Reborn theater district within grasp after progress made on Saenger

NEW ORLEANS – The once famed theater district of New Orleans has seen its billboards replaced with wooden boards post-Katrina. But Thursday night, news of a bright and promising future took center stage as a public-private venture celebrated progress on the Saenger Theater.

From dark and dim to bright and promising, the theatre lights on Canal Street are for the first time back on since Hurricane Katrina.

"We knew that if we did something special here, it would serve to revitalize not only Canal Street, but this entire area," Mayor Ray Nagin told a crowd gathered outside the theater along Canal Street before he led the countdown to turn the marquee lights back on.

Beginning in January, the theater will undergo a two-year renovation, totaling $38.5 million. It's the first act in restoring the rich history and beauty that Katrina’s waters tried to wash away. 

"It's going to be more magnificent than it was the night it opened in 1927," said Rene Brunet, who at the young age of six, attended the historical opening.

"People lined the sidewalks just like they did on Mardi Gras Day," said 88-year-old Brunet. "It was the celebration of the city of New Orleans."

The stage is now set for a fall 2011 opening, but while the curtains will remain down in the meantime, the marquee lights will burn bright.

"This is a great symbolic event on top of the great investment that's happening here," said Kurt Weigle, president/CEO of the Downtown Development District.

Close to a hundred more seats will line the historic theatre, bringing the count to more than 2,600. The backstage prep area will also be expanded to help lure back Broadway.

"So that every show that does tour America doesn't have to pass New Orleans," said David Skinner of Arts Center Enterprises, one of the groups partnering with the city and state to take on the public-private endeavor.

The venture is already bringing in rave reviews from smaller theaters in the city which hope the buzz will trickle down.

"I think that bringing the Saenger back really can establish Louisiana and New Orleans specifically as a theater city again," said Gary Solomon, Jr., managing director of the Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter.

Solomon's newly created technology firm, Solomon Design Associates, was also recently awarded the contract to build the technological infrastructure within the Saenger Theater, such as surveillance systems and Wi-Fi access.

"Right now, New Orleans is not on the national theatre map," said Solomon. "Putting the Saenger on it ... that's really going to establish it as a first-class theater town."

And, according to Solomon, spur the revitalization of other downtown theaters that today remain shuttered.

The creation of state tax credits six years ago for the movie industry helped make New Orleans a sort of ‘Hollywood South.’ In 2007, Governor Kathleen Blanco signed similar legislation in hopes of spurring a ‘Broadway South,’ and those in the theater know say those financial incentives are finally translating to bigger shows, and now with the advent of yet another venue, potentially bigger audiences.

"It's more than I ever dreamed what happen,” said Brunet. “Now to think it's going to be restored and reopened it's beyond my belief.”

Nagin said the ongoing work on the Saenger Theater will lead to the revitalization of the nearby Joy and Loew’s State theaters by next year.  In December 2008, the mayor also predicted that the Saenger Theater would be reopened by the end of 2009.