At Music Hall, new lobby honors spirit of the past

Improvements at the theater include new fabric and lighting. (David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Think Maxfield Parrish illuminated by LED lighting and you've got a picture of the new grotto-like lobby at The Music Hall. The renovated foyer pays tribute to the theater's Victorian-era roots while at the same time keeping pace with new technology and the modern American theater.

"The previous lobby was cramped, cold, and inadequate," said Music Hall executive director Patricia Lynch. "But we didn't want a bank lobby. We wanted to create a magical space, a lobby for the 21st century."

On hand to view the changes were 400 or so visitors who circulated through the theater during an open house and symposium to introduce the renovated lobby on Sept. 20.

The foyer has rounded walls, Corinthian columns, and green marble counters. Cobalt blue lighting in transparent cubes illuminates red velvet banquettes, and gilded mermaids adorn the wall sconces. Bronze trees and vines frame a ticket booth embedded with video screens.

Five times larger than the former lobby, the new entryway required excavation of 700 square yards of rock ledge, about the volume of a Colonial home, according to construction manager John DeStefano. The renovation required a mile of wire, a mile of pipe, and a mile of conduit. Construction took nine months and cost $2.2 million. Excavation and construction took place while the theater remained open.

To come up with ideas for the project, Lynch visited historic theaters that were renovated in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Santa Fe. "You don't work on a vision in a closet," she said.

But she was disappointed in what she saw. "I thought they didn't respect their history when they remodeled."

While working on the project, she said she tried to imagine what it was like for a farm boy to see a play at the theater when it first opened in 1878.

"He would escape the hard work and toil of agricultural life for a couple of hours and enter a magical space," she said. "Who knows what he might have been thinking. We wanted to create a magical space where a 21st-century banker could forget the stock market for a couple of hours."

The wallpaper in the lobby features enlargements of programs, ticket stubs, and other ephemera from the theater's history. Trowels, tiles, and other artifacts have been built into the walls.

"We tried to honor the past and update it in a way that is timeless," said Jason McLean, the interior designer who decorated the lobby.

The curved walls mimic the semicircular nature of the theater above.

"We wanted to create a space that represented and respected what was going on in the theater," said architect John Merkle, who created the design.

"Patricia [Lynch] calls the theater 'The Old Lady,' " said McLean. "Without an adequate lobby she was like a lady without arms. I'd like to think we created a lobby that gives her arms to reach out and welcome the community."

Cynthia Fenneman of Kittery, Maine, felt that tug when she attended the open house.

"Entering the lobby was like entering another era," she said. "The space is contemporary, but it respects the theater's history. I think it buoys the stature of the theater."

The renovation of the lobby is part of an ongoing $13.2 million, five-year renovation of the theater, all paid for through private and corporate donors.

"Our dressing rooms must be better, and we'd like to replace some of the theater's 19th-century machinery," said Lynch. "The journey continues."