It's stage was once graced by Bob Hope, while Sylvester Stallone, Barbara Streisand and Henry Winkler - aka 'The Fonz' - worked as ushers in the lobby.However due to declining audiences The Loew's Kings Theatre in Brooklyn closed its doors in 1977 and has remained abandoned ever since.But now, thanks to $93million (£57m) of funding, renovation work has finally begun and is due to bring the playhouse back to life.The 3,676 seat theatre was originally opened in 1929 as one of the five 'Wonder Theatres' built by Loew's in New York City, and welcomed its first audiences on the same day as its sister theatre in the Bronx, the Loew's Paradise.Used as both a cinema and a theatre, its first performances included a screening of Dolores del Rio in 'Evangeline', plus a live stage play ‘Frills and Fancies’ a revue, Wesley Eddy & his Kings of Syncopation, and the Chester Hales Girls.The grand design was inspired by both the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Opera House, featuring huge ceiling frescoes which are due to be repainted.Workmen will also install a huge staircase, rose-coloured marble and wood-panelled walls to bring a sense of grandeur back to the dilapidated landmark.Photographer Matt Lambros, 31, was granted permission to capture the state of decay before the project to turn the space back into a working cinema begins. He said: 'It felt as if time stood still in there. It was pitch black when I first stepped inside. It smelled like it was damp and there was a leak somewhere. There was some muck on the floor'When I turned on the lights it went from being a forbidding, cavernous place to a beautiful building which had seen better days. It looked almost as if someone had shut off the lights and left it forever. He added: 'It was sad to see that such a grand building had been left to rot. Fortunately, it will soon look nothing like my photographs.'After I read about the history of the place, the whole building conjured up images of the golden age of cinema.'The new space is due to host more than 200 concerts, performances, and musicals every year.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az