VenuesNow 2025 All-Star Honoree: Sean Seifert

SEAN SEIFERT
Executive Director
Carolina Theatre

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR?
From abandoned building to modern music hall – Carolina Theatre returns via $90 million philanthropic campaign.

Executive director Sean Seifert helms one of the biggest venue comebacks of 2025. Originally opened in 1927, the Carolina Theatre in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, reopened in March after nearly five dormant decades.

“As a community-first nonprofit theatre, it’s important that everyone – no matter who you are or where you come from – feels welcome at the Carolina Theatre from day one,” says Seifert.

“We’re deeply rooted in Charlotte’s history like few other places, and now we’re investing in our community’s future.”

The theater was originally constructed for $750,000 and could seat 1,450 patrons.

A stage for live shows and feature films, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra debuted there in 1932, Elvis Presley played there in the ’60s and the venue broke records with a 79-week run of “The Sound Of Music,” reaching 400,000 people – more than the population of Charlotte at the time. The venue also holds the distinction of having been the first air-conditioned building in the city, but as residents migrated to the suburbs, attendance declined and the theater closed in 1978.

But the Carolina Theatre wasn’t forgotten.

It held special memories for many and represented a piece of architecture too important to tear down. For 40 years, political leaders, preservationists and community activists pursued development options that would preserve the history and save the theater. In 1982, the Carolina Theatre was placed on the Local Historic Register, and the city bought the property in 1986. Several attempts to restore the theatre were tried and stalled. In 2013, the city gifted the venue to the Foundation For The Carolinas for $1, and the organization, which is based next to the property, spent 12 years painstakingly restoring the beloved space to its original splendor through a $90 million philanthropic campaign. The eight-year restoration from abandoned building to modern music hall began in 2017.

“This is Charlotte’s theatre. Plain and simple,” says Seifert. “We’re the community’s living room.”