Red Bank used to see its biggest downtown crowds around the holidays, after the summer slump. In 2026 that order flipped. The Broadwalk plaza made the 2026 summer perhaps the busiest the downtown has seen in recent memory, Red Bank Green reported. Since the tables came off the street on September 30, the evenings have shifted back indoors, to a theater that has drawn people downtown since November 11, 1926.
That theater is the Count Basie Center for the Arts at 99 Monmouth Street, and its 100th birthday falls three weeks from tonight. Witches Night Out is tonight, and STIR opens at Two River Theater on Halloween. By Thanksgiving week, Red Bank's fall calendar will have run on the town's indoor stages much the way its summer ran on the plaza.
What the Broadwalk Changed About the Calendar
The plaza's final day was September 30, 2026. Red Bank Green reported that crews from Yumi at 9 Broad Street loaded their streatery tables and chairs as traffic got ready to return the next day.
The same report gave the numbers behind the season. RiverCenter, the nonprofit that runs the Broadwalk and promotes the downtown business district, uses Placer.ai location data to measure foot traffic. For summer 2026, that data showed more than 1,000 additional visitors a day, on average, compared with summer 2025, and an average visit of 88 minutes. Traffic rose most during the months the plaza was in place, which reversed the old pattern of a quiet downtown while shore visitors stayed at the beaches and boardwalks.
RiverCenter Executive Director Mairin Bennett summed up the shift in that Red Bank Green article:
"Previously, summers were dead. Summers now are busier than the holidays."
The program is five years old. Red Bank Green credited several things for the 2026 crowds: good weather, especially in May, new businesses that built around the plaza, more events held on it, and social media posts from influencers who attended those events. All of those depend on being outdoors. Once the street reopens, none of them carries into October.
The Room That Held the Old Calendar Together
Before the plaza existed, the Basie was one of the main reasons to come downtown after dark. The building opened as Reade's Carlton on November 11, 1926, a film and vaudeville house. In 1984, when it was known as the Monmouth Arts Center, it was renamed for Red Bank's own William "Count" Basie. A 2020 expansion added the Grunin Arts Education Building and The Vogel, and the Basie name now covers the whole campus.
The Basie says more than 300,000 patrons attend its events each year. Its arts education programs reach more than 20,000 students in the region annually through the Turner Academy of the Arts and programs in schools and the community. No summer plaza event comes close to that year-round attendance.
The centennial began in 2025 as a 16-month program. It was announced with a decade-by-decade film series at Basie Center Cinemas and a new community mural planned for the cinemas' White Street exterior. The most visible moment so far came at the end of August. RiverCenter's Red Bank Beat newsletter, republished by TAPinto, reported that the Basie Birthday weekend marking the namesake's 122nd birthday included performances by the Count Basie Orchestra and the theater's dedication as part of New Jersey's Black Heritage Trail. For the occasion, the stretch of Monmouth Street in front of the theater was temporarily renamed "Count Basie Way."
August celebrated the man. November celebrates the building.
A Birthday Week Built Around 1926
The Basie's centennial plans for November come down to two dates three days apart.
Wednesday, November 11. The building turns 100 on a weeknight. That evening, Count Basie Center Gospel Choir: Voices for The Centennial Celebration plays The Vogel, with doors at 5 p.m. and the show at 6 p.m. Tickets are sold through the Basie, which had not posted a price on the event page.
Saturday, November 14. The Centennial Celebration Finale re-creates the theater's 1926 opening night in the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the show starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $19.26, a nod to the opening year.
The evening's centerpiece is the film that played on opening night. The Basie says that for the first time in a century, audiences can see the silent comedy The Quarterback, restored in 4K, with live accompaniment by silent film organist Ben Model. The Basie also promises appearances by "stars of vaudeville, Broadway, Hollywood and beyond" returning "from the past." Guests can upgrade to a post-show gala next door at The Vogel honoring Senator Vin Gopal and Netflix.
In 1926, a movie with live music in a Red Bank theater was the town's version of a night out on Broad Street, and on November 14 the Basie will stage that night again for about the price of a 1926 souvenir.
The Month Around It, in Order
The Basie's two November dates sit inside a busier stretch downtown. In date order, starting today:
- Thursday, October 22, 6 to 9 p.m. RiverCenter's Witches Night Out returns to downtown Red Bank.
- Tuesday, October 27. Two River Theater hosts a free "Pages to Plays" program.
- Saturday, October 31, through Sunday, November 22. STIR runs at Two River Theater. It is a play about siblings who reconnect over their mother's black-bean recipe.
- Wednesday, November 4. Two River's "In The Know: Stir" program on the production.
- Wednesday, November 11. The Basie's 100th birthday and the Gospel Choir at The Vogel.
- Friday, November 13. "Drag Me to Two River: Fresh Face of Drag" at Two River Theater.
- Saturday, November 14. The Basie's Centennial Celebration Finale and the optional gala at The Vogel.
Three of the seven are free or nearly free: Witches Night Out, Pages to Plays, and the $19.26 finale. Two weekends in mid-November hold most of the big nights. Anyone who wants both the Basie finale and a STIR performance would do best to book that weekend early, before the run's final week.
RiverCenter has not yet posted its 2026 holiday schedule. Those dates will add to the calendar once they're announced at redbank.org.
Where Broad Street Picks Up After the Curtain
A 6 p.m. curtain lets out in time for a stop on the way to the car, and the downtown has added a few new options since spring.
Red Bank Green reported that Insomnia Cookies scheduled a 4 p.m. soft opening for September 1 at 74 Broad Street, a space that also includes the 6–8 Monmouth Street storefront on the Basie's street. Froyolicious opened at 43 Broad Street in late August, according to the same report. Both arrived while the plaza was still up, and both are now in their first season with cars back on Broad Street.
The next opening will be at the other end of town. The Two River Times reported that Rallo Alimentari & Focacceria is nearing completion at 187 Riverside Avenue, the former Bridge Avenue Gas property. It is planned as an all-day, Milan-inspired cafe with dinner service and is expected to open in early 2027.
Rallo's timing fits the same pattern. A business opening at Red Bank's northern gateway in early 2027 will open in the cold months, before the next Broadwalk season begins. The Basie and Two River have filled downtown evenings in those months for years, and this November the Basie marks a century of doing it.
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