Diana Ross Reopened Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre

Kings Theatre’s return to performance had a named headliner: Diana Ross. She played its grand reopening on February 3, 2015, completing the public-facing transformation of a long-closed Flatbush movie palace into a working venue again.

The building had opened in 1929 and finally closed in 1977. According to Brooklyn Public Library’s history, the eventual restoration cost $95 million, with construction beginning in 2013. Its ornate interior reflected the ambitions of the original movie-palace era.

Ross’s concert put a performance at the end of that long restoration story. The significance was as much in the room as in the bill: after decades of abandonment, people were returning to Kings Theatre to watch a show.

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Sources: bklynlibrary.org.