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Shea's had been saved from demolition -- but the real work was just beginning. Thankfully, we had help from tens of thousands of volunteers, staff, donors, and patrons who all pitched in to restore this crown jewel of the Buffalo Theatre District to its former glory.
Photo Credit: circa 2003 / pre-2004
Can you guess what shows were coming to Shea's in our 1990-1991 Broadway season announcement?
Photo Credit: February 6 - 11, 1990
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - February 21, 1990
Bert and Ernie visiting schools while in doing shows at Shea's Buffalo!
Photo Credit: March 21, 1992
Democratic Presidential Debate on the stage of Shea's Buffalo Theatre: Arkansas Gov. (and future President) Bill Clinton, former California Gov. Jerry Brown, former Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and former Mayor Lawrence A. Agran of Irvine, California
Photo Credit: March 21, 1992
Carole King
Photo Credit: September 27, 1993
Photo Credit: September 27, 1993
The Rockettes standing in the Grand Lobby.
Melissa Etheridge
Jerry Seinfeld
Photo Credit: September 1994
The former Shea's Box Office was then located at Theatre Place.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - October 2, 1994
Indigo Girls
Photo Credit: October 25 - 30, 1994
Marie Osmond in The Sound of Music
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - December 1, 1994
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - August 3, 1995
Photo Credit: circa 1995 - 2003
Photo Credit: 1997
Robert Goulet and his wife presented with Shea's jackets by Board President James Smyta (sp?)
"It imprinted on my soul the importance of the theatrical experience."
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - December 7, 1999
December 1 - 3, 1999
Broadway was getting bigger and bigger - and Shea's was just too small. Popular "mega-musicals" of the 1980's like Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon were in hot demand with the falling chandeliers and flying helicopters but even just the bus-and-truck tours for Annie and Cats were already struggling to fit backstage. "We had to shave three-sixteenths of an inch off a couple of bricks to get the set in," producer Albert Nocciolino remembers.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - June 18, 1996
Groundbreaking Begins
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - December 3, 1997
There were no ribbons, no scissors, no dirt or shovels, just sledge hammers. On December 3, 1997, Shea's gave a whole new meaning to the term "ground-breaking" as we welcomed local officials, dignitaries and board directors downtown to participate in a unique ceremony to kick off the stagehouse expansion. Complete with hard hats, Shea's Board Chairman Gerald M. Goldhaber, Ph.D. and Shea's President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Fagan, were joined by Buffalo Mayor Anthony M. Masiello and Erie County Executive Dennis T. Gorski, in knocking out the first bricks of the rear wall, which are being removed to allow for expansion. Robert G. Wilmers, Chairman and CEO of M&T Bank, and Shea's Broadway presenting partner, Albert Nocciolino were also on hand to take swings at the bricks themselves.
Patrick Fagan led the charge: if Shea's was going to join the "major entertainment leagues", we would need a major stagehouse expansion.
$14.8 million dollars and 50-feet long
The show must go on!
Photo Credit: November 30, 1998
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - April 1, 2001
In 2001, Patrick J. Fagan retired from Shea's -- but not before bringing in Anthony C. Conte to replace him as president. Conte already had a long history with Shea's, having begun volunteering for the theater in 1970 and would serve as our president for fourteen years.
“The reward is seeing people coming through the doors and taking three or four steps, their jaws dropping and just staring up. You can always pick out the people who have not been in the theater before,”
You can see the divide between the original stagehouse and the expansion depicted here - the original 1926 brick juts against the 1999 cement block addition.
Chris Rock
David Bowie
Curtain up! Light the lights!
Photo Credit: August 10, 2004
Photo Credit: August 11, 2004
"It was pretty emotional to see it go up. I think it's something many of us always dreamed would happen but thought never would," said Anthony C. Conte, Shea's president and chief operating officer. "If you look at the front of the building, it looks as it did in 1926."
Photo Credit: November 11, 2005
Originally, the walls of Shea's Buffalo Theatre lobbies were covered in a velvety wallpaper. Restoration Consultant Doris Collins got permission from the National Register of Historic Places to instead recreate the effect over nearly 7,000-square-feet through hand-drawn stencils, all done by volunteers. "The fabric was quoted as costing $200,000; I haven't spent $2,000 yet to do the same coverage." Doris Collins said.
