Sunday, November 30, 2008
A+E, Theater

No place like home

Atlanta Lyric settles into plush new digs

BY BERT OSBORNE

When the curtain opens––literally––on Atlanta Lyric’s “Beauty and the Beast” later this week, it will mark the dawn of a new era for the 28-year-old company. Originally conceived as the Southeastern Savoyards (exclusively dedicated to staging Gilbert and Sullivan operettas), the company has been in a state of flux for some time now, gradually transitioning away from light opera into more traditional musicals. But one thing the troupe always lacked was a suitable performance venue to call home, alternating between one-weekend-only mainstage productions at Georgia Tech’s massive Ferst Center and several smaller-scale shows at the 100-seat Byers Studio.
 
Enter Brandt Blocker, 36, a veteran of the musical-theater scene in his native New Orleans, who relocated here in May 2007 to take over as the group’s artistic director. “I was able to identify fairly quickly that, even though the company’s been around a long time, the business model that existed for the Lyric wasn’t working,” Blocker concedes during a recent interview. “Performing over at the Ferst Center, and not being able to run consecutive weekends, was all too expensive for a company this size. The smaller Byers space didn’t really work as a business model, either, all of which had put the longtime viability of the Lyric into serious question.”
 
The answer was finding a “permanent home”––and in less than a year, Blocker got just what he was looking for in the Strand Theatre, a historic landmark of an old movie house situated on the square in Marietta. “The Lyric needed a home and the Strand needed to finish its renovations, so it was an ideal arrangement for all,” he says. The Lyric contributed $300,000 to the renovations (including the construction of an orchestra pit) and, in exchange, the troupe is now “in residence” there.
 
Although Blocker admits he was initially concerned about moving the company so far outside the Perimeter (a “significant portion” of its patrons live in Midtown and Buckhead), season subscriptions have already doubled this year. “It’s a gem of a showplace, with a gorgeous lobby, plush seats, and lots of free parking right next door––a combination of things we probably wouldn’t have been able to find or afford in town. There’s an actual marquee outside, and even a real curtain on stage,” Blocker enthuses.
 
How appropriate that the Lyric’s debut production there would be based on a movie. Its version of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” features Stephanie Dorfmann and Matthew Kacergis in the title roles, with a supporting cast that includes Bradley Bergeron (as Gaston), Kim Bowers-Rheay (the Wardrobe), Jeff McKerley (Lumiere), Mary Welch Rogers (Mrs. Potts) and Robert Wayne (Cogsworth). In addition to co-directing the show (with Paul Holly), Blocker will also conduct a 14-piece orchestra. Rounding out the first season in its new home: “Smokey Joe’s Café” in January; “The It Girl” in March; “The Pirates of Penzance” in April; and “Cabaret” in June.
 
Blocker will be “backing off a bit” in terms of his involvement in staging those subsequent shows––each of which will be directed by others––in deference to focusing on business and administrative matters. Is that as fun or exciting as the artistic side of things? “Hell, no,” he replies with a laugh. “But it’s just as essential. I hope to be here for a very long time, but the company needs and deserves to exist well beyond me, too, and that takes a lot of work. It might not be as fun or exciting, but it’s rewarding in other ways.” SP