trace the theater's beginnings in the 1920s, its fall into disrepair in the 1980s and the extraordinary $22 million campaign and renovation that allowed it to reopen in 1996.

Hawai'i Theatre was among the most modern in the U.S. when it opened. In 2005, the theater won the Outstanding Historic Theatre award by the League of Historic Theatres.

THE TOUR: You begin in the Standing Room, the theater's foyer, which accommodated latecomers until they could be allowed in. Or, in 1922, you could stand at the back for the whole show for 50 cents. Visitors can try out the best seats in the loge, the separate forward section of the theater. Comfortable high-backs have replaced the original six-in-a-row wicker chairs but retained the original motif in plush blue-green velvet. In 1922, tickets cost $1.50. Take in the double cantilever balcony from the stage. Even with 1,400 seats, the theater feels warm and intimate.

Above the stage, the huge allegorical mural "Glorification of Diana," painted in the French Beaux-Arts style by Lionel Walden, graces the proscenium arch below a mosaic dome by Gordon Usborne. "No bodies in Honolulu met Walden's standards of perfection," says Letta. So the artist convinced the theater owners to send him to France to ensure his final masterpiece was "de rigueur." Despite termite and moisture damage, the mural has been renovated seamlessly, an art in itself. With production averaging 200 days a year, the wooden stage is actually two layers separated by a rubber disc that softens impact for dancers. A current plan to enlarge the stage back, sides and orchestra black-box area will enable bigger productions to come to the theater.

Upstairs, the Weyand Room, facing the theater bar, was once offices for Consolidated Amusements. It can be hired today separately for parties and private dinners. On First Fridays, if the theater is free, catch the live piano bar entertainment; it's a lovely way to end the work week over a glass of wine surrounded by Honolulu artist Juliette May Fraser's portrayals of life in old Hawai'i.

TOUR SCHEDULE: 11 a.m. Tuesdays, depending on the theater's availability; $5. www.hawaiitheatre.com, 528-0506.

Reach Chris Oliver at coliver@honoluluadvertiser.com.