News
Back To Beautiful At The Basie
By Eileen Moon
SOMETIMES, THE PERFORMERS were (literally) singing in the rain, and sometimes the audiences were shivering in their seats, but through it all the Count Basie Theatre endured, a once-dignified dowager, down at the heels, but not out.
Last Tuesday, the old girl was getting some final paint and powder after a four month, $8 million facelift that has brought this palace of dreams and visions closer to its original beauty than it has b een in many a decade.
As workers scurried about on scaffold and balcony, stage and mezzanine, preparing the theater for the week's worth of parties and special events that will re-introduce the Basie to the community, the theater's CEO, Numa Saisselin, stood by with a smile on his face, fielding a succession of interviews from local and national media about the rejuvenation of this jewel from the vaudeville era.
There was a great deal to smile about. After years of crumbling plaster, leaking roofs, faltering electric systems and the long parade of perils to which any old building falls prey, the Basie was out of the woods and in the clear, her future as promising as the blue sky painted in the plaster dome at the center of the ceiling.
With the help of a dedicated board of trustees, generous donors and a cadre of talented professionals who lavished their skills on the building, the Basie was brought back to the beauty it had known in the days when if was the State Theater, one of several palaces of the imagination that dotted Red Bank during the 1920s.
When the vaudeville era ended, the film era filled the gap. For decades, the theater was operated by the Walter Reade Company as the Carlton; a place where generations of Red Bankers were introduced to Hopalong Cassidy and Old Yeller, Tom and Jerry and Cary Grant; James Bond and Bonnie and Clyde.
But by the 1970s Saisselin noted, small town theaters were being abandoned in favor of multiplex theaters and venues like the Carlton were being torn down. It was a fate the old theater on Monmouth Street escaped solely because of the intervention of a small group of people who believed it deserved to be preserved. With the help of an anonymous donor, the theater became the property of the Monmouth County Arts Council.
Those people who so quietly saved the theater from destruction are among those who deserve thanks for where the Basie is today, Saisselin pointed out. "All those people who got it and kept struggling with it - just the fact that they had it and kept struggling with it gave it a leg up," he said.
For decades members of the council worked to maintain the theater as its needs grew and its revenues fell.
In 1999, after many agonizing meetings and discussions, members of the arts council decided to divest their organization of the theater and allow it to become its own nonprofit organization.
It was a difficult decision for the council, said Saisselin, who was not at the theater at the time, but he believes it was the right one.
"It was easier to divide Europe after World War II than to make that decision," he said.
But now, nearly 10 years later, the Monmouth County Arts Council has become one of the premiere community arts organizations in the state, and the Basie has been nominated to the state and national Register of Historic Places.
Once chronically in the red when it came time to balance the books, the Basie has been in the black for the past six years, Saisselin said.
"We've come a very long way."
With the proceeds from a recent Capital Campaign, the Basie hired a team of restoration professionals that included the architectural firm of Farewell, Mills, Gatsch in Princeton, EverGreene Studios in Brooklyn and Gibraltar Construction, a commercial construction firm based in Gibbsboro, N.J.
"This is a big and specialized job," noted Saisselin. "There are only 5 or 10 companies in the country that can do this."
The theater went dark on June 30. With the Jersey Shore Rock and Soul Revue's California Dreamin' concert booked for Oct. 30, there was very little wiggle room in the renovation plan.
"Failure was not an option," said Saisselin on Tuesday. "We have a great team. I can't say enough about what a team effort it is. I'm the guy that gets the microphone, but there's a couple of hundred people behind me, and all those people who came before us."
Among the vital but less visible improvements are a new heating system, fire protection systems, and other infrastructure upgrades.
But the visible improvements in the building are dramatic, from the intricacies of the paint job that reflects the original palette used in 1926 to the plaster work that carries an elegant and original dragon motif from pillar to pillar to the seating to the carpet.
Starting on Thursday, Oct. 23, the Basie will host a series of celebrations that will offer an opportunity for everyone to see this community dream come true.
"I'm excited. I'm thrilled," said Saisselin. "But that's nothing compared to someone who came here in the 1940s as a kid and who has seen the place deteriorating."
He is looking forward to the reaction of the performers whose tours have included a stop at the Basie over the years. "All those people who have been here year after year who are going to finally walk out on the stage and see something as great as their performance... it feels like a place where greatness happens."
The Basie will be hosting an open house for the community on Wednesday, Oct. 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. Find more information about the theater and its renovation at its Web site: www.countbasietheatre.org.
