Freedman Officials Try to Whistle in the Dark

The Freedman Forum Concert Theatre is back “in limbo” following the short-notice cancellation on Sunday of a concert by rocker Pat Benatar.

The show was the third consecutive event at the theater to be canceled with little advance notice. The others were a Nov. 15 show by Echo & the Bunnymen and a Nov. 16 soul-music oldies revue headlined by the Stylistics. Ticket holders can get refunds at the place of purchase.

“We still have very high hopes, but it’s been a tough month,” said Richard Stern, a principal in the latest attempt to revive the troubled 2,500-seat theater.

A thriving pop venue during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when it was known as the Celebrity Theatre, the Freedman Forum has seen little activity since the original operators were forced out in 1994 after running into business difficulties. An attempt to revive the theater under new management in 1996 lasted little more than two months.

Stern said he isn’t giving up on the theater, which he reopened in June with veteran L.A. concert promoter Roger Shepherd in charge of bookings and day-to-day operations.

But Stern said it is uncertain when the theater will resume staging events or what the management structure will be. A Dec. 12 show by country singer Neal McCoy remains on the schedule but is in doubt.

Stern said Sunday that “too many things are in limbo” to say whether McCoy’s concert will be canceled, or to predict when the apparently stalled effort to reestablish the theater will resume. Shepherd could not be reached for comment.

“It’s tough to reopen a theater that has closed before,” said Stern, whose brother, Ellis Stern, is a trustee of the Leo Freedman Foundation, the charitable trust that owns the theater at 201 E. Broadway and has been leasing it to Anaheim Entertainment Group.

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The spate of show cancellations has been “very disconcerting, because a lot of people are working very hard” to make the theater succeed, Richard Stern said. “We consider it a growth pain. It’s a great theater, and I’m confident this theater will do fine.”

Bookings have been sporadic and audiences small since the June 28 reopening; attractions have included comedians Carrot Top and George Carlin, reggae star Ziggy Marley and country singer Tanya Tucker.

The venue’s difficulties began with management problems at the Celebrity in 1992 and worsened with the 1993 opening of the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, which rival promoters have said pays top dollar for many of the country music, R&B; and middle-of-the-road pop attractions that helped stoke the Celebrity Theatre’s success in its heyday from 1987 through 1991.

A successful revival of the Freedman Forum would be good news to Anaheim economic development officials, who see it as an important magnet for business in the downtown area near City Hall.

It also would benefit the Orange County arts community, which is the object of the Freedman Foundation’s charitable giving. Ellis Stern has estimated that a successful Freedman Forum could generate as much as $300,000 per year in rent, which the Foundation could then redistribute as arts grants.