WASHINGTON -- The most historic theater in America has received a dramatic facelift. Ford's Theater, the brick venue best known for a single calamitous event, reopens this week after an 18-month renovation as part of a planned six-building campus that will honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln.
"An exciting new era for Ford's has begun," says Paul Tetreault, g.m. of Ford's, who is guiding the $50 million-plus project. ExxonMobil honcho Rex W. Tillerson heads the current fund-raising drive.
Upgrades include a spacious new lobby and entrance, new air-conditioning and heating systems, a reconstructed stage, sound and lighting enhancements, elevators and other accessibility features, expanded restrooms and -- drum roll, please -- 650 new seats to replace the theater's historically accurate but famously uncomfortable chairs. The expansion does not provide additional space for a scenery shop or rehearsal rooms.
Its Feb. 11 gala unveiling, timed for the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, will feature the premiere of a commissioned play by James Sill about the Civil War president. Called "The Heavens Are Hung in Black," it chronicles the five-month period between the death of Lincoln's young son Willie and the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. Stephen Rayne directs, with David Selby as Lincoln.
Owned by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Ford's is operated under a partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the nonprofit Ford's Theater Society. The renovation to the theater and its downstairs museum represent the first phase of an expansion project to create a "Lincoln campus" around the facility, encompassing an Education and Leadership Center for the study of Lincoln's life and legacy.
Left untouched is the flag-draped box where Lincoln was fatally shot in 1865 while watching "Our American Cousin." The theater remained closed for 100 years following the assassination until former congressional staffer Frankie Hewitt persuaded the Interior Department to reopen the venue in the late 1960s.
Hewitt managed its business and artistic affairs for more than 30 years, producing some 150 shows under a League of Resident Theaters contract before her death in 2003. She became known for her wholesome entertainment and uncanny ability to raise money from major corporations. Donors are still drawn to the cachet of the historic venue and the ability to rub elbows with government officials that may include the U.S. president.
Along with making Ford's a home for artists, Tetreault has emphasized quality productions of new and revived works that are quintessentially American.
"This is America's theater," he says.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com