News |

ROSEMONT THEATRE BOOKS A FUTURE FOR ITSELF

By almost any measure, it’s a gem.

Though a few rough spots have yet to be worked out, the new Rosemont Theatre, which opened Thursday night, has nearly all the markings of the first-rate arts center its planners intended it to be.

As such, it represents a coup for the Village of Rosemont (which owns it), a likely cultural magnet for the northwest suburbs and, most important, a striking new showcase for the Chicago area’s expanding entertainment scene.

“I love where it is,” said the evening’s headliner, Barry Manilow, referring to the theater’s locale. “I travel so much, it’s nice to have a theater right in the airport.”

Or at least a few blocks away. The location, near O’Hare and at the junction of several major highways, is sure to draw throngs from miles around, though that’s not all the Rosemont Theatre has going for it.

Visually, it’s inviting, even if the facade is somewhat boxlike and severe. (The building is covered with thick, concrete panels to keep out the sound of aircraft overhead.)

Inside, however, the place looks opulent, with generous lobby space, elegant wood moldings and banisters, and plush, wall-to-wall carpeting (patterned with the masks of tragedy and comedy).

The auditorium seats 4,200 but looks and feels more intimate than that, perhaps because the house is so shallow and wide. The topmost row in the balcony affords fine sightlines to the thrust stage, while the moderately graduated seating both upstairs and on the main floor assures most everyone a clear view of the proceedings.

Acoustically, the room is promising, though it’s difficult to come to any firm conclusions on the basis of Thursday night’s performance alone.

That’s because the engineers overamplified the music a bit on this occasion, particularly for a performer such as Manilow, whose appealing, honeyed singing voice can stand on its own. Further, because Manilow interprets a lyric by shading it vocally, too much reverberation obscures his work.

Even so, the sound wasn’t bad on the main floor, where it resonated the most. In the balcony, the acoustics showed plenty of presence and a bit more clarity than downstairs. And, strangely enough, the sound proved best in the back rows of the main floor, underneath the balcony overhang (typically the worst place to hear music in a theater this size).

Musically, the theater got off to a terrific start with a four-night engagement by Manilow, who now stands as one of the most persuasive interpreters of the classic American pop song. With Frank Sinatra on the verge of retirement and Tony Bennett heading toward septuagenarian status, Manilow seems most likely to emerge as the leading male singer in the pop-jazz tradition.

The reasons were plain to hear in the sumptuous lines he created in Rodgers and Hart’s “Where or When,” in the virtuoso scat passages he tossed off in “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and in the lyric ardor he conveyed in several of his own songs.

Certainly Manilow has few peers in writing romantic pop ballads, which may explain why so many in the audience knew every syllable to “Daybreak,” “This One’s For You,” “Even Now” and a dozen more.

By booking Manilow, the Rosemont Theatre clearly booked the best.

———-

Barry Manilow plays the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Rd., through Sunday. Phone 312-559-1212.