Symphony should never
By Nancy Bannick
be evicted from its homeI had a minor role in the citizen campaign to establish a fine concert hall for the Honolulu Symphony. This is the same hall that, to accommodate a 12-week run of "Miss Saigon," the city asked the symphony to vacate at the start of its centennial season, and right when it was filling the auditorium again after a several-year comeback struggle.
By the early 1960s, McKinley High School auditorium could no longer accommodate concert-goers. Our orchestra had also achieved a quality deserving of a hall that would do it justice.
Mayor Blaisdell returned from a trip to Las Vegas with the well-meaning idea of putting a "multitorium" on Ward Estate land that the city had recently acquired. It would be an all-purpose arena that would accommodate our symphony, basketball and other large-crowd sporting and entertainment events, as well as exhibit and meeting rooms.
Music lovers banded together -- community leaders such as symphony conductor George Barati and architect Alfred Preis and lots of us grass-roots concert-goers -- and made the case that such a building would not do. We needed a separate auditorium of the size and shape of fine concert halls in other cities, and with the acoustics to enhance the sound of our fine orchestra.
A citizens' auditorium committee was formed to help plan the building and to work with the architects, Merrill Simms and Roehrig (later, Merrill Roehrig Onodera and Kinder). It came up with the idea of facing the hall toward Thomas Square and the Academy of Arts, giving Honolulu a cultural center, rather than placing it along the Ward axis of the arena.
The architects, with help from the committee (some volunteers were design and technical experts), persuaded the city to allow the hall to have continental seating, a help in the configuration of an auditorium that was to host 2,100 concert-goers and to provide good sight lines and acoustics in all sections.
The budget was so small that there was no money for an elevator. For several years, we had to make do with one men's restroom and one women's restroom (think of the lines then!).
Opening the hall to lanais was done, not only to reduce the amount of space to be enclosed, but also to continue the out-of-doors intermission socializing we had enjoyed at McKinley.
The concert hall that resulted was worth every bit of the struggle. It has been a wonderful home to symphony and opera performances, and a source of civic pride. The wonderful new shell constructed during Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration has made it truly first-class.
THE fact that Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall can accommodate the Broadway shows we've been getting more recently is a plus. But even though these can make money for the city, they should not be booked at times when they interfere with our symphony and opera seasons. Other cities are saying no in such cases and we should, too.
The Honolulu Symphony has suggested several ways it could compromise with the "Miss Saigon" company in the use of the hall during the start of its 1999-2000 season. I urge the city and Eagle Eye Entertainment to work this out.
Furthermore, I'd like to point out that Broadway musicals do not come off well in the Blaisdell Concert Hall. It is too large and thus a lot of amplification is required. It spoils the voices.
Traveling Broadway musicals should be in the Hawaii Theatre, a New York-like venue that right now can handle standard-size musicals like "Bye, Bye, Birdie" and "Crazy For You," and eventually, when its backstage area is expanded, the big extravaganzas whose strength is technical wizardry.
Hawaii Theatre would love to present the Broadway musicals -- and how that would help to revitalize downtown! I'd like to see the city help make this possible. It must never again even consider throwing the Honolulu Symphony out of its rightful home.
Nancy Bannick is a writer, architect and preservationist.