First year; Hanover Theatre is 1 year old today, and is throwing a big birthday bash.

Byline: Richard Duckett

At the opening gala of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts on March 14, 2008, Bernadette Peters sang the very first song to be performed on the Hanover stage as a full house of 2,300 looked on.

For the record, the song was "Let Me Entertain You."

Exactly one year later there will be an open house and birthday party at the theater from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. The festivities will include a 10-foot birthday cake baked by students at Worcester Technical High School.

With 110 shows in the past 12 months, there's been a lot of entertainment. Troy Siebels, the theater's executive director, is pleased with the record.

"Absolutely," he said. "We certainly were anticipating that it was gonna be a success, but I guess there's always a queasiness. But then again, I knew we could do this."

At the one-year mark, Mr. Siebels said, 170,000 customers have passed through the theater's doors. "Which is where we hoped we would get to after a couple of years," he said. "We had thought 80 to 100 shows (for the first year)," Mr. Siebels said. Instead there were 110.

"The Broadway shows all did well," he said in reference to Broadway touring productions such as "Cats." Mr. Siebels' own show, his adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," brought in 17,000 people during its run.

Less entertaining, however, has been the recent performance of the economy. Further, the nonprofit theater is carrying a $4 million debt from the renovations that transformed the space.

"It's not everything is a slam-dunk," Mr. Siebels said.

On the operations side of the ledger, Mr. Siebels said the theater has been trying hard to break even for its first year of operations.

"It will at least be close. It's our first year, so if we can get close to break even, we'll be happy," he said.

"Breaking even seems pretty good to me," said Norbert Mongeon, vice president of Professional Facilities Management, based in Providence. His company has a management relationship with the Providence Performing Arts Center and the Palace Theatre in Waterbury, Conn., and has partnered with the Hanover Theatre on bringing in Broadway shows.

"It's tough, very tough economically," Mr. Mongeon said. But while people may not be buying cars, they are still buying tickets to shows, he said. The 170,000 attendance was "very solid." The Providence Performing Arts Center is a larger facility than the Hanover Theatre and will have had 250,000 attendees over a comparable 12-month period. "In this down economy, for Worcester and Providence to be doing well is a statement. ... I know that they've really tried to really be aggressive. Our experience with the building has been great."

Keivin Mizrahi, a local promoter and an owner of Viva Bene Italian Ristorante, noted that "Troy (Siebels) is always there. ... They are very professional. Their box office has been great to work with. In terms of marketing and promoting they do a great job."

Mr. Mizrahi brought Elvis tribute artist Steve Connolly to the Hanover Theatre in January. "It did very well," he said. He also has worked with the theater on dinner and show packages. Some shows do better than others, but the American Bandstand concert brought in 175 dinner-show packages, Mr. Mizrahi said.

Music shows can be the hardest to predict in terms of how successful they'll be, Mr. Siebels said. "I think we've learned that music audiences are tricky." Meanwhile, "We haven't been successful in getting college students downtown," he said. "We're trying new things, but we haven't found the right formula yet."

On the other hand, while big shows with big names can be big gambles (they come with big fees), these have proven to be another success of the first year. For example, comedian Bill Cosby sold out two shows in February, Mr. Siebels said.

Another big story to come out in February came when Foothills Theatre Company announced it was in big financial trouble. Mr. Siebels said, "I feel we do what we can to help Foothills." The Hanover Theatre has sponsored one of Foothills' shows, he noted. A problem for Foothills, he observed, is that it has carried a large debt.

"It would be great for us if Foothills was unbelievably successful. There would be more people downtown," Mr. Siebels said.

The Hanover Theatre is carrying its own debt. While ticket sales have been good, a key to the next few months will be if people renew the contributions to the theater they made for its first year.

"Donated revenue has to be part of the formula," he said.

The Hanover Theatre had earlier launched a $100,000 campaign to bring down its debt.

"The campaign is still in progress. I'm not sure we'll hit the $100,000. It's through about half," Mr. Siebels said.

"Nonprofit theaters always require people to come to the table and help them," Mr. Mongeon said. Looking at the Hanover Theatre's first-year figures as related in this story, he said, "I think that's a first year to be proud of."

Mr. Siebels said, "The important thing is the doors are open and people are coming through them."

Today you can come through them and sing Happy Birthday.

ART: PHOTO

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA

CUTLINE: People arrive at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester last night for a performance by The Soul Band with Tim Pike and special guest James Montgomery.