By STEVE DUNFEY
Portsmouth is a desirable place to live and one reason for that is non-profit organizations like The Music Hall.
The Hall is a large institution that goes beyond the 895-seat theater at 28 Chestnut Street.
There is now The Music Hall Lounge at 135 Congress Street and a Members Club next to the theater on Chestnut Street.
The theater’s operational team has put the Whittemore Center at the University of New Hampshire on the map for very large audiences. Also new to The Music Hall this year is the operation of the New Hampshire Film Festival.
This popular event is held in October every year and attracts thousands of people who view four days of programming. All told there are 319 days of programming by The Music Hall management.
The Music Hall is led by Tina Sawtelle who is President and Chief Executive Officer. She oversees 33 full-time employees. They make up the largest non-profit performing arts organization in New Hampshire.
Jay McFarland of Hampton-Ford Hyundai is chair of the Board of Trustees. There are 300 volunteers and 600 programs a year.
Members of the public can become members of The Music Hall by donating $60 dollars. Members are welcome to the Members Club that has a private entrance to the theater and has an art-deco design.
The staff there is very friendly and there is a large television behind the bar where one can watch the shows in the theater. The Lounge on Congress Street opened in 2011 and was renovated in 2022. It seats 116 people.
The Hall, built in 1878, has a long and varied history that has been documented in two books. Published in 2003 is “The Music Hall, Portsmouth” which was written by Zhana Morris and Trevor F. Bartlett “on behalf of the Friends of The Music Hall.” Zhana Morris is one of the longest serving Music Hall employees, serving since 1997.
She serves as production manager and historian. “We provide an opportunity for people to relax. We have important school programs and you run into people you know here. We are able to bring the arts from around the world here.” In 2019 the “Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City” was published.
Written by Portsmouth author J. Dennis Robinson it is a detailed history of the Music Hall. Robinson writes that “The Music Hall opened its doors in 1878 as a vaudeville theater, bringing a fresh cultural vibrancy to the city of Portsmouth. Almost a century and a half later—now with a second theater—it has been pivotal in revitalizing the city’s downtown into one of the most robust arts destinations in New England.”
Back in the 1980’s, the Hall almost became a development of condominiums. The Friends of the Music Hall bought it for $650,000 from developer Richard Cabral.
The Hall was further saved by the Portsmouth community led by David Choate and Jameson French. “We had 8 or 10 people working with us. We had a vision of what we wanted,” says Choate. “There was a donation of $200,000 by the Henley Group. Without that, the deal would not have worked.”
Jameson French mentioned the support of the community from “Martha Fuller Clark, Drika Overton and Norm Ritter. Chris Dwyer was honorary chair and there was a lot of enthusiasm. The Music Hall is an economic engine for the Seacoast. I did the fundraising. And the owner of the Press Room, Jay Smith, gave a line of credit for $250,000. Mary Kelly was our first Executive Director.
“We opened when the Theater By The Sea was closed. We treasured the future.”
The Music Hall now offers several regular popular events in music, film, comedy and public speaking. “Disney’s FROZEN, the Broadway Musical” was featured last December. The show was co-produced with the Ogunquit Playhouse with which The Music Hall has a ten-year partnership. Another popular event is the “Writers On A New England Stage.”
This production is an interview with well-known authors such as presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. She comments that “Loving history as I do, it is a special pleasure to be speaking in a place that has such a treasured past.”
New Hampshire Public Radio is a partner in this endeavor and past shows can be viewed on their website. The Music Hall offers two film festivals. Last year they took over the administration of the New Hampshire Film Festival which has been running for the past 22 years. This four-day event, held every October, attracts several thousand attendees. The Telluride By The Sea Film Festival, originating from their premier event in Colorado, features six films on a September weekend. This is a landmark event for cinephiles of the Seacoast.
The Music Hall has an annual event called the Emerging Artist Benefit Concert. According to their website, it is “The Music Hall’s signature fundraising event. Proceeds from the concert directly support our mission to invigorate audiences, nurture healthy communities and drive economic vitality in the region…
“The Music Hall has created this fundraising event as a crucial revenue source to support our operations and stewardship of our theaters in a mission-aligned manner while supporting the next generation of superstars.”
This year’s concert was headlined by singer and songwriter Jason Mraz. Next year The Music Hall will begin a concert series at the Whittemore Center at the University of New Hampshire. The Whittemore Center has the capacity to seat 7,500 patrons.
This venue allows for crowds too large for the historic theater. As Tina Sawtelle told New Hampshire Public Radio, “That is going to give us the opportunity to bring in much larger national headlining acts…so that people don’t have to travel down to Boston or further distances, and that it’s right here in the Seacoast community.”
As Director of Marketing for The Music Hall, Ryan Klink adds, “the partnership strengthens our ties with UNH and creates an opportunity for us to engage with wider audiences and grow our nonprofits reach in exciting new ways. We’re excited to announce our first concert at this new venue will feature three-time Grammy Award nominees, the Avett Brothers on May 1, 2025.”
Tina Sawtelle says that, “The Music Hall is poised for improvements in the next few years when the theater will be closed for three to six months. Seats are breaking down and will be replaced, sound systems would be upgraded and adherence to life safety standards will take place. Opera boxes will be brought into play. Hopefully some room will be made for spots for dancing.”
Historian J. Dennis Robinson, mentioned above, states that “my goal with The Music Hall book was to track how The Music Hall went from the dominant theater venue to near destruction as residential condos. It then rebounded as the ‘beating heart’ of local arts and culture. The building evolved with the times, from Victorian plays to vaudeville to a ‘sticky foot’ cinema to the entertainment hub of the Seacoast region-and nearly lost during each transition. The Music Hall delivers statistical evidence that it and other non-profit venues were key economic drivers to the region as the city adopted from a blue-collar economy to a must-see tourist destination.
“The Music Hall draws ticket buyers who also park, shop, dine, explore and stay overnight in what has become a vibrant downtown in one of the state’s most historic cities.”
