The Music Hall shuts down to restore a 19th century mural

The enchanting atmosphere within The Music Hall in Portsmouth harkens back to the late 19th century, when elegant theaters began popping up across the nation, filling demand for leisure activity and entertainment created in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Completed in 1878, the theater was purportedly large enough to fit horses and elephants within its spacious auditorium. By the time the hall temporarily closed in 1926, artists as diverse and widely known as Harry Houdini, John Philip Sousa and Al Jolson had performed there.

Today, the appearance of the theater’s interior is radically different than it was 130 years ago. But extensive work underway in the auditorium will restore a strong sense of the historic building’s original character. On July 27, the seating area was filled with a skeletal web of scaffolding that stretched from the floor to the domed ceiling. Workers in hard hats traversed the stage and balcony like carpenter ants, and veils of spectral dust filled the columns of sallow light that emanated from a handful of spotlights.

Glancing around the construction site, it was difficult to believe that the same space had been filled with hundreds of guests only a few days earlier, when the SummerFilm Series came to a close with a screening of “Once.” The series ended four days early so that crews from EverGreene Painting Studios could begin erecting the scaffolding and get to work on a major restoration project that is scheduled for completion by the first week of September.

The workers are tasked with restoring the hall’s dome to reveal the ornate paintings that originally crowned the theater. The paintings were revealed as The Music Hall conducted “discovery work” last spring, stripping away layers of paint to create windows into the theater’s past. Beneath the white outer shell, workers exposed brilliant red and gold designs, highlighted by depictions of Roman Gods.

“This was considered a ‘mother lode discovery,’” said Patricia Lynch, executive director of The Music Hall. “It’s very unusual to have this much left intact. It gives us a very clear idea about what the original design was.”

When the work is completed, the entire dome will be covered with a dazzling mural. “You can’t really imagine how astonishing this is going to look, because it’s so big,” Lynch said. “It’s difficult to understand the scope of how magnificent this is going to look until it’s done. I don’t think anybody, even here, gets it.”

The unveiling of the dome’s original design represents the latest chapter in a series of alterations that have marked various epochs in The Music Hall’s rich history. Gradual dilapidation has led owners to modify the ceiling every few decades.

“It was a process that happened over time, probably due to what, in 2007, we call ‘deferred maintenance’ problems,” Lynch said. “Over time, when the roof needed to be replaced, they probably didn’t do it, so rain got in and destroyed sections of this. So what was once beautiful became scrappy looking, water damaged (and) faded.”

By the early- to mid-1900s, the original mural was both damaged and outdated. Owners opted to cover the ornate Victorian painting with an astrological design that was more fashionable at the time. Pictures dating back to the 1940s show the astrological mural, Lynch said. But by the 1950s, the movie industry was emerging as the theater’s most prominent form of entertainment. As the leaky roof continued to damage the new mural, owners decided to paint it white, leaving fewer distractions from the screen. This bland, white shell covered the dome until this summer.

The restoration work is part of The Music Hall’s Save America’s Treasures project, which concludes this fall. The Hall already restored the proscenium arch that forms a threshold to the stage, exposing a celestial mural with seven floating cherubs. It also repaired the leaky roof and the sagging buttress stairs. By the time the project is finished, the white garland designs and railings along the front of the balcony will be laced with a gold-leaf pattern, matching the decorative facades of the opera boxes that flank the stage.

Work to the dome will entail refurbishing plaster, smoothing walls, fixing cracks and repairing water damage to the original 1878 painting. The entire restoration project will cost $1 million, $395,000 of which will be covered by a grant from Save America’s Treasures. The Music Hall must match that amount and raise additional funds with donations from individuals, corporations and foundations.

To conduct the work, The Music Hall contracted a company known for its skill in restoring historic paintings. Based in New York, EverGreene Painting Studios has done restoration work around the nation. “They’re considered to be one of the very best at this in the country. They work all over,” Lynch said.

According to owner Jeff Greene, EverGreene Painting has, in fact, done restoration work in some 250 theaters across the country. But The Music Hall project is particularly fascinating—and particularly challenging—due to a number of factors, he said. With no written documentation or visual record of how the ceiling originally appeared, Greene and his staff did not go into the project with high hopes. “We had no idea what was there,” Greene said. “Given the very bad condition of the ceiling, we just simply didn’t expect to find anything. So our expectations were very low, and then we hit the mother-lode.”

