(Marvin Joseph/ THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Exterior of the National Theatre.
Carol Channing, Rex Harrison, Tallulah Bankhead, Laurence Olivier, Mae West, Jack Lemmon, Audrey Hepburn, Noel Coward: These are among the legends who have graced the stage of the National Theatre since it opened more than 175 years ago. And now, ladies and gentlemen . . .
Uh, Bryan Adams?
(Jahi Chikwendiu/WASHINGTON POST) - The National Theatre, which opened in December of 1835, can be seen from the upper balcony stairs.
The “Cuts Like a Knife” rocker will headline the 1,676-seat theater Jan. 26, and while virtually nothing else is booked just yet, the concert signals a fresh direction for the historic but dramatically underused theater three blocks east of the White House. It’s the first oar in the water as new leadership tries to turn the often-empty vessel around.
“The National’s not just for Broadway anymore,” declares Bob Papke, vice president of theaters for SMG, a Philadelphia-based management group.
In September, the National Theatre Corporation announced that the building would be programmed by SMG, which handles venues from performing arts facilities to stadiums such as Soldier Field and the Superdome, and Chicago’s JAM Theatricals, which produces on Broadway and presents theatrical tours across the country.
“There’s no end to what we could do,” says Tom Lee, who is entering his third year as the National’s executive director.
Not that the National is doing away with touring musicals such as “Les Misérables,” which just wrapped up a three-week holiday stand. In fact, a Broadway series is hoped for by next winter, as is a breed of customer that the National hasn’t courted for years: subscribers.
You can’t court subscribers without a steady slate of shows, of course, and gigs like “Les Miz” have tended to come in fits and starts. Lee notes that during the National’s fiscal year 2011, the theater was occupied for a scant 28 days.
“That just wasn’t acceptable to our board of directors,” says Lee, speaking in the theater’s upstairs offices during a matinee of “Les Miz.” Besides “Les Miz,” “Beauty and the Beast” played for two weeks, making the National occupied for only five weeks in 2012.
Often the National is left out as top Broadway titles — “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon” and big-time Disney products among them — opt for the Kennedy Center’s Opera House. At 2,300 seats, the Opera House is significantly bigger; it’s also easier to load in scenery, and it comes with a subscription base.
The National’s spotty bookings have been an issue for decades — at least since the Kennedy Center opened in 1971. In fact, the Kennedy Center ran the National for a while in the 1970s, before a rancorous split and some smack talk in the 1980s devolved into the sleepy pattern that has marked one of the city’s great theaters.
An ever-changing cast
The National has passed through many hands since opening in 1835, and by 1974 it was being operated by Broadway’s Nederlander Organization. But downtown Washington had not begun to bounce back from the late 1960s riots, and the Nederlanders found the commercial landscape so inhospitable that they gave up the theater.
Led by Kennedy Center founder and chairman Roger Stevens, the not-for-profit New National Theatre Corporation was established in 1974. That inaugurated a five-year period when Stevens, a notable Broadway producer, oversaw the National’s bookings while heading the Kennedy Center.
CenterStage offers world premiere of Kwame Kwei-Armah's “Beneatha's Place.”
1369105740000
Preview of “Eveningland,” a collaborative work by D.C.-based contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and New York’s Skybetter and Associates.
1369002464000
Hannah Yelland married a Yank and settled in the District. Now she's practicing her craft here, too.
1368824367000
Wide receiver, the final celebrity man in Monday night’s finale, wins praise from friends and fans.
1368821220000
From his Disney hits to “Wicked” and “Pippin,” his work consistently finds the sweet spot onstage.
1368804997000
‘Three Musketeers’ is Synetic at full throttle, with a spinning, dancing production that delights the senses
1368740991000
The play, performed by a cast of nine, arrives at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
1368717900000
REVIEW | The production is the first full staging of a published verse play by poet Yusef Komunyakaa.
1368542760000
The Olney Theatre Center production has a fantastic premise, but the dialogue devolves.
1368463620000
Preview of “For That Which Returns,” an aerial performance based on the myth of Demeter and Persephone.
1368394286000Pascal’s set — more lite rock and jazz than Broadway — seemed primed for a moody late-night bar scene.
1368380460000
REVIEW | Set in a fantasized Spain and Paris in the 1920s, it’s restrained, but full, enthusiastic and great fun.
1368222180000
The National Gallery of Art’s “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes” looks at the stages in a storied life.
1368208440000The Post Most: LifestyleMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments