World Cafe Live leaves the Queen; new managers expected
World Cafe Live is leaving the Queen Theater and new management is headed in, keeping it as a live music venue and "community clubhouse."
The music venue – World Cafe Live at the Queen – will close its doors on May 25 after a six-year run, according to an announcement by Hal Real, president of World Cafe Live and Real Entertainment Group.
Chris Buccini, co-president of the Buccini/Pollin Group, which redeveloped the historic theater, said the live event space will simply be known as the Queen starting May 26.
Tuesday night, Buccini said he could not name what entertainment company will take over the 45,000-square-foot theater because the deal was still being finalized.
"Shortly, in the next few weeks, we will be making the announcement about who we're partnering up with for the operation of it," he said.
Buccini stressed that the theater will continue to host a mix of national and local acts and will continue to be an event space for weddings and private parties.
"We want to make sure that everything the Queen has meant to people in the past continues in the future, and we have to button up those details," he said, adding that both the upstairs and downstairs stages will remain. "Everything, whether it's the big act, the small local act or the Light Up the Queen Foundation programs – the goal is to actually only get more of that there."
He expects the Queen will close for a couple of weeks in the summer for a minor renovation, which includes an enhancement of the upstairs stage.
Real broke the news that World Cafe Live will be pulling out of Wilmington in an email to his team late Monday night.
"When I think about how lower Market Street looked and felt 10 years ago versus today, it’s hard to believe it’s the same place," Real wrote. "However, even though lots has improved physically on much of Market Street, the revitalization has just not been strong enough and fast enough to support our robust 7-day/week WCL model. So, while I’m certainly no quitter, you really do have to 'know when to fold.'”
To celebrate the venue's role as a clubhouse for the local music community, Real said in a statement there will be a final show – free of charge – on May 25 featuring "performances by many of the Brandywine Valley’s most cherished groups and performers."
Through a representative, Real declined to be interviewed.
Bill Dougherty, the Queen's food and beverage manager, learned of World Cafe Live's departure in a manager's meeting on Monday at 5 p.m.
Real had gathered about 10 members of his top staff and broke the news to them.
"We were stunned," Dougherty said. "[Real] is heartbroken. This was his baby. I'm sure he would much rather have had a different meeting. There were tears."
News Journal Archive: The Queen prepares to open
Steve Szymanski, a 53-year-old Queen patron, said he has relatives in their 90s who attended silent movie screenings at the Queen years ago. The banking professional said he will miss its latest incarnation with its cheap nearby parking, beer selection, variety of music and friendly staff.
"It'll be a big loss," he said, but added that he will continue to visit under new management. "If they have the money to support [live music] in Wilmington, which is crucial to the survival of the city … I would support them."
Dougherty estimates World Cafe Live at the Queen has about 100 full- and part-time employees. They were informed via email Tuesday morning, he said.
Real told The News Journal in 2011 that he was determined to make the project work. "Failure for us would be a really sad state of affairs for Market Street," he said.
The Queen Theater was originally built in the 1800s, converted to a vaudeville theater in the 1920s and was a movie house before closing in 1959.
It had been left for dead for nearly 50 years before Buccini/Pollin Group renovated the theater at Fifth and Market streets. A ribbon-cutting ceremony and the first concert were held there on April 1, 2011.
Joe Trainor performed on the World Cafe Live stage on May 30 of that year for a soft opening. That first show would be one of many for the pianist and singer, who has performed with his namesake band Joe Trainor Trio, the tribute band In the Light and as an act for the venue's annual fundraiser, Shine a Light. A main draw for Trainor was the staff's attitude toward local artists.
"When you're a musician, part of the reason you get into it is because you want that kind of atmosphere. And when they treat you like a rock star, you're going to want to go back," he said.
Trainor said the idea of corporate management makes him "apprehensive."
"I love this city. If a vendor can come in and make the venue more successful, then it's good for the city," he said. "As a musician, if it's not open to our art scene, it could be a detriment. I’m on both sides of the fence."
Tina Betz, executive director of the Light Up the Queen Foundation, echoed Buccini and said the foundation's work to promote arts awareness and arts programs will continue.
"Within all of the discussions about the new management coming in, what the Light Up the Queen Foundation does has been an important part of it," she said. "And it needed to be guaranteed that we would still have our comfortable fit in our home."
