Buffalo Theater: New season set to kick off with a flurry of shows

By Mike Desmond

A daytime walk along Buffalo’s Theatre District day/night Main Street earlier this week shoed closed theaters and major construction projects, stage posters and very occasional flashes of music, stage music.

It might have been from the Mainstage in Shea’s Buffalo.

That’s where around one hundred performers and tech people were putting the glitz on “Buena Vista Social Club” for its opening on Saturday (Sept. 12) before going on a national tour.

That brings in cash locally, as those performers and backstage workers live in hotels and rehearse in Shea’s and put a little more glitter on Buffalo’s stage reputation.

That’s part of the vibrant nighttime on Main Street.

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Here’s the full list of openers.

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That’s why Darryl Williams has a new menu ready for next week in the restaurant 42 North at the Flats, as eateries and theaters crank up for Curtain Up! on Sept. 18, the nationally known, flashy opening to the theater season.

The event includes a fancy dinner in the Market Arcade before curtains rise and a full-blown spectacle party follows performances outdoors along Main Street.

Williams is kitchen manager for Fat Bob’s Smokehouse in 42 North.

He knows when the theaters are open and when they are not, saying, “More feet walking by, more feet walking in our doors. That would all be amazing. I think that’s one of our biggest challengers down here.”

That’s why there was so much attention last year, when MusicalFare opened in Shea’s 710 Theatre, shifting from its former home at Daemen University.

Artistic and Executive Director Randall Kramer says 36,000 people bought tickets for MusicalFare events last year and that was without an opening show because $5 million from Shea’s was still going into major renovations to welcome the company, before an October first show.

Kramer said, “We did learn that there certainly is a great appetite for what we do Downtown.”

For Curtain UP!, besides “Buena Vista Social Club” on the Shea’s Mainstage there’s “Hair” in 710 for MusicalFare, “Emma” in the Irish Classical Theater, “Becky Shaw” in the Alleyway and “The DaVinci Code” in the Road Less Traveled Theatre

It’s not just Downtown for the theater community, Ujima Company’s “Juicy and Delicious” and the Kavinoky Theatre’s “A Night With Janis Joplin” are on the West Side, O’Connell & Company’s “Guys and Dolls” is opening in the Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center in Amherst and Buffalo United Artists is opening in the Compass Performing Arts Factory in the Elmwood Village with “GULP:The Gay Beach Musical”

Shea’s President and CEO Brian Higgins says performances in 710 went from 216 the season before last to 365 last season, with theater’s besides MusicalFare also performing there, as will occur this season also.

Higgins says Shea’s is trying to improve that “street experience” for visitors, ranging from the new outside lighting on 710 to better lighting in the pedestrian alleys from Washington and Pearl Streets to Main.

New Buffalo Place Executive Director Peter Burakowski says everyone benefits: “It means so much for our restaurants and hotels and other attractions, you know, here Downtown and throughout the city, because, most folks when they when they go to see a show, they want to grab a bite to eat before, want to grab a drink afterwards and make it an evening.”

It’s that endless quest for more people and more time-on-site in all tourist and entertainment areas.

The theaters are aware of this, with each Downtown performance space having a comfy bar and 710 having a large double-height bar installed in the renovation.

Road Less Traveled has gone further, providing space one day a week for people to eat their lunch in the theater, with liquid refreshment available.

Higgins, Kramer and Burakowski are aware of that food and beverage need, with Shea’s building a major expansion to the landmark theater, including plans for cabaret shows when it’s done in late 2027.

Burakowski’s Buffalo Place has started a series of free late afternoon outdoor concerts in renovated Roosevelt Square at Huron and Main near the statue of the Spanish-American War soldier.

That’s within a few minutes walk of six theaters and lots of bars and restaurants.

Kramer’s MusicalFare had a successful series of cabarets and small shows in its former home and he’s looking at doing the same in 710.

He points to Higgins on the need to get more people into the Theatre District, saying “I completely agree with Brian when it comes to what we need to do. We need to energize that block. We need to have people there all the time and so that is my goal.”

There’s also a need to have more people living in the district and getting them to fall out of their apartments and into those theater seats.

There are more apartments under construction in existing buildings.

Kramer also points to Tappo restaurant proprietor Rocco Termini’s summer concerts with Jazz Buffalo, which closed Ellicott Street: “We went there a bunch of times, Teresa and I, and there’s 300-400 people on the street, sitting down, having drinks, having dinner and listening to great music. That’s what we need to do Downtown. We just need to have things happening. So, I want to be part of that.”