Address | 1419 Basin Street New Orleans, Louisiana United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 29°57′47″N90°04′10″W / 29.96312°N 90.06931°W Coordinates: 29°57′47″N90°04′10″W / 29.96312°N 90.06931°W |
Owner | Ambassador Theatre Group |
Type | Performing arts |
Capacity | 2,100 [1] |
Current use | Performing arts venue |
Construction | |
Opened | January 1973 |
Closed | August 2005 |
Reopened | January 8, 2009 |
Website | |
Official website |
The Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts is a theater located in Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born in New Orleans. [2] The theater reopened in January 2009, after being closed since the landfall of Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005).
It serves as the long-term residence of the New Orleans Ballet Association, the New Orleans Opera Association, and the Broadway Across America touring productions. [3]
The 2,100-seat Mahalia Jackson Theater first opened in January 1973, with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem , starring New Orleans native Norman Treigle and the New Orleans Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Werner Torkanowsky. [3] [4]
Before Hurricane Katrina, it was the home of the New Orleans Opera Association and the New Orleans Ballet Association and held occasional performances by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and other groups. It was also the home of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for about ten years, before the orchestra moved to the Orpheum Theater. [5]
Diana Ross played a three-night, sold-out engagement at the theater in 1996. It was deemed one of the most successful pop concerts at the venue.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, the Mahalia Jackson Theater was severely damaged. [3] The theater sustained 14 ft. of water, which damaged the motor control center, orchestra lifts, heating and air-conditioning controls, sewerage ejector pumps and other structural components. [6] Following Katrina, repairs and upgrades were made including the addition of enhanced lighting and a new sound system, orchestra shell, ballet floor, and digital cinema screen. The cost of the theater renovation was around US$27 million, and was financed by local tax dollars, about $8.5 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. [6] [7]
About a week of events from January 8 through January 17, 2009, celebrated the reopening of the theater, including a free performance by Kermit Ruffins, Irma Thomas, and Marva Wright as well as paid performances by Allen Toussaint, Yolanda Adams, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with Itzhak Perlman, New Orleans Ballet Association with members of the San Francisco and New York City Ballets, and the New Orleans Opera Association with Plácido Domingo. [8]
Mahalia Jackson Theater was the first of the major theaters in New Orleans to reopen after Hurricane Katrina. [9] City officials hoped the theater would help draw tourists to the city. [10]
In 2013 the theater hosted the 2012 NFL Honors, honoring the best National Football League players and performances. [11]
On June 25, 2009, Broadway Across America and Mayor Ray Nagin announced that touring shows would return to the theater for the 2009–10 season. Shows featured were Cats , The Color Purple , Mamma Mia! , Wicked , and Avenue Q . [12] Broadway shows toured here while the Saenger Theatre, State Palace Theatre, and the Orpheum Theater were undergoing major renovations due to Hurricane Katrina.
On March 16, the 2010-11 Broadway Across America season was announced. Shows included were: Cirque Dreams Illumination, RAIN, Spamalot , West Side Story , and Shrek . The Color Purple also returned to the theater as a special, due to popular demand. [13] On May 4, 2010 Storytime Live! was added to the 2009-2010 season, with dates set for July 23–25.
The national tour of The Addams Family in September 2011 was the first Broadway musical to take advantage of the incentive programs offered by Louisiana Entertainment, the state's comprehensive entertainment industry development office. [14]
The 2011–2012 season was announced on March 14, 2011. The Lion King , which was originally set to have its Louisiana debut at the Saenger Theatre in spring 2012, played instead at the Mahalia Jackson Theater.
The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) governs the public school system that serves New Orleans, Louisiana.
The New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) is the public library service of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
The Municipal Auditorium is a 7,853-seat multi-purpose arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a component of the New Orleans Cultural Center, alongside the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts. It is located in the Tremé neighborhood in Louis Armstrong Park adjacent to Congo Square.
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The orchestra performs at the Orpheum Theater.
Saenger Theatre is an atmospheric theatre in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Once the flagship of Julian and Abe Saenger's theatre empire, today it is one of only a handful of Saenger movie palaces that remain.
The Saenger Theatre, also known as the Saenger Theater, is a historic theater in Pensacola, Florida. It is located at 118 South Palafox Place. On July 19, 1976, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to theaters hosting traveling performers and companies.
The Orpheum Theatre, a 2,308-seat venue listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, on the southwest corner of the intersection of South Main and Beale streets. The Orpheum, along with the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education, compose the Orpheum Theatre Group, a community-supported nonprofit corporation that operates and maintains the venues and presents education programs.
The Orpheum Theater is a theater in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana.
An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.
The Saenger Theatre is a historic theater and contributing building to the Lower Dauphin Street Historic District in Mobile, Alabama. It was dedicated in January 1927. The Saenger Theatre is a Mobile landmark, known for its architecture and ties to local cultural history. The theater has been completely renovated in recent years with an upgraded electrical system, VIP facilities, new stage rigging and sound system. It is the official home of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and also serves as the venue for movie festivals, concerts, lectures and special events.
Paul Mauffray is an American conductor and laureat of the 2007 Bartók International Opera Conducting Competition, The American Prize for Conductors, and 1996 Freedman Conducting Competition. He has studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Louisiana State University, Justus Liebig University (Giessen), Masaryk University (Brno), and earned a Masters of Music degree in Orchestra Conducting as an Associate Instructor / Assistant Conductor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.
Benjamin Franklin High School is a charter high school and a magnet high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Commonly nicknamed "Franklin" or "Ben Franklin", the school was founded in 1957 as a school for gifted children. In 1990, it moved to its current location on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO) in the Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks neighborhood of Orleans Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain. The school was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and efforts to reopen the school were covered by nationwide news agencies. The school is part of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), yet it operates as a charter school and is not administered directly by the agency.
Carlos Miguel Prieto is a Mexican conductor. He is music director of the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria, of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans, and The Orchestra of the Americas in Washington, D.C..
Broadway Across America (BAA) is a presenter and producer of live theatrical events in the United States and Canada since 1982. It is currently owned by the John Gore Organization, which purchased it from Live Nation in 2008.
State Palace Theatre is a performing arts venue located in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. It is located at the uptown lake corner of Canal Street and Rampart Street. The Saenger Theater is directly opposite the State Palace on Canal Street.
Jay Weigel is a composer, producer, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, and contractor for film, television, recordings, and concerts.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Marigny Opera House, also known as the Church of the Arts, is an opera house and performing arts center in Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans, Louisiana. The Marigny was originally a Catholic parish church known as Holy Trinity Catholic Church. It was closed by the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1997.
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