In Real's email, he thanked staff and performers for "being part of such an ambitious and exhilarating effort."
With two stages and capacity to host 950 people, the public/private $25 million rehabilitation of the long-forgotten Queen ushered in a new era of music for Wilmington, pumping more national and local acts onto Market Street than ever before.
From high school bands playing some of their first gigs to well-known acts like Dr. John, Lake Street Dive, Chris Stapleton, Neutral Milk Hotel, The xx and Ingrid Michaelson, World Cafe Live at the Queen became what Real dreamed, telling The News Journal in 2009 that Delawareans could "expect we will use all our resources to create a new Wilmington clubhouse for the music and arts community."
Gayle Dillman, whose Gable Music Ventures has booked more than 200 shows there since 2012, lamented the loss of one of the only music rooms in the state where underage acts could perform and grow.
"This is how Gable started – as a platform for underage bands – original music for all ages," said Dillman, who is now hunting for a new venue for her weekly "Wilmo Wednesday" variety show, which drew 50 to 100 people each week. "And while [Wilmington rock clubs] Oddity Bar and 1984 are great, the kids can't go in there. This means there's a new challenge for us, and we'll figure it out."
Andrea Sikora and her husband, Bryan, own and run three city restaurants – La Fia Market Bistro, Merchant Bar and Cocina Lolo Mexican Restaurant – all within one block of the Queen. She said the couple hasn’t seen much business from the concert venue, before or after a show, in recent years, particularly in the last year and a half.
“We got the sense the energy was lower [at The Queen]," she said. "In 2014, we were observing large crowds, the corner was bopping and La Fia was busy on show nights. But we haven’t felt that energy in a long while.”
She said she believes the last big spillover crowd at their restaurants was when local musician Ben LeRoy and his band The Snap played a reunion show at the venue in November.
“He brought the crowds,” Sikora said. “I can’t think of any other show like that since then.”
Sikora said she’s hoping a new operator at the Queen will bring “a new vision.”
“We’re optimistic. We would be happy to see a new operator bring back the energy of 2014,” Sikora said. “We’re supportive of any new ownership coming in and we can all work together.”
Besides concerts, the Queen has also hosted other events like weddings, TEDx Wilmington events and the MidAtlantic Wine + Food Festival. Buccini/Pollin hosted the premiere of a local music video there in November. And Hillary Clinton held a rally there in April ahead of Delaware's primary election.
Even before construction began at the Queen, it had an uphill climb. The deal for the new venue was made with a handshake in 2007, just before the global economic meltdown.
"Wilmington is just now, economically and renaissance-wise, about where we hoped it would be when we opened five years ago," Real told The News Journal ahead of the Queen's fifth anniversary last year. "I think we're real close to the tipping point now."
The cash to fund the venue's $25 million renovation came from public and private sources. Tax credits yielded about $11 million, and the city gave $3 million, The News Journal reported in 2011. The other half came from a combination of foundation grants, state funds, corporate donations and individual contributions.
Mark Fields, executive director of the Grand, only three blocks from the Queen, said the city and its residents have invested too much money into the Queen to let it fail.
"I trust our leadership and community to do what's in the best interest of the community to make sure this doesn't become a setback," he said.
Faced with increased competition and a changing music industry, Fields said running a concert venue has become a "brutal business." He said World Cafe Live's ambition to be open every day likely made things difficult.
World Cafe Live in Philadelphia will continue to operate, Real wrote, and the company also plans to launch an initiative called "World Cafe Live Presents" which hopes to present World Cafe Live concerts and events at other venues in and outside the region.
The Market Street location will host events through the end of May including singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and the annual Shine a Light concert fundraiser, which benefits the Light Up the Queen Foundation.
Buccini praised Real for his role in resurrecting the theater in the heart of Wilmington's downtown, which came just after the worldwide economic downturn of 2008.
"If it wasn't for Hal Real, the Queen would not exist today," he said. "He wasn't from here. It had been vacant for half a century. And he really was the catalyst. Things didn't work out exactly as we would have hoped, but I think he really left his mark on our community."
Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter @ryancormier and Instagram @ryancormier. Contact Christina Jedra at (302) 324-2837, on Twitter @ChristinaJedra or cjedra@delawareonline.com. Damian Giletto contributed reporting.