ON WITH THE SHOW

The crowd that gathers Thursday at Canal and Rampart streets, just outside the boarded front doors of New Orleans' iconic Saenger Theatre, will witness a renaissance moment.

Out of the darkness that has prevailed since Hurricane Katrina, the lights are expected to blink on the Saenger's giant marquee to mark the coming return of the landmark playhouse that long anchored the performing arts district along the city's signature commercial boulevard.

The $38.8 million reconstruction of performance, patron and office space through an innovative alliance of the Canal Street Development Corp., an arm of City Hall, and the property's longtime private owner-managers, Saenger Theatre Partnership of Houston, was announced to great fanfare in January. Until now, though, most progress has transpired on architects' drawing boards and in negotiations with financiers.

With plans nearing completion and bids expected to be awarded by January, developers this week plan to throw open the theater's doors and offer the public a glimpse of some small-scale but eye-popping restoration efforts already under way. They also will tout their grand vision for a modernized, expanded layout that still honors the theater's historic roots.

The marquee that lights up at dusk Thursday will be relit nightly to signal that the rebirth, which developers hope to complete by late 2011, is truly in progress.

Unlike scores of rebuilding projects across town, the restoration of the Saenger won't simply aim to wipe away the ravages of a flood that swamped underground infrastructure and orchestra-level seats and trashed the sprawling building's ornate Florentine interiors.

Instead, the theater will be reborn to more closely reflect the way it looked when it opened in 1927 as a vaudeville playhouse before morphing into the city's preeminent movie palace.

The development team says it has cobbled together the federal and state money and tax-credit financing needed to move the project forward.

"Is there a wish list? You betcha," said David Anderson, a top executive with the Saenger Theatre Partnership. "There's always a wish list. But we're going to get it open. We're going to get it up and running. It's going to be bigger and better and more beautiful than anybody remembers."

--- Respecting the past ---

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