Theater & Broadway

Brooklyn’s Restored Paramount Theater Is Ready To Put On A Show Again

In May, Stuart Murdoch, frontman of twee Scottish tunesmiths Belle and Sebastian, addressed a happy crowd of Brooklyn concertgoers from the stage. “Have you been here before?” he asked, gazing out into the auditorium and clearly impressed with what he saw. “First time?”

For the overwhelming majority of those present, the answer was yes.

This year, the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Downtown Brooklyn—a former movie palace and one of the most historically significant entertainment venues in the city—reopened to music lovers after a five-year multi-million dollar conversion and renovation project.

“Bringing live music back to this iconic venue, 60 years later, is nothing short of incredible,” said Tom See, President of Venue Nation at Live Nation. “So much history, and so much culture, was made here in this building—under this grand ceiling—over the last century.”

Opened in 1928, the theater was designed by the architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp, the Rococo razzle-dazzlers behind the Paramount Building (1929) and its theater in Times Square as well as Loew’s Kings Theatre (1929) in Flatbush. It was an era in which resplendent movie theater architecture provided an escapist respite from reality.

Over the years, apart from the latest cinematic offerings from Paramount, the venue also played host to some of the biggest musical acts of the time, including Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald. In fact, it was an early stomping ground for a whole new musical form: Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Platters all performed there at what were effectively the world’s first rock-and-roll stage shows.

But only three decades after the theater was built, it became the rather ornate athletic center of Long Island University–and a pretty surreal place to take in a basketball game.

In 2015, it was announced that the theater would once again become a destination for live events, with Live Nation taking over the project in 2023. According to Live Nation, more than 1,000 people were involved in the restoration of the venue, with nearly 300 local construction crew investing more than half a million hours into the building.

“I’ve been in this venue every step of the way and watching the reaction of fans and visitors as they enter the building never gets old,” said See.

Today, once again, the architecture of the building is on full display and—thanks to 21st-century lighting technology—more spectacular than ever. Plus, one of the original residents of the theater is still around: a Wurlitzer Opus #1984, 4/26 Theatre Organ, a “valuable piece of history” according to the New York Theatre Organ Society, whose volunteers have cared for the instrument for more than five decades.

It’s a new chapter in the venue’s history, said See. “I’m excited to see how the artists playing this stage leave their mark on music.”


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