The Lyric Theatre Preps For Debut

May 27, 2016

Big-Screen Movies Return to Harbor Springs

Since its Gatsby-era beginnings as a Packard automobile dealership, the Harbor Galleria building in downtown Harbor Springs has gone through multiple versions of itself. One of those was the original Lyric Theatre, a movie house that operated until the ’80s.

Today, the Lyric Theatre is being born again, revitalized by Roger Blaser, a summer resident of Harbor Springs from Grosse Pointe Shores, and his friend Scott Langton. Blaser serves as president of the Lyric, and Langton is its executive director; both aim to have this old-meets-new nonprofit theater project up and running this summer.

Since we profiled the Lyric Theatre project last year in the Northern Express, progress on the building has remained steady, although its interior is not quite ready for viewing yet.

"The three retail spaces that were inside were all gutted," Langton said. "Now it’s three separate theater spaces, but they’re done in a different configuration." The Lyric’s main theater will house 200 seats, while the second and third will hold 48 and 24 respectively. The "guts" of the movie house will come courtesy of Chapin Cutler of Boston Light and Sound; he and his team will install three state-of-the-art projectors and an entire speaker system in June. "They did the State Theatre and the Bijou by the Bay, both in Traverse City, the Vogue in Manistee – so we’re confident this is going to be phenomenal," Langton said.

Langton and Blaser are working to have the theatre’s doors open by the end of June, with an open house tentatively planned for the Fourth of July weekend. "We might even be able to show a movie on the Fourth around 7pm – you know, during that lull between daytime holiday activities and waiting for the fireworks to start. Nothing’s concrete yet, plus we don’t want to interfere with other Fourth of July activities, so we’ll see how that goes," Langton said. The bigger goal, he said, is to "make July exciting" as the theater starts running movies on a regular schedule.

Langton said the plan is for a mix of films for all tastes, at all times. "Most of the blockbusters will be shown in the main theater because of demand," he said. "The other two theaters will be a mix of documentaries, shorts, interesting independent movies, foreign movies, and other smaller films." The Lyric Theatre also will be working with innovative company Fathom Events to bring simulcasts and pre-recorded versions of some live events to Harbor Springs; Fathom is wellknown, especially in larger cities, for bringing concerts, stage productions, and cult movies to the big screen in high definition.

"It definitely won’t just be commercial movies," Langton said. "We’re also going to include what they call "˜event cinema,’ such as the "˜Live at the Met’ series that presents things like Shakespeare plays, and ballets from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, live on screen." But while the Lyric will simulcast live theater, Langton said he and Blaser want to let people know that the Lyric is most definitely a cinema, not a stage for local plays or similar productions. "We will have a small stage area for directors to speak before films, for example, and we may also include smallscale presentations like musical acts, lectures, or comedians," he said. "But the primary focus is cinema, film – the movies!" Blaser and Langton plan to keep the Lyric Theatre open for the entire year in downtown Harbor Springs, a move intended to draw skiers during the winter season and to be a major boon for locals, who otherwise would have to drive to Petoskey or Gaylord to see a first-run movie. "It’s going to be a phenomenal center of energy, open for all 12 months," Langton said. "We hope it also will help impact the restaurants and shops, and be an economic engine that will help continue the refueling of this town. Any way that we can interface with local events and happenings, we want to do that, and we want to be a part of the community. The goal is that, a year from now, people in Harbor Springs will say "˜How did we ever live without the Lyric?’"

The Harbor Springs Lyric Theatre is expected to open in July at 275 East Main Street in downtown Harbor Springs. For more information, call (231) 881-6580; tax-deductible contributions can be sent to the Harbor Springs Lyric Theater Inc., PO Box 345, Harbor Springs, MI 49740.