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Shea's Performing Arts Center
Shea’s Buffalo Theater, Main Street, Buffalo, NY.jpg
Former names Shea's Buffalo (1926-48; 1976-93)
Loew's Buffalo Theater (1948-75)
Address 646 Main St
Buffalo, NY 14202-1906
Owner City of Buffalo
Operator Shea's O'Connell Preservation Guild Ltd.
Capacity 3,019
Construction
Broke ground January 15, 1925
Opened January 16, 1926
Closed June 30, 1975 (1975-06-30)
Reopened February 25, 1976
Construction cost $1.8 million
($30.4 million in 2022 dollars )
Architect Rapp Brothers
Structural engineer McClintic-Marshall
General contractor John Gill & Sons
Main contractors Bass Construction
Website
Shea's Buffalo Theatre
NRHP reference No. 75001186
Added to NRHP May 6, 1975

Shea's Performing Arts Center, also known as Shea's Buffalo, is a famous theater in Buffalo, New York. It's a popular place to see big touring Broadway musicals and other special events. The theater first opened its doors in 1926. Back then, it was mainly used to show silent movies. It took about one year to build this amazing place. Shea's is special because it has one of the few original theater organs in the United States that still works in the theater it was made for!

A Look Back: Shea's History

Shea's Buffalo was designed by a famous architecture company called Rapp and Rapp from Chicago. They wanted the theater to look like grand opera houses and palaces from Europe in the 1600s and 1700s. It combines Spanish and French Baroque and Rococo styles, which means it has lots of fancy decorations.

When it first opened, Shea's could hold almost 4,000 people. Later, some seats were removed to make more room and comfort for guests. Today, it has 3,019 seats. The inside of the theater was designed by a well-known artist named Louis Comfort Tiffany. Many of the original decorations and furniture are still there today. Some beautiful crystal chandeliers from Czechoslovakia were also brought in. The whole building cost over $1.9 million to build and decorate in 1926. To give you an idea, a new house back then might cost $3,000, and a new Model A Ford car was about $1,000.

The theater officially opened on January 16, 1926. The first movie shown was King of Main Street, starring Adolphe Menjou. Later, in 1948, a company called Loew's Theatres took over the theater.

Saving Shea's: A Community Effort

In the 1960s and 1970s, downtown Buffalo faced some tough times, and Shea's theater started to show its age. It wasn't as popular as it used to be. A small group of people, led by Curt Mangel, decided to help. They called themselves the "Friends of the Buffalo" theater. They started working on the theater's amazing organ and even lived in the building for a while to help with repairs.

When it looked like the theater might be taken over by the city because of unpaid taxes, Loew's was planning to remove all the valuable items inside, like the chandeliers and furniture. But the "Friends" group stepped in. They made a list of everything in the theater. A judge then made an important decision: Loew's was not allowed to take anything because these items were a key part of the theater itself. This decision helped save Shea's beautiful interior.

With the help of the city and the "Friends" group, Shea's was able to keep its power on, and repairs began. The "Friends" group was given the chance to run the building. They started a huge restoration project with money from grants and began to host performances in the late 1970s.

A Broadway producer named Robert B. D'Angelo became the CEO. He brought many big Broadway shows to Shea's, like A Chorus Line, Chicago, Annie, and Les Misérables. This helped Buffalo become an important stop for Broadway tours again.

The theater had a grand re-opening in the late 1970s with famous performers like Cab Calloway and George Burns. Cab Calloway had actually performed at Shea's during its original opening week in 1926!

Today, Shea's is a very successful performance center. It has even expanded its stage to fit larger touring shows. It also hosts many local events, like the 43North entrepreneurship competition.

Famous Performers at Shea's

Many famous artists have performed at Shea's over the years. Here are just a few:

The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

Shea's theater is home to a very special instrument called the "Mighty Wurlitzer" organ. This organ was custom-built by the Wurlitzer Company. It was one of only five in the world that had special sound adjustments made right at the Wurlitzer factory after it was installed. The factory, located nearby, even used Shea's organ to show customers what a four-keyboard organ sounded like in a theater.

This organ was originally built to play music for silent films. Like many organs of its kind, it eventually fell into disrepair and wasn't played much in the 1940s and 1950s. Later, a group called the American Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (now the American Theatre Organ Society) helped make it work again for some concerts. Sadly, during this time, some valuable brass trumpets, which are special pipes for the organ, were stolen.

The organ was mostly silent again until the late 1970s. That's when the "Friends of the Buffalo" group worked hard to make it playable again for the theater's grand re-opening.

In the late 1970s, the Wurlitzer organ went through a huge restoration. Money from different arts groups helped replace its control system, fix its windchests, replace missing pipes, and repair the wiring and console.

The newly restored organ was shown to the public in a sold-out concert by famous theater organist Lyn Larsen. Since then, it has been used for solo concerts, to play music for silent films, and to provide background music before and after events at the theater.

In the last couple of years, the theater has started another restoration project for the organ. This is because it has been about 40 years since its last major repair.

In 2006, to celebrate the theater's 80th birthday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra played a concert at Shea's. Conductor JoAnn Falletta led the orchestra, and Anthony Newman played the organ. The concert included famous pieces like Camille Saint-Saëns' "Organ" Symphony and music from The Phantom of the Opera.

See also

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