On Sunday, the Salt Lake Tribune ran a story about the proposed Utah Performance Center that took up two-thirds of the front page. There were three more stories about new theaters, including one about the Utah Theater and another looking at the success of a new theater in Durham, NC.
The main story had the usual quotes from the usual naysayers. Chris Lino, director of the Pioneer Theatre which sees itself as a competitor with touring Broadway shows, said, “Really, what is the need for this?” And Greg Geilmann, director of Kingsbury Hall worried that, “Kingsbury Hall could lose as much as $400,000 annually…” Both men operate on the University of Utah campus and probably have priorities other than downtown economic health and development.
Utah Theater Lobby
The story made no mention of the fact that the Capitol Theatre is technologically far behind theaters in almost every city in the US and Canada of 200,000 population or more. It has so few restrooms that the lines to get in start as soon as the doors open, thirty minutes before the performance. And it doesn’t even have a loading dock for the trucks that bring lights, sound, sets and costumes for the Opera, Ballet and touring shows.
Besides that main story, there was a good explanation of the likely funding mechanism for the Utah Performance Center. Another story about the Durham Performing Arts Center explain that the 2008 building with 2712 seats made a $400,000 profit in its first year of operations. Wow. This theater was developed by some of the same people who are planning our new theater on Main Street. And a story about the uncertain future of the Utah Theater, which the city bought recently.
Here are links to the individual stories:
Salt Lake City’s mega-theater: boon or boondoggle?
Salt Lake City plan, funding could begin for Main Street theater
Future for Utah Theatre remains a mystery
