After an 18-year restoration, the Lansdowne Theater reopens with A Bronx Tale

The Lansdowne Theater, in Lansdowne, Delaware County, was built in 1927 and spent its first decades as a movie palace. It kept going until 1987, when an electrical fire closed it. And it stayed closed and empty for nearly 40 years, until reopening on Friday night for Palminteri’s one-night-only performance.

It was the culmination of a process that began in 2007, when the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corporation purchased the building. Various media reports have put the price tag of the restoration at $18 million, paid for by a combination of government grants and individual donations.

The building is certainly beautiful, restored to its 1920s glory, while the marquee outside shines brightly on a summer night. And the area around the theater was bustling, including a new restaurant that opened across the street earlier this summer. The Delaware County Times reported that the venue was sold out, although some empty seats could be glimpsed during the show.

BRE Presents is the tenant of the theater, which in the coming months will feature singer Brian Culbertson on October 19, singers Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin on November 8, and the Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour on December 6, as well as several different tribute bands. (Here’s the calendar.)

Reviving a gem of the 1920s

A few days before the reopening, I spoke with Matthew Schultz, the executive director of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corporation, about the theater’s long road back to operation, what it required, and what it means for the future of the arts in Delaware County.

Schultz is a historic preservation specialist, having worked on the Avenue of the Arts during the Ed Rendell era, and was brought into the Lansdowne Theater project when the late state Rep. Nick Micozzie lined up the first grant for the purchase of the building.

“We bought the building and then started trying to figure out how we could reuse the building, but keep the building intact. We didn't want to divide, [as] the building was a single-screen movie theater,” Schultz said. “And we did not want to cut it up into smaller theaters because the building was largely intact. It's pretty amazing to think that this building from 1927 still looked — it was rough — but it still looked like a building from 1927 that had most of the architectural elements in place.”

BRE Presents, a concert promoter that also puts on events at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in New Jersey, came aboard relatively early on as the booker of shows. The Historic Lansdowne Theater Corporation—a nonprofit with a board consisting mostly of locals – remains the owner of the building. There are still a few finishing touches remaining in the construction process.

“We didn't know it was going to take 15 years because the building needed significant work, everything from roof to HVAC system, new plumbing, new seats, a huge amount of plastering work,” Schultz said. “And it just included every trade you could imagine.”

Enthusiastic funders

For the long project, Schultz had a long list of government officials, past and present, to thank, from then-Governor Ed Rendell to former Senator Bob Casey to Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, as well as the Delaware County Council and various state legislators. Some money also came from the American Rescue Plan Act, the Covid-era rescue package in the early months of the Biden Administration.

And that was to say nothing of private funding, as “over a thousand” individual donors contributed to the project, Schultz said. The idea was both to restore the building and revive the neighborhood and Lansdowne itself.

“We’re seeing that promise happen right in front of our eyes. It's pretty amazing,” he said.

Delco’s concert venue?

But it’s not just about Lansdowne: Delaware County itself may have been put on the national cultural map of late with TV shows like Mare of Easttown and the upcoming Task, but the suburban county is somewhat light on arts and entertainment institutions and venues, at least outside of Media and Swarthmore.

“I'm hoping that this is going to become Delco's concert venue,” Schultz said. “And with the loss of the Tower, we really sort of will fill that niche. Lansdowne’s very accessible … We're close to 95. I think we're 15 minutes by train from Center City. So our location is really strategic, but we really do want Delco to embrace this building and make it their own.”

Will the theater, a movie house a century ago, ever show movies again? Schultz said it’s always possible that someone could rent out the space for such purposes, but he expects it to primarily serve as a concert venue.

Walk the walk, write the check

Schultz acknowledged that his job will likely “go away,” now that the project is completed.

“I've known that all along, but I wanted to do this because it is my hometown and I've long admired this building and over the 15 years we're getting a thousand donors and we've made a commitment to those thousand donors and all the elected officials that we were gonna use their money wisely to get this building open.”

Palminteri, on stage after finishing the show, made a point to thank those who donated to the theater revival.

“People who talk the talk need to walk the walk, and reach down and write the check,” the actor told the audience. “God bless all who support the arts.”