Jane Lynch’s A Swingin’ Little Christmas drew a lively crowd to The Levoy last month.
You wouldn’t know it to see it now, but Levoy Theatre spent 40 years in the dark before Lauren Van Embden and her father rescued it in 2012, with the help of the Off Broad Street Players.
“We raised a ton of money to rebuild—$8 million to make repairs. Our group was confident we could make it work,” Van Embden says.
The organization still raises money. Donors give anywhere from $10 to $50,000 during an annual campaign.
“We invested in a building across the street for an education center,” says Van Embden, a board member and director of programming.
There’s a large variety of concerts, musicals, plays, children’s programs and classes that comprise the Levoy’s programming. The theater also brings in outside promoters to book certain shows.
Theaters all over South Jersey, many married to an aging property like the Levoy, succeed with a dedicated organization, struggling with finances but staying afloat.
Across southern New Jersey, the theaters face many of the same issues: How to put people in the seats while still making enough money to pay for maintenance and upkeep and staff as needed. How to afford to stage productions that come close to Broadway caliber without Broadway overhead. How to accrue revenue between stage plays, or pay for popular performers, from Jose Feliciano to Tommy James and the Shondells to a host of tribute bands.
While the original opening of The Levoy was 1908, William Somers re-opened the revised theater in 1912, with a mix of vaudeville, silent film, and a variety of other entertaining acts of that era. The auditorium expanded to 1,100 seats, with another 400 in the balcony. The operators added a Lenoir Pipe Organ and other grandiose touches. Still, the theater didn’t always flourish. Live entertainment waned. The city shut it down and threatened to demolish the Levoy at one point in mid-century. Thanks to Van Embden and company, the theater was salvaged.
Surviving 100 years is quite an accomplishment, as The Levoy shows. And such achievements often come with their share of ups and downs along the way.
The Grand Theatre in Williamstown is no exception. The venue changed owners, changed functions, changed fortunes, shuttered for various reasons. It celebrated its century milestone in 2024 and still operates as a successful theater.
The theater reopened in February of 2013 after three years in the dark. “We were lucky that it didn’t take long for the audiences to come back,” says Lauri Hudson, president The Road Company Theater Group, Inc., which owns the Grand.
The Road Company Theater Group performance, Hair, at The Grand.
It is hard to run a volunteer-based non-profit especially in an age where even professional houses on Broadway and in Philadelphia are complaining about a decrease in audience sizes.
“We are constantly looking at our bottom line and making sure that we spend wisely,” says Hudson, who joined the Road Company at 18 and, after law school, rose to its presidency. “We spend on marketing where we think it gives us the most benefit. Finally, we treat our audiences well and know that customers are everything. We have survived previous setbacks and are flourishing and I think that is attributed to our Board of Directors that give tirelessly to make the Grand a place to come.”
Theaters all over the region have expanded opportunities, not just to raise more funds, but to broaden the appeal of the offerings for audience and participants. A lot of the expansion revolves around children’s programming or leasing space to local schools, religious institutions and other organizations such as the Williamstown Ballet Theater Company.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to keep going in the face of enormous challenges,” Hudson says.
Even that is no guarantee of profits. “It is difficult to turn a profit working with other non-profits or schools with limited budgets,” says Paula Lara, executive director, Collingswood Ballroom & Scottish Rite Auditorium.
In the past The Scottish Rite would shut down in June and reopen in October because the venue lacked air conditioning. That issue has been corrected and the theater operates year round.
July and August are still hard to book, Lara says. ”Most hosts do not want to worry about interrupting vacations and low-ticket sales.”
The Broadway Theatre of Pitman won’t reach the century mark until 2026, which also marks 20 years since its purchase by Peter Slack who brought the theater success with live performances. The Broadway researches hundreds of different shows each year, then narrows the list by price and availability, whether a theater show or a concert. Prior to 2006, the Broadway focused on movies, says Darrell Blood, general manager.
Despite the closure, the owners goal since Slack’s ownership is to have a show every weekend. While money is a factor it is no more a consideration than the potential appeal to the audiences. “The vast majority sell at least 75 percent of the seats,” Blood says.
Still it’s a challenge to maintain a theater that old. “We offset that challenge by keeping it busy.”
The Ritz Theatre in Haddon Township turns 100 in 2027. It opened as a vaudeville house in 1927. By 1985, it was a porno house in an era when such establishments were passe. The demand was gone because of video stores. So it closed. But a year later, it reopened as a live theater, presenting comedies, dramas and musicals under the Bruce A Curless, producing artistic director, The Ritz Theatre Company.