Once they discovered portions of the original mural, Greene’s crews next had to determine how to go about restoring the design. Stripping away all the paint to expose the original mural would be cost-prohibitive and virtually impossible from a technical standpoint. So Greene decided to replicate the original design on a large canvas and install it over the existing paint.
Workers opened up a couple more exposure windows early this week to make sure their replication is accurate, and they have already applied an isolating varnish to protect the original mural, ensuring that it will remain there, buried under several layers of paint, for years to come. They expect to spend about two weeks preparing the ceiling and reinforcing the plaster before installing the canvas in one frenzied week. “It’s going to be quite a transformation,” Greene said.

The Music Hall will celebrate its makeover with a 21-plus mojito dance party on Saturday, Sept. 8, by which time the work should be complete. The party will feature a ribbon cutting event and music from Miami-based Cuban dance band Tiempo Libre. Tickets are $50.

The opening gala also kicks off The Music Hall’s fall season, which will include the four movies cut out of the SummerFilm series: “LaStrada,” “La Vie en Rose,” “Paprika” and “Rule of the Game.” With the first half of 2007 drawing large numbers of attendees to the theater, Lynch is hopeful that the future will bring more success. “Our audience trends are up, and have been up, for the last couple of years,” Lynch said. “Last year we had a 24 percent increase over the previous year, which was a 37 percent increase over the year before that. So, if you start adding those numbers up, it’s pretty exciting.”

Lynch, who took over as executive director about three years ago, says the theater’s recent success is likely due to a variety of factors. She credits the Hall’s diverse programming with offering something for everyone. Signature programs like Intimately Yours, Writers on a New England Stage and Kids RULE! appeal to different audiences from around the region. As hype surrounding these programs grows, more and more people decide to check them out. “In my experience in show business, butts in seats breeds butts in seats,” Lynch said, pounding her palm on a desk as she spoke. “It’s just the way it goes.”

Asked which events she is most excited about this fall and winter, Lynch could barely refrain from listing them all. She became particularly giddy when describing “Striking 12,” a musical performed by indie-pop band “Groovelily.” Tickets are already on sale for the show, which hits The Music Hall on Dec. 8. Other autumn highlights include the Telluride by the Sea film festival from Sept. 21-23, a visit from filmmaker Ken Burns on Oct. 22 and a performance by David Crosby and Graham Nash on Oct. 23.

It is unknown who painted the original mural on The Music Hall dome. A painter named Huxley is believed to be responsible for the mural on the proscenium arch, as well as other murals at the Wentworth by the Sea hotel in New Castle. The League of Historic Theaters visited The Music Hall on July 26, and one member had a few ideas about which artists would have been alive and working in the area in the late 1800s, Lynch said. “There’s some likely suspects, but they didn’t sign their names,” she said.

According to Lynch, painting murals like the one adorning the Hall’s dome once constituted a thriving industry. “There was a whole traveling band of artists and artisans who, for a period of time, starting in the 1870s through the 1920s, traveled around this country making beautiful theaters,” she said. “At that time, you’ve got to realize that, in America, leisure time wasn’t common until the Industrial Age. The idea of leisure time was for the very rich. But for working stiffs like you and me, a day off was a rare thing.”

As the Industrial Age settled in and working class people found themselves looking for things to do on precious days off, theaters like The Music Hall were suddenly in high demand. The Hall was built “to meet the demand of the idea that there was more to life than church and work, that there was this thing called entertainment, which seems very foreign to us now, but imagine a world where that was a novelty,” Lynch said.

In the age of television, radio and the Internet, modern audiences have no shortage of entertainment options. But Lynch is confident that venues like The Music Hall will continue to thrive. The Hall recently named Michael Harvell as president of the Board of Trustees, which has laid out a five-year strategic plan. The plan calls for ongoing restoration and rehabilitation of critical systems. “Too often, we’re working with 19th century technology in a 20th century world,” Lynch said.

The five-year plan also calls for measures to decrease overcrowding, enhance temperature control, increase handicap accessibility and upgrade the restrooms. “If you’ve ever been here on a sold-out performance, you know going to the bathroom is not for the fainthearted,” Lynch said.

Finally, Lynch hopes to establish a prudent endowment, continue destination programming like Writers on a New England Stage and increase mentoring and educational programs. She also hopes to eventually see a historic streetscape on Chestnut Street, in front of the theater.