San Diego Musical Theater’s move to North Park Theatre fuels venue’s plans for reorganization

By Martin Jones Westlin | SDUN Reporter

The North Park Theatre, located at 2891 University Ave., was the neighborhood’s flagship facility when it opened in 1929 as a movie house and vaudeville venue, and played a similar role when it reopened as the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre in 2005.

A recession would make quick work of the reopening, and in October 2011 Lyric Opera San Diego, the building’s current owner, put the facility up for sale, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, laid off two-thirds of its staff and canceled the remainder of its season.

However, the San Diego Musical Theatre’s (SDMT) decision to assume tenancy at the facility provides a step towards reorganization for both groups.

The same recession also forced SDMT to eliminate some of its schedule, but to this point, it has produced 11 different shows, including “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Dreamgirls.” Many took place at the former East County Performing Arts Center and, recently, at downtown’s Lyceum Stage, home of San Diego Repertory Theatre.

SDMT co-founder Gary Lewis said the North Park Theater offers the company a few assets the Lyceum cannot.

“The Rep doesn’t have a fly [space] and it doesn’t have an orchestra pit,” Lewis said. “With the type of musicals that we do, [those things are] very advantageous. We wanted to do large musicals, things that were difficult to do at the Lyceum. This offers us a greater opportunity to expand our musicals. The ones we had set up were kind of in tune with the Rep [infrastructure], so I’m not so sure that our first few shows we’re going to have [at the North Park] are bigger. We want to get back into the bigger ones.”

The 23,000-square-foot North Park Theater seats about 730, compared to the Lyceum’s approximate 500.

SDMT, a nonprofit arts organization, was founded in 2006. Before staging shows at the Lyceum Stage and East County Performing Arts Center, the company debuted “The Full Monty” at the North Park Theatre. “The Full Monty” was nominated for nine Tony Awards in 2001 and has played in 18 countries from South Korea to South Africa, exactly the pedigree that piques Lewis’s interest.

SDMT will present “The Marvelous Wonderettes” Feb. 10 to 26 as the first entry in its 2012 season at the North Park Theatre, to be followed by “Rent” and “Footloose.”

With SDMT’s move, the recessionary cloud that obscured the facility may have provided its own silver lining. Lyric Opera San Diego filed for bankruptcy protection not long after SDMT had approached Joe Altbaum, North Park Theatre executive director, about renting the space.

“We weren’t in a position to provide them dates for their productions [then],” Altbaum said. “As things started to change and Lyric Opera San Diego had made the decision to no longer produce shows, we had some openings on our calendar. I’ve known the Lewises for a few years and gave them a call to see if they were still interested in coming to the theater to do their productions. That’s where the dialogue once again began.” SDMT is co-produced by Gary and Erin Lewis.

Altbaum continued, “The Lewises are well-known people in the community. They have a solid organization. The Rep space is a beautiful space, [and] I think [SDMT was] happy at the Rep, but as things became available, they probably were thinking a little bit bigger on the scale of shows they’d like to do.”

Altbaum declined to state the details of SDMT’s rental agreement.

In a Lyric Opera statement announcing Altbaum as the new executive director of the Theatre released Nov. 7, 2011, board president Roberto Cueva said, “We are moving forward in a bold new direction with how the theater operates. As such, we needed less performance company and artistic direction and more venue management. [Altbaum’s] past successes in the live entertainment industry were a perfect match for where we wanted to evolve our operations.”

Lyric Opera’s board remains the sole manager of the North Park Theatre’s affairs; SDMT is the facility’s anchor tenant and has not assumed control of the building.

Meanwhile, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing allows Lyric Opera to place the building up for sale for $5 million. The organization spent approximately $8 million to refurbish the Theater. Altbaum said he believes he has an answer to help fill in the price difference.

“We are able to rent dates out,” Altbaum said, “and we have really stepped up our game-plan on renting the facility as much as we possibly can, concentrating on other nonprofits who need a space for graduations, comedy events [or] one-night concerts. Many of these things have happened in the past, but we’ve really made it our goal to keep this facility constantly busy.”

“Going through a Chapter 11,” Altbaum added, “you have to keep all your options open. You cannot close your mind to any option. If one option is to have someone else purchase the building and continue to use it as a venue, that is an option they must keep open. We’re doing very well on creating a plan to stay alive, but we’re also at the mercy of the court and what they decide is the best course of action for us.”

For more information on Lyric Opera San Diego, visit lyricoperasandiego.org or SDMT’s website sdmt.org.