The Eternal Life of the Original Rock Palace: A Conversation with Stefanie May

Stefanie May, the marketing director of the famed Capitol Theatre, sat down for a conversation about all things live music.

Few venues have earned their nickname like the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Dubbed the “The Original Rock Palace,” the venue became a mainstay for Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, and scores of other rock legends. After spending a decade as an event space in the 2000s, impresario Peter Shapiro bought it under the guise that he would return it back to a legendary music venue. In the last fifteen years, he and his team have done just that.

Last week, I sat with Stefanie May, one of the members of that team. Though she’s worked at the venue for a long time, she recently took over as the Director of Marketing. Over an hour, we talked about how concerts are marketed in the 2020s, recent challenges for the industry, and how the Capitol has continued to thrive for almost a century. If you live in the New York City area, check out the Capitol’s upcoming shows.

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Over the last few years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, live music has represented the highest highs and the lowest lows in music. You have artists making tons of money but that money being unevenly distributed to the biggest artists. How do you think the Capitol Theatre fits into both sides of this over the last couple years?

During COVID, the marketing team at the Capitol was super busy. Our owner, Peter Shapiro, started a live streaming company, so that we could keep the joy and magic of music in the world while people were stuck at home. We also did some crowd-less performances with our sister venue, Brooklyn Bowl. We had shows with Jason Isbell, Billy Strings, Bob Weir, and a bunch of others.

This was all very good for the company financially. Plus, it was great to be able to bring music to people at that time. In the end, live music is really all about community. And during this time, we were able to keep our community together.

Virtual events were huge at that time, but I feel like people aren’t using them as much anymore. Does the Capitol continue to run virtual events?

Even before the pandemic, the Capitol Theatre did tons of live streaming, especially with big artists like Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. All streams of concerts go on Nugs.net. On our average, our live streams get 10,000 to 15,000 views. We aren’t doing a stream everyday like we were back then, but we should still do 40 to 50 this year.

Port Chester’s famous Capitol Theatre [Credit: Scott Harris]

Speaking of Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, it astounds me how much live music is still driven by jam band culture.