Postmodern Jukebox books the Keith-Albee for an April Tuesday

Scott Bradlee's vintage-styled pop revue brings The Future Is Vintage World Tour to Huntington's 1928 movie palace on Tuesday, April 20, 2027.

Picture the Keith-Albee on a spring weeknight: house lights down under that painted-sky ceiling, a horn section warming up, and a pop song you know cold about to come back dressed for 1928. That's the pitch for Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, which announced on Oct. 27 that it will play the Keith Albee Theatre in Huntington on Tuesday, April 20, 2027, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now through eTix. The date runs under the banner of The Future Is Vintage World Tour, the same production that has been working its way through theaters on both sides of the Atlantic this year.

If you haven't caught the act, the premise is simple and the execution is the fun part. Venue listings for the tour describe a show that transforms contemporary pop, '70s rock and '80s Britpop into vintage arrangements, the kind of jazz and soul treatments the group's genre tags suggest. It plays less like a band gig than a revue: a stage full of players, a parade of voices, and songs you know arriving in costumes you don't expect.

The tour has covered real ground. It has played European rooms such as Gothenburg and Staffordshire's Victoria Hall, then came back to North America this fall with dates including Hartford on Oct. 18 and Boston's Wilbur on Oct. 27. Huntington's date carries the run into spring 2027.

The room is the other half of the story. The Keith-Albee opened in May 1928 as a vaudeville house, built by the Hyman family, who also ran the Orpheum, State and Huntington theaters, and named for the vaudeville producers Benjamin Keith and Edward Albee, according to Wikipedia. Thomas W. Lamb designed it in the atmospheric, Spanish Baroque style, per Cinema Treasures, and it cost $2 million to build. Opening night, WVPB notes, was a comedy film, a newsreel and five stage acts.

A revue that dresses new songs in old clothes, in a room built for vaudeville.

That is close to a perfect match. Postmodern Jukebox's usual headline room holds about 1,500 people, and its whole act is old-time showmanship applied to modern material. Few rooms in the region make that case better than a 1928 vaudeville palace.

The building has also had serious care. Over a 10-year period, roofs were replaced, HVAC installed and the sign repaired, according to e-WV, the West Virginia Encyclopedia. More recently the architecture firm ZMM has written about Huntington's "crown jewel" set to reopen repolished. A touring production of this size choosing the Keith-Albee is a good sign for a downtown that has spent years bringing the place back.

A few practical notes. It's a Tuesday, so plan dinner early and give yourself time to park downtown. Tickets have been on sale since the announcement, and better seats in a theater this ornate tend to go first. And dress up a little if you like; plenty of people at these shows do, and the room deserves it.

Some concerts are about the band. This one is about the band, the songs and the building in equal measure, and in April Huntington gets to show off all three.

Sources: JamBase: Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox at Keith Albee Theatre (jambase.com); eTix tickets (etix.prf.hn); Tower Theatre: Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox – The Future Is Vintage World Tour (towertheatre.org); Göteborg: Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (goteborg.com); Victoria Hall: Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (whatsonlive.co.uk); CT Visit: Postmodern Jukebox – The Future Is Vintage World Tour (ctvisit.com); The Wilbur: Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (thewilbur.com); Keith-Albee Theatre – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Cinema Treasures: Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center (cinematreasures.org); WVPB on the Keith-Albee (wvpublic.org); e-WV: Keith-Albee Theatre (wvencyclopedia.org); ZMM: A bright future: Huntington's crown jewel to reopen repolished (zmm.com)