Mall theater almost ready to rock 'n' roll

Charlottesville’s oldest theater is shooting for a reopening in November after a lengthy and costly renovation that will turn it into a live music venue.

Construction inside the Downtown Mall’s Jefferson Theater is “flying,” said Kirby Hutto, who manages the Charlottesville Pavilion and is overseeing the theater project.

“We will be opening, hopefully, in early to mid-November,” Hutto said, adding that he thinks the theater will have a capacity of at least 700 people.

Dave Matthews Band manager and Red Light Management founder Coran Capshaw owns the Jefferson, and closed it in June 2006 for extensive repairs to make it suitable as a live music space. The theater first opened in 1912 as a vaudeville house and was most recently a discount movie theater.

The refurbishments suffered from setbacks after other plans became uncertain.

More than a year ago the Ash Lawn Opera Festival announced that it would partner with Red Light to lease the theater every June, July and August for 20 years beginning next summer. The alliance resulted in the theater having to undergo changes that would make it ideal for an opera festival — such as the addition of an orchestra pit, more dressing room space and more versatile mechanical systems.

But the opera festival announced roughly six months later that it would not move to the Jefferson because the facility could not be adapted to meet the festival’s needs without sending renovation costs through the roof.

Hutto said that with the opera coming, the renovation costs could have been as high as $7.5 million, and Ash Lawn had started a $4.5 million fundraising effort to help finance the improvements.

Hutto said plans had been to reopen the Jefferson Theater this month but the date was pushed back by Ash Lawn’s exit. Renovation costs have basically been cut in half because many of the elements required by the opera are unnecessary in a rock ‘n’ roll environment, Hutto said.

“We actually pulled the contractor off the job, we went back to the design phase and made a fair amount of changes,” he said. “So much of what was needed to make their requirements required major structural work, engineering work, that is no longer part of the plan.”

If the Jefferson opens as planned, it will come not long after the smaller Southern Cafe and Music Hall debuts in the former Gravity Lounge space.

Though that music spot had planned to hold its first shows at the end of this week at its Downtown Mall location, co-manager Andy Gems wrote in a news release that, “Unfortunately, as much as we can’t wait to get the ball rolling, there’s still some dust that needs to settle before we can even ask you to pardon it.” No official opening date was specified.

Some say that Charlottesville is clamoring for more smaller-sized venues.

“I think that the Jefferson is going to be a great place for some of the acts that we kind of lose out to Richmond or [Washington] or even Roanoke,” said Brad Savage, program director and DJ for 106.1 The Corner.

Savage said that he thinks the Jefferson will be able to “pick up the torch” of the Satellite Ballroom and Starr Hill Music Hall, both of which closed in the last couple of years.

“I’m excited. I’ve been watching this thing for over a year now,” Savage said of the Jefferson.

Hutto said discussions have begun with artists’ booking agents and a tentative show calendar is being put together. Though the venue’s busiest seasons are likely to be in the fall and spring, he said there would be activity year-round at the remodeled establishment.

“We’re going to be doing a mix of local, regional and national artists,” he said.