A talk with the new owners of the Columbus Theatre

2024 has been a rough year for live entertainment in Rhode Island. Numerous places like Dusk, Mayday and B’z Community Bar among others have closed up while other establishments either have their last day of business approaching or they’ve lost the budget to do any type of live music, comedy, theater or anything else whatsoever. Even though this fact is depressing for anyone around these parts who likes to enjoy themselves during a night out, there was some good news last month. Following the venue shutting its doors back in June, the owners of the Comedy Connection in East Providence have recently bought the Columbus Theater, located on 270 Broadway in the heart of Providence’s Broadway-Armory Historic District. While some changes are in store, the essence, history and structure of the building will be maintained with a positive vision for the future of the city’s nightlife.

I had a talk with the new owners, Cory Brailsford and Dave Fiorillo, about how this all came about, changing the name, renovating a building that’s nearly 100 years old and what people can expect in terms of programming.

Rob Duguay: How did this whole process come about with the Comedy Connection buying the Columbus Theatre? It’s one of the few bright spots when it comes to live entertainment in Rhode Island this year with so many venues closing down.

Cory Brailsford: The venue has always been great, the building itself is beautiful and it has a capacity that really works well for certain shows that skip over the market a lot of times. When we saw that the Columbus was going to have their last show back in June, we knew that we had to jump on this and we had to make this happen. In our minds, we had always thought it was so cool when we went there, so when they announced their last show, we both said “Let’s do it, let’s go.”

RD: It’s great that you guys bought the place. When the news of the announcement was unveiled, it was mentioned that the venue is going to be changed back to its original name of the Uptown Theatre. What was the reasoning behind that? Was it just to honor the history of the building, or was it something else?

CB: The only reason why we wanted to change it is because it was originally opened in 1926 as the Columbus Theatre and three years later, it changed to the Uptown Theatre. It stayed like that until the late ‘60s, when it went back to being the Columbus. We just wanted to follow suit, but I want everybody to know that Dave and I are the new owners, it’s under new ownership and it’s not the exact same thing that people might have seen before. We want to give it a little bit of a facelift and bring new life back to the building, so changing it back to its previous name is a way to help show that. It helps set ourselves apart from what it was before.

RD: It starts a new chapter.

CB: Right.

RD: You mentioned that the building has been around since the ‘20s, so it’s obvious that it needs renovations, which was something that has been made evident by both the previous staff and people who have attended shows. With this in mind, how has this aspect of the purchase been going and when it comes to the renovations, what is the timeline for them to get things rolling?

Dave Fiorillo: Cory and I actually had this conversation the other day. We’ve gotten some quotes back from roofers and a scaffolding company because we do have to do some work on the ceiling in the main theater. We’re trying to get some construction started this month, and I think we can. We’re just addressing some of the paint issues while giving it a nice, fresh and clean look for when we finally reopen. As far as a start date, we don’t really have an opening date set as of yet and we’re waiting once the construction starts getting underway so everything gets done in a timely manner before we start booking new stuff.

RD: That makes sense.

CB: We want to make sure of that because things pop up since it’s an old building. We don’t want to start booking shows and setting a date that may end up becoming unrealistic. Even if it’s three more weeks, three more weeks in the event business is a big deal because we’ll have to reschedule shows and it’s just not a good look. We’re just going to continue to see where we’re at, how long things are taking and stuff like that. I don’t think there was any bad intent from the previous owners, it was maybe a lack of funds or something where they just patched things together the best they could, but it needs a new roof.

I was literally standing in the theater last week looking at the ceiling and it’s a big project. The scaffolding alone to be able to get 40 feet in the air to repair the ceiling to make sure there aren’t any little pieces of paint falling down is very expensive.

DF: More than I would like.

CB: Yeah, so I get it and it’s a lot. Unfortunately, it takes a new owner and somebody who has the funding available to be able to take on a project like this.

RD: I totally agree. The building also has a unique aspect where there’s two stages. There’s the main stage, which Dave previously mentioned, and there’s also a smaller stage with seating for roughly 200 people. Do you plan on maintaining both of these stages when it comes to reopening the building, or are there different plans for that?

CB: We’re going to keep the two stages because right now if you look at the state of local bands, Askew [on 150 Chestnut Street in Providence] is closing on December 1st. There have been plenty of places in the past few years that have closed down and my brother Alex Claros is in a local band called Northeast Traffic. He was even saying that it’s become less and less and less when it comes to places to play and we want to help fill that void. Local bands who aren’t gonna sell 800 seats in the main theater can do very well and sound great in the 200 seater, so we want to keep that for now. Maybe years in the future if we’re absolutely blowing out big shows in the main theater, we’ll think about having a convertible space where we still have the ability to open a wall or something when the smaller stage is not in use, but for now, it’s gonna stay as the two stages.

RD: Very cool. Going along with that you just said about the local music scene, everyone knows about the Comedy Connection as a hub for stand-up. It’s the top comedy club in Rhode Island, so when it comes to going from that to having a lot more versatility and potential to bring in a lot of different forms of entertainment like film screenings, live music and theatrical productions along with stand-up comedy, is that the main vision when things get up and running?

CB: I’ve always wanted to do more music. We presented Nas with the Rhode Island Philharmonic at the Providence Performing Arts Center earlier this year, which was our second concert. It sold out, it was amazing and there’s a lot of parallels to booking comedy and booking music. There’s obvious differences as well, but I feel like with my experience with the comedy side of things and those different types of shows that it’ll help translate over to music. We want to do everything, we want to do screenings and we even want to do something with someone who has a book tour or something cool like if Neil deGrasse Tyson comes around where it’s not a TED Talk, but it’s an evening with him on stage.

RD: Like a lecture of some sort.

CB: Yeah, or something like a candlelight concert. I want to see all of it and I want to have a ton of diverse programming to fill the space. There will be comedy, but probably only two or three times a month like it was before.

RD: This gets me really excited. Speaking of excitement, on a personal level for the both of you, what are you most excited about with this venture from your own point of view as people who love entertainment, are investing in it and are already involved in the industry?

DF: For myself, I’m just very excited to keep the arts going in Providence. Since we announced that we’re taking it over, we’ve had a lot of people talk to us and ask us about what’s going to be happening at the theatre. We want to do all of it because like Cory said, Askew is closing in December and there’s just been a lot of places over the years that have started to close up. Arts and entertainment is very important to me personally and I would just love to continue this tradition in Providence, create a good hub for all sorts of arts and make a great destination for people to come down and see all forms of entertainment. I’m also excited for the neighborhood, the building was the crown jewel of Broadway and I think it’s great to reopen it.

The neighborhood is a great neighborhood with the restaurants and the coffee shops and everything that surrounds it, and it’s all going to thrive once it reopens and there’s shows going on all the time.

CB: You know, it’s funny. Right now, my current excitement is from looking at the building, I just know in my mind that I can see the way we want it to look. Dave and I work really well together with how we mesh our ideas and we figure out a way that works good and it makes sense or whatever. We’ve always done that with the Comedy Connection and the Black Duck Tavern that’s next door and I can’t wait to see the actual potential of this building. Even the small upgrades of the lighting, it’s not decrepit, but nobody has given it love.

It needs love and it’s going to look amazing. I’m so pumped to see what it’s going to be at the end.