January 18, 2005|By Mary Carole McCauley | Mary Carole McCauley,SUN ARTS WRITER
It's a grand old theater on the National Register of Historic Places that once held the likes of William Jennings Bryan, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Enrico Caruso, Clarence Darrow, Herbert Hoover and Katharine Hepburn. It is a 110-year-old building with superb acoustics. And it's in need of an overhaul.
The Hippodrome Theatre, pre-renovation? No, Baltimore's Lyric Opera House.
Beset by competition from newer venues and left high and dry by a tenant who pulled out one year into a 10-year contract, the 2,522-seat Lyric is at a crossroads. Though profitable, the Mount Royal Avenue theater, which is the home of the Baltimore Opera Company, this season will be dark on an average of two out of every three nights.
Long known for presenting operas and touring Broadway musicals, the theater now aims to attract new audiences by booking pop, rhythm-and-blues and jazz acts such as pop singers Ashlee Simpson and the opera-trained Josh Groban.
It also hopes to begin raising $8.5 million for a renovation that will allow the opera company to present the most technically challenging productions.
"We see [the Lyric] as a middle-size venue for those groups who can't fill an arena, but who don't want to play clubs," said Sandy Richmond, the Lyric's managing director.
The Lyric has introduced countless Baltimoreans to the joys of performing arts. For 66 years, it was the home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and premiered Broadway tryouts. But time, technology and competition have taken their toll.
In 1982, the 2,438-seat Meyerhoff Symphony Hall was built to house the orchestra. Eleven months ago, the Hippodrome (operated by media giant Clear Channel Communications) reopened following a 13-year, $62 million renovation. Immediately, the Hippodrome landed such major national touring Broadway shows as The Producers and The Lion King.
Still, other mid-sized cities can support multiple plus-sized performing-arts venues. Seattle, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh all have three downtown facilities totaling 6,000 to 7,000 seats, according to Patrick Madden, a vice president with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, a trade group.
"Competition breeds a healthy arts community," said Marks Chowning, executive director of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center on North Eutaw Street, where the Hippodrome is located. "It's not going to happen overnight, but Washington and Baltimore are becoming closer. There will be a large enough audience for everyone."
The Lyric's new focus on pop acts means it no longer will vie with the 2,286-seat Hippodrome for Broadway musicals. "We had to be practical about it," said H. Mebane "Meb" Turner, who since 1976 has been chairman of the nonprofit foundation that runs the theater. "We don't want to compete with the Hippodrome. We decided to build on our strengths. First and foremost, we are an opera house."
But that new focus puts the theater in competition with the Meyerhoff. Although the latter hall is the permanent home of the BSO, it rents its auditorium roughly 40 times a year to other musical groups, stand-up comics and the Peking Acrobats.
BSO President James Glicker isn't worried. "As long as I've been around, the Lyric has been jumping into the fray and bidding for the same groups we've been bidding on," he said. "This might be an opportunity for them, because the Meyerhoff tends to book a year in advance. Sometimes, an act will come in and say, `We can only do it on this particular Thursday night.' We won't be able to accommodate them, but the Lyric can."
The Lyric faces other challenges. The Baltimore Opera says the Lyric's backstage is too shallow for some productions, and it will take $8.5 million to fix it.
"There are shows that we can't do now," said Michael Harrison, general director of the Baltimore Opera. "We'd love to do more Wagner and Verdi. We would like to build our own productions and rent them out, which would save us a lot of money. Right now, other people aren't anxious to work with us because our theater is so small. It's very frustrating."
In addition, the Lyric's plans to bring in top-caliber musicals were dashed last year when Theatre/Dreams, a New York-based production company, backed out on its 10-year contract after just one season.
During the 2003/2004 season, Theatre/Dreams canceled two of its five scheduled shows (The Will Rogers Follies and Urinetown) because of poor ticket sales. The contract was torn up by mutual agreement, Turner said.
"Baltimore is a difficult town," said William Becker, a principal with Theatre/Dreams. "We had a tough road selling tickets. Twenty years ago, Baltimore was one of the best theater subscriber towns in the country. It's sort of sad to see what's happened there over the years."
Nonetheless, the Lyric still makes money - because its expenses are so low. It has an annual budget of about $500,000 and just six fulltime staff members.
