Beacon Theatre

Upcoming concerts in New York City

Beacon Theatre in New York City

About Beacon Theatre

Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is a 2,894-seat concert hall built as a 1929 movie palace. Fixed seats rise through orchestra, loge and balcony levels, while the original stage infrastructure includes elevators for the main stage, orchestra pit and Wurlitzer organ. That machinery and the richly detailed landmark interior give rock, jazz and folk bills a full-scale theatre setting with a sense of occasion before the music starts.

A movie palace becomes a music room

Architect Walter W. Ahlschlager designed the Beacon for the Hotel Beacon project, with showman Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel initially set to manage it. Delays and financial trouble reshaped that plan: Rothafel’s company exited its lease in 1928, Warner Bros. took the management lease, and the theatre opened on December 24, 1929 with a film program, orchestra and Wurlitzer organ. The Beacon operated as a movie theatre through 1974; after a live-performance group defaulted in 1976, Concert Arts Society took the lease in February 1977 and ran it as a multi-purpose performing-arts center.

One defining Beacon night arrived on October 28, 2014, when the Allman Brothers Band played its final concert there. The group had made annual Beacon runs a Manhattan fixture from 1989 onward, logging 238 appearances at the theatre; its last show later received an official full-concert release.

The seated-show advantage

Today, the Beacon’s booking mix centers on ticketed headline concerts in rock, alternative, folk, indie and jazz, with comedy and special-event presentations also on the bill. This is a reserved-seat room, suited to audiences who value a clear stage view and an established place to settle in for a full set. The auditorium’s orchestra, loge and balcony arrangement frames a deep proscenium stage, and a sound-system installation in 2022 updated the concert-production side of the room.

Sources

  1. Beacon Theatre History — MSG Entertainment
  2. Beacon Theater, First Floor Interior — New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
  3. Allman Brothers Band Final Concert 10-28-14 Coming Out on Peach Records — Allman Brothers Band
  4. Beacon Theatre (New York City) — Wikipedia
Upcoming shows
15
Address
2124 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
Phone
(212) 465-6225
Next show
Tue, 15 Sept 2026
Official siteDirections

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