“With very popular shows like Fiddler on the Roof and The Color Purple we have had some good houses and a few sell-outs. Heathers did remarkably well.
The Ritz tried presenting concerts during dark weekends.
“With our very small staff it proved difficult and the money they brought in didn’t make it worth the aggravation,” Curless says.
The Surflight Theatre is a professional company based in Beach Haven. It ranks as the fifth largest both in budget and audience in New Jersey, behind Paper Mill, McCarter, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and Two River Theatre, according to Producing Artistic Director Steve Steiner.
Surflight celebrated its 75th birthday in 2024. Founded by Joseph P. Hayes, the theater had periods when it shuttered. Steiner was hired as artistic director in 1998. In 2001, the Surflight became a nonprofit, the Joseph P. Hayes Theatre Inc. which purchased the complex from the retiring owner in 2004.
“In 2010 the nonprofit board developed ‘executive director fatigue’ and replaced me with a succession of leaders over four years,” Steiner says. “During that time they declared chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2011, and then chapter 7 Bankruptcy in 2015. Unable to sell the property, it closed down in 2015 and 2016.
A business partner researching what went wrong concluded Surflight’s problems were largely due to the fact that they terminated Steiner.
The partner purchased the complex and leased it to Ocean Professional Theatre Company, a 501c3 corporation. “We are now in the first year of our second seven-year lease since reopening in 2017,” Steiner says.
The Surflight has a good mix year round with events 135 days a year. “This includes 30 days with two performances. This includes eight full musicals of two- to three-week runs, eight comedy nights, seven concerts of two performances each and a touring opera company which performs a full classic opera,” Steiner says.
In addition, Beach Haven School does its Christmas concert and its school musical. A local performing arts studio does three shows of a musical and an annual showcase on our stage. Both organizations use the theater without charge.
The COVID-19 pandemic tested every theater, regardless of age; some still labor in the aftermath.
The Levoy entered the pandemic incredibly strong, Van Embden says, “but that was damaging to our primary source of business,” she adds. “It proved difficult coming out of the pandemic. Financial packages helped. But persuading people to come back took a year or two before we recovered attendance exceeding numbers before the pandemic.”
Taylor Dayne at The Levoy.
Since COVID the Grand experienced a bit of a struggle. “But we continue to put on high quality shows for our community,” Hudson says. “We have seen a definite change is audience sizes and the number of volunteers that had always lent a hand.”
The Surflight Theater operated in 2020 and 2021 in a tent across the street in the park with socially distant seating, reconfigured for each performance Steiner says. “In 2020 we lost about $287,000 but we would have lost over $650,000 had we done nothing. That would not have been survivable.”
After shuttering in 2020 the Ritz returned September 2022 with a full slate of productions beginning with Once on this Island.
“We were only able to reopen and continue our programming due to generous funding by federal, state and county funding agencies,” Curless says.
COVID also closed down the Broadway Theatre of Pitman from March 2020 through mid-2021.
Still, the search for additional funds is never ending.
“Tickets brought in for the shows don’t cover our overhead which is why we have a development director who constantly is looking for new streams of funding and grants,” Curless says. “It’s difficult to operate a non-profit, but passion, drive and the need to create art keeps us going, as well as the artists, technicians, staff, board, sponsors and patrons’ support.”
Curless sees improvement ahead. “I believe within the next two years we will be clearing our expenses and starting to see that overage going toward upgrading equipment and maybe even adding employees,” he says.
Upkeep for the Grand has proven costly, COVID or not. “We rely 100 per on theater ticket donations and private donations to keep us running,” Hudson says. “We try to pick shows that the actors want to be in and that the audiences want to see. We keep strict budgets for each show we put up. However, with rising costs for royalties and everything else that goes into putting on a show, it is hard.”
The Levoy is in a better place now, Van Embden says.
“We have six working rooms downstairs. restrooms. hundreds of lightbulbs. Energy and commitment. Every inch was scrubbed. It’s almost entirely brand new. We replaced the sound system and HVAC. We are good to go with general maintenance.”
By no means is this an exhaustive list of the theaters throughout South Jersey, but we touched on most of the older ones. The list also includes, among others: The Landis in Vineland, The Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point, The South Camden Theatre Company, Haddonfield Plays & Players, Voorhees Theatre Company, Cape May Stage, Eagle Theatre in Hammonton.
