Gordon Lightfoot makes 'emotional' return to Massey Hall as iconic Toronto venue reopens after renovation - The Globe and Mail

Gordon Lightfoot performs during the first show at the newly renovated Massey Hall, in Toronto, on Nov.

25.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Closed three years for $184-million dollars’ worth of renovation and expansion, Toronto’s Massey Hall reopened on Thursday night with a concert by Gordon Lightfoot.

The newly renovated Massey Hall, legendary Toronto music venue, is unveiled for media the night before their reopening show on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Workers complete the final touches of renovations on Massey Hall.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Media receive a tour of the newly renovated Massey Hall, in Toronto, on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Final touches are underway at the newly renovated Massey Hall.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

A view of the newly renovated Massey Hall, in Toronto, on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Frederic Dionne works to complete renovations on Massey Hall on the eve of its re-opening.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Details inside the newly renovated Massey Hall concert venue in Toronto.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

A preserved section of Massey Hall is encased in glass seen during a media tour of renovations on the eve of the concert hall's grand re-opening.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Jesse Kumagai, CEO of Massey Hall, is photographed on the eve of the venue’s opening, on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Marianne McKenna, lead architect on the revitalization project of Massey Hall, stands outside the venue on the eve of its re-opening.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

The newly renovated Massey Hall officially opens on Thursday November 25, 2021 with a Gordon Lightfoot concert.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

People walk by a lit up Massey Hall sign as the newly renovated legendary Toronto music venue is unveiled for media the night before their reopening show following the storied concert hall's $184-million facelift, in Toronto.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail.

Archival photo of Massey Hall on Shuter Street in Toronto taken on September 30, 1970.John McNeill/The Globe and Mail.

The interior of Massey Hall photographed in 1894, the year it opened.Massey Hall Archives.

Massey Hall is named after another philanthropist, Hart Massey.

A Globe and Mail review of a Lightfoot concert at Massey Hall in 1969 included some of the balladeer’s banter.