Molly Ringwald in Sweet Charity
Patti LuPone & Mandy Patinkin
Shea's Buffalo Theatre has five unique carpet designs according to our 1926 photographs from opening day. But being from 1926, we weren't sure what colors they had used - until we found original carpet samples stowed away in a dusty closet! Our historically-accurate carpeting was custom-milled by a factory in Northern Ireland in 2009.
Photo Credit: September 14, 2009
"Buffalo has a spirit of volunteerism you don't get in many, many cities. This will probably be my swan song, but I'll come back as a volunteer and haunt everybody."
The interior of Shea's Buffalo Theatre is made of a fine plaster and silk threads called "scagliola" intentionally meant to imitate marble. An easy way to tell the difference is that marble is cold to the touch and scagliola makes a hollow sound when knocked on!
On January 16th, Shea's opened again - this time in 2001, as the Shea's Smith Theatre. Next door to the original Shea's, this blackbox theater was able to offer more intimate productions such as Tony n' Tina's Wedding. And again in 2011, Shea's Performing Arts Center expanded once more, taking ownership of the soon-to-be Shea's 710 Theatre.
Photo Credit: Buffalo Courier-Express - January 17, 1933
Shea's and the Studio Arena have a history dating back longer than 2012 - in fact, our history together began in 1932! Jane Keeler and the newly-formed Studio Arena were given residence at the Gayety Burlesque Theater, rent-free - by the owner, Michael Shea himself!
The Shea's Smith Theatre is named in honor of Graham W. and Mary Jane Smith through the George G. and Elizabeth G. Smith Foundation after they learned that Shea's was planning to buy the building in the next five years.
"I've lived in Buffalo all my life -- long enough to know anything can happen in five years. I told Patrick, 'If the city is ready to move, let's not wait around. Let's do it now, before they change their mind.'
Photo Credit: 2012
From the Palace Burlesque, to Studio Arena - to Shea's 710 Theatre.
Shea's 710 Theatre
“We feel that one of the most important things we can do for the theater community is to provide an opportunity for the local theater companies – the ones that are downtown, the ones that are not downtown – to perform downtown.”
Photo Credit: circa 2018
Shea's 710 Theatre re-opened in 2013 with a production of Circle Mirror Transformation, the first of many many successful collaborations with AnsariSaxon Productions, D'Youville Kavinoky Theatre, MusicalFare Theatre, Road Less Traveled Productions, Second Generation Theatre, and Ujima Theatre, Inc.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - June 8, 2016
The AK Public Art Initiative commissioned this mural that appears on the side of the Shea's 710 Theatre, painted in the summer of 2016 by artists Jessie and Katey
Photo Credit: Nikiya Campbell
Seen here is our first solo production, Once On This Island (2022).
Photo Credit: Nikiya Campbell. Pictured: the cast of Once On This Island
The Art of Burlesque
Photo Credit: August 30, 2012
You might notice that the "W" in Wonder looks odd - it's actually an upside-down "M"! We don't know how or why it was installed like that - was there a shortage of W's in 1926? But as a National Historic Site, Shea's Buffalo Theatre is obligated to maintain our Wonder Theatre exactly as it looked in 1926, letters and all.
Photo Credit: October 12, 2012
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - June 19, 2013. Pictured: Stephanie Morabito, assistant restoration consultant.
Photo Credit: June 19, 2013. Pictured: President Anthony C. Conte and Historic Restoration Consultant Doris Collins
Photo Credit: June 25, 2013
Photo Credit: June 26, 2013
Photo Credit: June 26, 2013
From top to bottom, there's no part of Shea's Buffalo Theatre that hasn't been restored. But to reach the top, we had to have scaffolding installed to help our volunteers get 110 feet off the ground!
These "dragons" were only discovered in 2014 because the ceilings were so stained by smoke. See if you can find them the next time you are at Shea's Buffalo Theatre!
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - August 2, 2014. Pictured: William Mayer, painter.
"This is an absolute thrill, because we are re-creating history."
