New Met Center Lures Arts to Boston

Large ballet, musical and opera companies--which used to bypass Boston--are planning performances in the newly renovated Metropolitan Center.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland of the American Ballet Theater, soprano Anna Moffo, television personality Dick Cavett, singer Aretha Franklin and the Boston Ballet will star in the theater's opening on December 5.

The Royal Ballet, the Alvin Ailey Dancers, Broadway hit "Sweeney Todd" and the Metropolitan Opera will highlight the first season of the renovated 4200-seat theater, one of the largest in the world.

The Tremont theater is now an obstacle course of rods, wires, wood, and cement, as workers install newly upholstered orchestra seats and enclose the new stage house, which is partially open to Stuart St.

Expanding and restoring the 60-year-old baroque theater has cost $6 million. Bulldozers broke down the back walls of the stage in July, when the Metropolitan Center Inc. took a 40-year lease on the old Music Hall and began renovations.

The stage is now 100 feet deep, 180 feet wide and nine stories high, Henry Sears Lodge, the center's president, said last week, adding that the stage's capacity to hold three sets simultaneously "makes it the biggest and most economical stage in the East."

The enlarged 1200-square-foot orchestra pit can hold 100 musicians and the expanded dressing rooms can accommodate up to 300 performers. A specially designed $125,000 acoustic system has been installed; the electrical system has been replaced; and heating, cooling, plumbing and lighting have been repaired.

"To create the illusion of change" in the theater, the center spent $50,000 for color-coordinated seats, curtains, and capeting for restoring the marble and wood carving, Lodge said. Thick black paint on the large mahogany-trimmed windows in the lobby was removed, he said, adding that the mahogany cost $25 million in 1925.

Lodge said he expects the theater to be ready for the opening, although the "back floor of the stage may not be all done," and certain restorations, like reupholstering the balcony seats, will be completed over the next year.

But the renovation process has not been entirely smooth. Lodge said that last week an enormous painted mural flapped down from the lobby ceiling, which is nearly six stories high.

The center has already raised nearly two-thirds of the $5 million needed for the construction, Lodge said. Four local banks are backing the remainder, but Lodge said the center must raise $2 million over the next year.

To help raise capital and create ambience for the theater, the Metropolitan Center will open a small windowside cafe in the theater lobby, Lodge said.