Live music returns
Milwaukee’s Shank Hall, the Bend theater in West Bend announce concerts.
Fourteen years after shutting down, and after a $4.4 million restoration, a 91-year-old theater in West Bend, renamed the Bend, was ready for its grand reopening — on March 14.
The escalating coronavirus crisis forced the 330-seat theater to close again the following day.
But the Bend, 125 N. Main St., will be back in business again Friday, for the first of several reduced-capacity concerts with area acts, beginning with the Andrew David Weber Band.
“Historically, theaters are gatherings spaces for a community, in both times of prosperity and times of challenge,” Jeff Potts, the nonprofit venue’s executive director, said in a statement. “The arts, the creativity they inspire and the escape they provide are needed now more than ever.”
Each performance will host about 50 guests, with aisle seats left open and guests separated by empty rows. There’ll be hand-sanitizer stations and physical barriers in place to encourage social distancing, and guests are asked to wear masks in common areas in the theater.
“We’ve learned a lot the past few months, and the most important action is to respect your neighbors,” Potts said in a statement. “Give everyone a little extra space, patience and courtesy. If you don’t feel well, or someone in your household doesn’t feel well — stay home. … Your ticket will be good for another day.”
The Bend has four shows planned so far, with Weber on Friday, Zach Pietrini July 17, the Chris Haise Band Aug. 8 and the Listening Party Aug. 21. Tickets for all four shows are $15 at
The shows will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 9 p.m.
The Bend is also planning to screen classic and independent movies and reschedule postponed shows, with details to be announced.
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel in March, Potts said about 40% of events would be movies, with another 40% dedicated to live shows. The remaining 20% of events would consist of corporate meetings, class reunions and other events.
The plan before the pandemic hit was to have an average of three events a week, with at least 120 people in attendance each night. The Bend planned to earn 80% of its annual revenue through events, with fundraising efforts accounting for the rest.
“It’s a very aggressive business model … but we think it’s the only way that we can exist,” Potts told the Journal Sentinel in March. “We want to be a volume-based business.”
This isn’t the first time the theater has opened in a historically tough economy. The West Bend Theatre first opened as a movie house in November 1929, just a few weeks after the stock market crash that helped fuel the Great Depression. But it survived and continued to show movies until closing in 2006.
A decade later, a nonprofit group, the Historic West Bend Theatre Inc., formed to save and restore the venue.
The hope was that the reopened theater would drive further development in West Bend, which has included plans for a new 68-room hotel, public walkway and downtown pub.