The biggest name playing Long Island in November is booked into a 1933 movie palace on East Main Street in Riverhead. The Suffolk's November calendar runs twelve shows deep, and in the middle of it sits an acoustic evening with Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd co-founder, performing his songs with guitarist G.E. Smith on Sunday, November 22 at 7 p.m.

The month, show by show

The lineup opens Friday, November 6 at 8 p.m. with Absolute Adele, fronted by Jennifer Cella, a former vocalist with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Sunday, November 8 brings the Chaotic Hypnotic Game Show, an interactive stage show, at 7 p.m.

The middle of the month belongs to names from the record bins. Adrenalize, a Def Leppard tribute, plays Friday, November 13 at 8 p.m. Jim Messina, of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and Loggins and Messina, brings his band the Road Runners on Saturday, November 14 at 8 p.m. The Cowsills, the family band whose harmonies inspired the Partridge Family, play Sunday, November 15 at 7 p.m. The Harvest Gospel 40th Anniversary Concert follows Thursday, November 19 at 7 p.m., including a tribute to Rev. Maryanne McElroy.

The back half of the month: Bad Animals, a Heart tribute, on Friday, November 20; Electric Avenue, an eighties MTV revue, on Saturday, November 21; then the Waters evening on Sunday the 22nd. Thanksgiving weekend turns toward the holidays, with Cherish the Ladies presenting A Celtic Christmas on Friday, November 27, the Four Horsemen playing Metallica on Saturday, November 28, and A John Denver Christmas with Chris Collins and Boulder Canyon closing the month Sunday, November 29 at 7 p.m.

The room is half the ticket

The Suffolk opened December 30, 1933, with newspapers reporting more than 2,000 people at opening night, and it remains the last large Art Deco theater standing on Long Island. Designed by R. Thomas Short, who drew eleven movie theaters across the island, it was built for the Century Theater circuit, sold war bonds through the Second World War, and went dark in 1987 as the multiplexes took over. The Town of Riverhead bought the building in 1994, Dianne and Bob Castaldi purchased it in 2005 after eighteen idle years, and the restored theater reopened to the public on March 2, 2013, its LED marquee relit over East Main Street.

That history is why a night there feels different from a shed show: the room is small, the bar is steps away, and the building itself is the opening act.

Into December, and how to go

The holiday programming keeps rolling past Thanksgiving: a Grease sing-along with a costume contest on December 4, Ana Gasteyer's Sugar and Booze holiday show December 5, Judy Collins bringing her farewell tour on December 12, and a Rockabilly Christmas December 13.

The Suffolk is at 118 East Main Street in downtown Riverhead. Tickets for every show are sold through the theater's site at thesuffolk.org, and the box office is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., 631-727-4343.

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