Photo Credit: October 6, 2015
Louis Comfort Tiffany's original sketches for a grand drape was never made until 2015 when they were sent to Austria to be custom-made for the Shea's Buffalo stage.
Photo Credit: October 6, 2015
Above the chandeliers are trap doors that can be opened to crank the chandeliers all the way down to the ground for an annual cleaning - the last time was in 2016. Now, Shea's rents a special lift to help us clean the crystals and lights.
Each of the three large chandeliers in the Grand Lobby requires 86 light bulbs.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Photo Credit: The CW - December 8, 2017
Steve Martin and Martin Short
Mariah Carey - Caution World Tour
Carol Burnett
“My job is to bring back any interior sections of the building that have been changed or damaged. Restoration does not mean renovation. You put things back the way they once were to the best of your ability. It’s okay to substitute materials.”
Photo Credit: Steven D. Desmond
“Over the last 30 years Doris has been the driving force behind every perfectly matched crystal, paint, and fabric here at Shea’s,” said President Brian Higgins. “Her recruitment and expert training of restoration volunteers and students has saved Shea’s millions of dollars. Thanks to the meticulous efforts of Doris over the last three decades, visitors today step into this theatre as it was - or I would argue even better than it was - 100 years ago.”
All of our lamps and light-bulbs have been hand-dipped into a special glass stain by volunteers to replicate the originals with modern lightning.
says the New York Times! Buffalo has long since known the wonder of Shea's Performing Arts Center and now the rest of the country was learning this too. Our subscription base is one of the highest nationwide and starting in 2016, we began premiering National Tours.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - November 12, 2013
Puppeteers Jon Hoche (at the head), Brian Burns (at the heart) and Jessica Krueger (at the hind end) demonstrate how they bring the Warhorse puppet "Joey" to life. Joey is just under 10 feet long and 8 feet tall and weighs about 120 pounds, and is just one of eight horse puppets used in the show.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - December 15, 2015
When Anthony C. Conte started as President of Shea's Performing Arts Center, we had 5,248 season ticket holders and had $5.2 million in debt from finishing our stagehouse expansion. By 2016 when he retired, we now had 13,326 subscribers and were one of the top Broadway touring houses in the country!
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 21, 2016. Pictured: the load-in for Finding Neverland.
“It’s very exciting for the city of Buffalo, Western New York and Shea’s in particular to be the first stop, to actually launch the tour. To be the first city on the tour, it’s very significant to the reputation of the theater and to the city.” - Albert Nocciolino
Photo Credit: October 9, 2016
Opening Night for Finding Neverland
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 21, 2017
September 21, 2017
Photo Credit: Shelby Converse
The hype over Hamilton lead to our highest subscription numbers ever - for the 2018-2019 Broadway season, Shea's had 18,622 season ticket holders with 4,001 new subscribers!
Jimmy Buffett makes a surprise appearance onstage with his musical, Escape to Margaritaville
Broadway comes to Buffalo
Trevor Noah
BenDeLaCreme & Jinkx Monsoon
For the first time since 1926, the show did not go on. With the rise of COVID-19, Shea's Performing Arts Center went dark on March 12, 2020 - cancelling Hello, Dolly! and closing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at Shea's 710 Theatre hours before opening night. Shea's wouldn't open their doors again until a year and half later on September 9, 2021 - that's 546 days (or 1 year, 5 months, 28 days) without a performance!
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - March 12, 2020
Goodbye, Dolly! This review was posted on March 12, hours before the production was cancelled by COVID-19.
Photo Credit: Shelby Converse. March 12, 2020
With the show - and tour - cancelled, the set of Hello, Dolly! was taped off and waits to be struck from the Shea's Buffalo Theatre stage.
