David Michael Miller
Walking down the Atwood Avenue corridor these days, with its boutiques, specialty restaurants, and high-end craft beer pubs, it’s hard to imagine how seedy the street once was. In the late 1970s, X-rated films screened on weekdays at the Cinema Theater. Children’s movies played on weekends!
There’s little doubt that the transformation of the Cinema into the Barrymore Theatre in the late 1980s was a catalyst for the revitalization of the Schenk-Atwood neighborhood. The now very desirable near east side is also becoming a music destination, with several smaller clubs, the High Noon Saloon, summer concerts at Breese Stevens Field, and the soon-to-be-opened Sylvee on East Washington Avenue.
Now the Barrymore, which opened as a vaudeville and movie venue in 1927, is looking to the community for a little love. The seats in the 850-capacity auditorium are long overdue for replacement. If you’ve been to a recent show there you know firsthand. Pitching back and forth, sitting in some of those seats is like enduring an airplane ride in rough winds.
Replacing the seats is actually the first phase of what the theater has dubbed a “bottom to top” remodel, a project that is expected to take shape over the next decade. Starting with the seating, the ambitious remodel will also include refurbishing walls and paneling up to and including the dome ceiling. $200,000 is needed for the chairs alone. The old seats were manufactured in Michigan by the Irwin Seating Company and installed in 1967. General Manager Steve Sperling looked at various seating company products, including touring some of the UW-Madison theater spaces, before deciding the best choice was to actually go back to Irwin for the new ones. Sperling says they are about 20 percent of the way toward the fundraising goal. Donors may help at the Barrymore web page.
Today’s Barrymore was born in 1987 after three investors, Richard Slone, Tom Petersen and Sperling, purchased the theater. The venue changed directions, replacing movies with live music performances and opening its doors to community events — a focus that continues to this day. In a display of total community investment, the Schenk-Atwood Revitalization Association purchased the Barrymore in 1992.
Sperling became general manager in 1996. Working with a staff that includes several employees who started when he did, he maintains the venue’s focus on community involvement. Sperling is a key organizer of the annual Atwood Fest, scheduled this year for July 28-29; proceeds from the festival support the work of several neighborhood associations.
While the Barrymore is one of Madison’s oldest theaters, it’s always been ahead of its time. For example, it hosted lesbian variety shows back in the early ’80s. Its community mission makes it a unique option in town for school talent shows. Past Lowell and O’Keeffe school shows have given kids a taste of a big theater experience. It’s always been a popular venue for local artists. Then there’s the insane legacy of touring acts that have appeared at the theater. Sperling has an incredible eye for the new as well as the known. Just a few examples of the artists who have appeared at the theater include Son Volt, Warren Zevon, Tracy Chapman, Buddy Guy, John Prine, Michelle Shocked, Soul Asylum, The Decemberists and Bon Iver.
My favorite show there was one that didn’t even happen: the time Bob Dylan and his band practiced in the empty theater for three days in 2009 to prep for a tour that kicked off at Milwaukee’s Summerfest.
I didn’t see Dylan, but Sperling allowed me to come in to see his band’s setup, which included a sound board so big it had to be set up in the lobby and wired through the house to the stage. During one rehearsal, the front doors were wide open to Atwood Ave. This allowed a Bob Dylan rehearsal to spill out toward the patio diners at Monty’s Blue Plate Diner across the street. Imagine listening to that over your meatloaf sandwich and vanilla malt.
That Sperling and his devoted staff were able to keep Dylan’s three-day Madison residence a secret (as was required by the contract) is an impressive feat.
Sperling’s favorite shows? The only two he ever sat down in the theater for from start to finish: Emmylou Harris and Ray Davies.
