Sheas Performing Arts Center Tickets and Seating
Sheas Performing Arts Center has been a great venue for touring Broadway productions since it was saved from near-certain demolition by the Friends of the Buffalo and a judge ruling in the1970s. The theater was originally erected in 1926 as a lavish movie house designed by notable architecture firm Rapp and Rapp. Its design is homage to the opera houses of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, complete with crystal chandeliers. For several decades the theater flourished as an independent theater and as part of the Loew’s chain of movie theaters.
Eventually federal deregulation of the movie theater industry, an owner who failed to pay property taxes, and the mass flight from the urban environment that left many of the country’s cities in disarray almost left the building bare and near certain scheduling for demolition. The “Friends of the Buffalo” began to repair the theater, but true, massive renovation did not begin until government grants were used to rescue the building. It opened again in the late 1970s with Cab Calloway and George Burns.
The renewed interest in the Sheas Performing Arts Center helped keep the building relevant as the city finally began to bounce back. Eventually, as many old movie houses have, the building became enamored with the love stage. Major renovations in the interior helped accommodate large Broadway touring productions and the center is an undeniable success to this day.