Curtain Drops on Pasadena Nonprofit That Staged Shows

A nonprofit foundation that stages musicals, ballets and other shows at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium has shut down with $1.9 million in debts, much of it owed to the city-owned venue.

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium Foundation was dissolved Jan. 8 by its board of directors with all its remaining shows canceled. Its 3,100 season ticket-holders will receive refunds, officials said.

Most of the 145 performances the foundation staged since its 1998 creation did not break even and the debts became untenable after two recent shows, “Tap Dogs” and “The Nutcracker,” suffered poor attendance, foundation leaders said.

“The foundation has struggled for some time and when the last two shows did not make money, it was the point of no return,” said foundation President Rick Barr, who also is the general manager of the auditorium. “It was about 20% of the business at the Civic. Other tenants and events won’t be affected.”

The landmark venue run by the city’s Pasadena Center Operating Co. also is home to the Pasadena Symphony and the Distinguished Speaker Series. The elegant Renaissance-inspired structure designed in 1932, officials said, is rented out about 220 days a year for events, including the local Emmys, the People’s Choice Awards and NAACP Image Awards.

Seeking to diversify the entertainment lineup, some members of the Pasadena Center Operating Co. board decided in 1998 to form the foundation to bring a new mixture of shows to the venue while gathering charitable contributions for the program.

“The city couldn’t get involved in such a speculative venture as presenting shows because it could put the city in [financial] jeopardy,” said Roger Smith, chief executive officer of the Pasadena Center Operating Co. “It was a good thing the city didn’t.”

Smith said the $1.4 million owed by the foundation to the city’s operating company is not money the venue will have to pay and is mostly unpaid rent that has been written off as debt that cannot be collected.

In addition, Barr said, the foundation owes about $500,000 to creditors, including Dallas Summer Musicals of Texas, with which the foundation had a lengthy contract for musical productions.

It and other creditors will not receive payment because the foundation is penniless, officials said. However, the auditorium’s box office held on to receipts from season subscribers so they will be refunded in full, officials said.

Officials said the quality of shows, competition from other venues and entertainment, and the financial fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks proved fatal.

“They counted on turning it around this year. The problem was people just did not buy tickets,” Pasadena Councilman Paul Little said. “It is close to a couple of hundred bucks for a family of four.”

Smith said “The Nutcracker,” which netted $100,000 in a 2000 run, did not break even this Christmas season. “The productions out on the road from New York aren’t exactly super-duper in the paying public’s eyes,” he said.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said the foundation’s financial problems were known to city officials, but its folding remains a disappointment. “Each year it got deeper and deeper into the hole,” he said.

Like many foundations, he said, it counted on charitable contributions. “The 501c foundation was formed in the belief they’d raise money. There are a lot of generous people in Pasadena. But there are a lot of competing and better-established causes.”