Lights! Action!

The screen will remain dark for a while, but at least the marquee on the 71-year-old Balboa Theatre was lighted Monday during a lease-signing ceremony between Newport Beach officials and the foundation trying to save the vintage movie house.

For 3 1/2 years the Balboa Performing Arts Theatre Foundation has worked to renovate and reopen the venue, at 707 W. Balboa Blvd., which was closed in 1992. The group has collected $300,000 from fund-raisers, but faced the daunting task of needing more than $1 million to buy and restore the theater.

But in October the Newport Beach City Council bought the theater with $480,000 in grant money and last week approved a 25-year lease with the foundation to have that group handle renovation and operations.

“This is a great joint venture. We’re going to make it work,” foundation President Dayna Pettit said Monday night, signing the lease with Mayor Thomas C. Edwards. “Who said it couldn’t be done?”

All the foundation’s cash now can go toward renovation, which will take up to two years, said foundation member Steve Bromberg. The group plans to feature live theater and specialty movies at the Balboa, once it is restored to its 1927 splendor.

“Now we have a very serious job of raising a great deal more money,” he said.

A chunk of that may come Thursday night, at an 8 p.m. benefit concert by Bill Medley, former member of the Righteous Brothers, at the Balboa Pavilion.

Tickets are $35, and all proceeds go toward the renovation, which residents and officials say is the key to a revitalization of Balboa Village.