UPDATE: The Capitol Theatre announced Wednesday evening that this weekend's Phil Lesh shows have been postponed following the spread Covid-19 in New Rochelle, New York, located near the theater in Westchester County. See below for the theater's full statement, and watch this space for updates as they become available.

Phil Lesh and Peter Shapiro are getting ready to throw surprise parties for thousands of Deadheads.

Lesh, the legendary bassist of iconic jam band the Grateful Dead, is playing Shapiro's Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, to mark his 80th birthday. The shows, originally scheduled Friday, March 13, through Lesh's birthday on Sunday, March 15, have been postponed until the summer due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 each night — and that, more or less, is all we know. The roster of musicians backing Lesh on each night will only revealed once the curtain rises at the Cap.

"We have the ability to do something like we're not going to tell you who the band is until you show up, which then enables the audience to have a really cool, new kind of experience. That's not typical," said Shapiro.

How to get tickets: Phil Lesh announces 80th birthday shows in NY

It's the kind of singular experience that comes with immense audience trust. Going back to his days at landmark New York City nightclub Wetlands Preserve, Shapiro has been putting on shows in the New York area on a nearly nightly basis for upwards of 25 years, while Lesh's connection with the Grateful Dead faithful stretches back more than half a century.

"Whenever you go to a show, any kind of show — (be it) a jazz band at the BlueNote (in Manhattan) or a stadium show at MetLife (Stadium in East Rutherford) or at the Stone Pony (in Asbury Park) — you know who you're going to see," said Shapiro. "So you remove that, and it's like, 'I know I'm going to hear Grateful Dead (music). I know Phil's on bass, but I don't know the other parts.'

"That was the idea, I thought it would be a cool layer that would make it even more fun and cool and different to experience."

A modern-day Lesh concert is a joyous experience. Approaching his ninth decade, and more than 20 years after a crucial liver transplant, there is gratitude, grace and bliss radiating from Lesh every time he steps on stage.

"He's 80, he's on stage —- by the way, he's going to play three, two-set shows — he's playing with the best players in the world and he's hanging in, right there. What a blessing," said Shapiro.

Phil Lesh: Setlist, photos, review from Terrapin Family Band in New York City

The shows, Shapiro said, will go to about midnight, with Lesh ably leading the charge.

"At the end of the show, at 11:51 pm, it's almost like he's bionic. He'll be standing straight up, grooving out, and look like the least-tired member of the band and the one with the most bounce in his step and in his groove, and he's dropping bass bombs," Shapiro said. "So it's inspiring, and I'm really just glad to be able to be a part of it, and glad that the Capitol Theatre can host it."

Lesh and Shapiro have been making cool things happen together for a while now; Shapiro was a driving force behind the historic 2015 Fare Thee Well concerts that saw Lesh reunite with surviving Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

When the Shapiro co-founded Lockn' Music Festival returns to Arrington, Virginia, June 18 to 21, it will serve as a weekend-long Lesh birthday celebration.

Shapiro also brought Lesh to Asbury Park, New Jersey's historic Convention Hall in 2017 for a show that saw the bassist and his Terrapin Family Band joined by the sensational New Orleans ensemble Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a stunning collaborative performance that included a wild ride through the Dead's "Help on the Way," "Slipknot!" and "Franklin's Tower" suite.

After an unbroken chain of nearly 50 years on stage, constantly searching for the sound, what makes a Lesh show so special these days?

"It's that he mixes the band up, I think," Shapiro said. "He loves to play with different people. He loves to introduce new musicians to the Grateful Dead music. We did that in that Asbury Park show, where Pres Hall played in lieu of where usually 'Drums' and 'Space' would go. That was kind of me brainstorming it, but I can bring ideas to Phil and he's very open to that creatively, trying new things musically."

The music of the Grateful Dead family has always existed at a potent intersection of tradition and unpredictability. They drank deep from the well of American roots music, but reinvented their catalog every night on stage as the musical situation demanded.

Similarly, as Shapiro noted, the band had a long history of "event shows," be they Halloween, New Year's Eve, the summer solstice or the Fourth of July. Lesh's birthday celebration in Port Chester has joined that canon, as he has marked the passing years several times at the Capitol since Shapiro re-opened the theater in 2012.

Lesh's weekend engagement will mark his 80th, 81st and 82nd shows at the venue in less than eight years. When combined with the 18 times the Grateful Dead played there in 1970 and '71, that means the third show won't just be in honor of Lesh's 80th birthday, it will be Lesh's 100th show at the venue.

Health officials are advising those at high risk of developing severe illness from the coronavirus to avoid crowds, particularly in poorly ventilated areas, and to avoid touching common surfaces when out in public. The risk of illness and death is highest among those over age 80, and increases with age, starting at age 60, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. Members of the public are advised to carefully consider whether to attend large public events, and to use common sense precautions of covering coughs and sneezes, frequent hand-washing and avoiding touching the face.