Photo Credit: Shelby Converse. 2020
Photo Credit: Shelby Converse. 2020
Photo Credit: July 28, 2020
Restoration Consulatant Doris Collins, masked and isolated as she works on the gold leaf trim here.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - August 12, 2021
To bring live theatre back to Buffalo, many changes had to happen - some for good (mobile ticketing!), and some only temporary (no concessions, masks and vaccine required)
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 10, 2021
Shea's Performing Arts Center came back from COVID-19 with Disney's Frozen re-launching their national tour here.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - November 15, 2020
Without live theatre, Shea's offered a virtual concert series, zoom town halls, created coloring book pages, and worked on a few smaller restoration projects that could be done in isolation.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 10, 2021
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 10, 2021
May 14, 2022
Photo Credit: The Cast & Crew of Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations - May 14, 2022
"While we were performing our matinee this afternoon, we received news of a mass shooting just a little bit shy of two miles from this theatre. We – the cast, crew, orchestra, and all those involved with our touring company – would like to lift up in love the victims, their families, and anyone affected by this terrible event. It affects us all in a most personal way and affects our society at large and, ultimately, the world we all live in.
Each and every person in this world deserves to live free of fear and discrimination because of the color of their skin. Theatre, music, and the arts are safe spaces where tolerance is celebrated, community is uplifted, and love is unconditional. We have all shared in that love this evening. That is a very, very powerful thing.
Thank you so much for offering your beautiful theatre to us to spend this week. We have enjoyed our stay in your city. As you leave the theatre, continue to share that love in your own ways and take good care of yourselves and others ‘til we see each other down the road."
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - August 22, 2022
This was the first of many articles detailing trouble behind the scenes at Shea's Performing Arts Center in 2022.
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - September 2, 2022
Eventually, President Michael Murphy finally would be fired but not before Shea's lost countless employees, board members, and the support of M&T Bank.
There is much excitement to be had with our one year countdown to our 100th anniversary: we welcomed a new President and a resident theatre company, announced our Elevate Shea's campaign, and for our 2025-2026 Broadway Season, Shea's has 16,836 subscribers - our third highest total ever! "Shea's remains one of the best one-week subscriber series in the United States," confirmed Albert Nocciolino. "It's always in the top five, and this year could end up in the top two or three."
Photo Credit: The cast of Come From Away
While many local theater companies have produced shows at Shea's Performing Arts Center, MusicalFare is the first to join us in residence at Shea's 710 Theatre. Their first co-production, Come From Away played to rave reviews and sell-out houses.
"Theater is about the punks and the poets, about the destination and the journey." - Brian Higgins
Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - November 27, 2023
In 2024, Brian Higgins joined Shea's Performing Arts Center as our new President, just in time for our centennial celebration.
Shea's 710 Theatre
Our new bar and lobby at Shea's 710 Theatre!
Photo Credit: Rachael Fedor
Get your Sheabills ready and pour yourself a show-stopping cocktail—preferably in a souvenir theatre cup! With hosts Ken Liszewski, Julianna Tracey, and Rita Sirianni, Shea's Performing Arts Center began producing Cast Party Podcast in 2025 about the drama onstage at Shea's — and what goes on behind the curtain.
Photo Credit: Rachael Fedor
Photo Credit: Pictured: Kevin Shanahan, Curtis Cook, Rex Keppel, Christopher Bratek, Sean Flahive, and Rita Sirianni.
In honor of our upcoming centennial, Hartman's Distilling Company released a unique edition of their bourbon in collaboration with us - the Shea’s Centennial Blend 285 Special.
Shea’s Centennial Blend 285 Special
After a year of aging, the barrels were carefully removed and rolled out of Shea's Buffalo Theatre for bottling - a total of 954 bottles.
Elevate Shea's - The Next Century of Wonder
A new logo for a new century!
Speaking of the Mighty Wurlitzer...on any given day here at Shea's, you might hear the our pipe organ being played by organist Curtis Cook! Our organ continues to be beautifully restored by volunteers and professionals like L.A. Peckham & Son Pipe Organ Service, and is currently in the third of seven restoration phases with the goal of being concert-ready again by January 2026.
"I cannot emphasize to you in any stronger terms the 'gold standard' of theater pipe organs that sits in those chambers at Shea's Buffalo. If one were ranking or awarding top honors for the finest-sounding theater organ in the world, Shea's Buffalo would be arguably No. 1, and most certainly top three."
"You don't just hear the music, you feel the music, and that is something that is special and unique to Shea's Buffalo Theatre."
