Alex Theatre upgrades to be completed by November

The curtain on the Alex Theater’s long-awaited backstage expansion will rise this November, theater officials announced Tuesday.

The $5.2-million project, which will add 6,400 square feet to the theater, is scheduled to break ground on July 1, said Elissa Glickman, chief executive of Glendale Arts, the nonprofit organization formed in 2008 to manage the theater.

The Alex will be closed until a grand re-opening in November, but the work won’t be completely finished until March 2014, she added.

As a 1,400-seat venue in Los Angeles, the theater had to make improvements or risk losing business, Glickman said.

“The reality is, this is one of the most crowded market spaces for arts and entertainment anywhere,” she said. “In order to remain competitive...we needed to step up our game.”

Glickman said the expansion will give the theater the dressing rooms, storage and freight elevator needed to attract both larger musical productions and rock bands – the sorts of big-ticket draws that can keep the theater in the black.

-- Daniel Siegal, daniel.siegal@latimes.com

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