PALACE THEATRE (STAMFORD)

The Palace Theatre is a 1,600-seat historic theater at 61 Atlantic Street in downtown Stamford and the longest-running arts presenter in Fairfield County. It is part of Stamford Center for the Arts (SCA), a nonprofit 501(c)(3), and serves as the region's premier performing arts center. SCA also owns the Rich Forum at 307 Atlantic Street, four blocks away, currently leased to NBCUniversal as a television production studio.

The Palace Theatre presents touring Broadway shows, national comedy and music acts, orchestra performances, and arts education programming. Recent performers include Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin, Gabriel Iglesias, Diana Ross, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Jeff Dunham. The theater also offers youth education workshops focused on creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence.

Designed by Thomas Lamb (architect of New York's earlier Madison Square Garden and the Mark Hellinger Theatre), the Palace opened in summer 1927 as a vaudeville/silent-movie house acclaimed as "Connecticut's Most Magnificent." It stayed a movie house until it went dark in 1980, two years after the death of its builder/owner Mary Vuono, and was restored and reopened in 1983 for live theatre, opera, dance, concerts, and art exhibitions. A 2003 renovation added a new facade, marquee, and two-story lobby.