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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bright Lights at the Beacon Theater

Beacon Theater, UWS
Photo by myself around 74th Street and Broadway, on the Upper West Side.

People were hawking tickets outside the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side, Tuesday night. The group Deep Purple, an English group from the 70s, was scheduled to play.

I've never been to the Beacon, but I know from walking by that they show lots of well-known musicians. A quick glimpse of the schedule shows KD Lang, Peter Frampton and Alicia Keys in the coming weeks.

The Beacon recently renovated its signage to use LED lights. Now the canopy scrolls through different shows in color and the lettering is BRIGHT.

Broadway is very wide in this neighborhood - two lanes of traffic and a bus lane on each side of a wide median strip. Broadway is similar in layout as Park Avenue on the Upper East Side, though the two streets have a very different vibe. Park Avenue is limited to mostly pre-war apartment buildings and there is no illuminated signage.

For a look at the Beacon's schedule, click here.

Beacon Theater, UWS
The new animated LED canopy is easily seen across Broadway.

Related posts: Only in New York, Cluttered Sidewalks in the East Village and Bright Lights at BAM.

10 comments:

Olivier said...

Deep Purple, voila ce qui ne me rajeunit pas. Des grands moment sur scène, tu aurais du y aller. Très belle cette salle.

Leif Hagen said...

I especially like your top photo - walking the sidewalk by the theater! Fun!
Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

We've often stayed near the Beacon on the UWS, Kitty. These photos bring back great memories.

Washington Cesar Takeuchi said...

Deep Purple would be nice, specially in NYC!

Natalie said...

That made me sad! I stayed in the Beacon hotel two years ago and it was a great hotel and a great area...I couldn't be more jealous!

Kitty said...

Hi Olivier!
Ha, I had not heard of Deep Purple until the other day. I am... a little out of it. But I'm sure it's a great show.

Thanks Leif!

Hi Terry
I can see staying on the UWS during a visit. It'd be a quiet, pretty area and you'd get a good sense of what it's like to live here. Very convenient, too.

Hi Washington
ha, you're much more savvy than I am.

Hi Natalie and welcome
I know the feeling...seeing a place after you've left and knowing that it somehow continues to function without your being there...it's sad.

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

That's exactly how we felt about staying on the UWS, Kitty! Our tiny hotel suite had an even tinier kitchen, so we'd shop at Fairway Market, eat a "home cooked" meal or two and pretend we were New Yorkers.

Our last visit, we stayed on the UES and one night walked over to have dinner with friends in their apartment a few blocks away. Totally felt like we lived there.

dianasfaria.com said...

I just saw the inside of the theatre on TV - it's so opulent - they held the Tony awards show there last Sunday.
I've been dying to go to the Beacon but always forget to look it up to see what's playing. Peter Frampton & KD Lang are AMAZING in concert maybe they aren't sold out yet?
Thanks for the reminder Kitty.
; )

Kitty said...

Hi Terry,
I think my parents stayed at the same hotel on the UWS once, with the kitchens!

It was great because you didn't have to go out to eat all the time. We tried finding it again but couldn't. I wonder if it's still there.

Hi Lily
How funny it is that we don't take advantage of these wonderful venues that are so close by?

Let us know if you see one of those shows. It'd be cool to get a firsthand account of the interiors.

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

Kitty, I'm not sure what hotel your parents stayed in, but the one we've stayed in a few times is the Milburn Hotel:

http://www.milburnhotel.com/

The kitchens really are tiny and under equipped, but still nice to have.