Crown Uptown owner said in March he planned to demo theater. Now, it’s gone dark.
Something appears to be happening (or not happening) at the Crown Uptown Theater— the 98-year-old venue at 3207 E. Douglas that owner Mike Brown has publicly threatened to demolish if he could not get the city to increase its capacity.
What exactly is happening is not yet clear, and Brown, a businessman from Tulsa, did not immediately return calls or text messages on Tuesday.
But here’s what is known:
A Facebook post put up on the Crown’s page on Monday announced the cancellation of a May 8 show by Bored Teachers, a touring comedy act, and instructed ticket holders on how to get refunds. The group was originally scheduled to perform April 9, but the show was postponed to May 8. The Bored Teachers show would have been the first event on the Crown stage since a Dec. 5 Christmas show by ventriloquist and singer Darci Lynne, a former “America’s Got Talent” winner.
Then, Tuesday morning, a post appeared on the Bored Teachers Facebook page sharing the news of the cancellation.
“Unfortunately, the Uptown Theatre pulled another last-minute cancellation on us,” the post read. “Only this time, they’re telling us they are closing the venue indefinitely and going out of business. They have assured us they would be refunding everyone. We wish we had better news to announce but this was completely out of our hands!”
Contacted on Tuesday, Wichita City Council member Joseph Shepherd, who represents the district that is home to the theater, said that he received a text message from Brown on March 25 saying that he was “wrapping plans to move forward with demo and redevelopment of site” and wanted to give him a preview of the project.
Shepherd said he had no time to meet that day but responded to Brown’s message the following day, asking him if he was in town, to which Brown replied that he was headed to Trader Joe’s then out of town. Shepherd said he hasn’t heard from Brown since.
“But he didn’t pull any permits, so I wasn’t going to alarm the community,” Shepherd said, adding that he privately notified the College Hill Neighborhood Association president about the exchange.
Also, the phone number at the Crown has been disconnected, and the marquee — which for months has been displaying a tribute to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk — is now dark.
Brown had been fighting since November 2024 to get the capacity of the theater, which he purchased in 2023 with plans to turn it into a concert venue that attracted bigger-name acts, increased from 850 to 2,066. Without the change, he said, he couldn’t make a profit.
His original proposal was rejected in December 2024 by the City Council, which cited concerns about fire safety and parking and sent the matter back to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. Then, in February 2025, the council also denied an application asking that the fire marshal set the occupancy limit.
Brown filed for a wrecking permit the day after that meeting.
In March 2025, the council voted to take interim control of the building and initiate putting the theater on the Wichita Register of Historic Places.
But when it came time to vote on the historical designation in July 2025, several council members said that, although the theater was meaningful to them, they had to vote on the side of property rights.
Brown last appeared before the Wichita City Council in November, when the body voted in favor of increasing the occupancy limit for the theater by 10 people, in keeping with a variance set on the building in 2018.
The Crown, which opened as a first-run movie theater in 1928, was an “atmospheric” theater designed by the Boller Brothers, architects from Kansas City. Its first event was a screening of “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson on July 16, 1928.
Known for its ornate facade, the Crown closed as a movie theater in 1975. But a year later, Ted Morris remodeled it and reopened it as a dinner theater. For decades, he filled its stage with shows like “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and fed his audiences at a popular buffet.
During Morris’ tenure, the theater was also home to many company Christmas parties and for years provided a stage for Wichita Children’s Theatre & Dance Center productions.
Morris died unexpectedly in 2009, suffering a heart attack in the theater. It got new owners, then in 2017 was purchased by Mike Garvey of Buildings Inc., who fitted the Crown with a new sound system and modern lighting. Garvey ended the building’s run as a dinner theater and instead used it for smaller scale concerts and also rented it out for dances and weddings.
J Basham, a longtime theater professional who had managed The Crown for Garvey, purchased the venue in 2017 and ushered it through the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he also ushered dinner theater back into the building by renting it to a nonprofit called Crown Arts Collaborative, which put on full seasons of stage productions.
But in 2022, Basham announced he was ready to retire and was looking for a buyer. He listed the theater building for $1.2 million.
Brown, who worked as vice president of operations for TempleLive when the company purchased the Scottish Rite Center in 2019 and turned part of it into a concert venue, offered Basham double what others were willing to pay for the building.
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 2:58 PM.
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