ROANOKE RAPIDS -- Intended as a country-music showplace, this city's theater was designed to welcome members of the Grand Ole Opry, who would drop by on occasion to perform with its star.
Visionaries hoped the building, overlooking Interstate 95 just south of the Virginia border, would attract retirees on tour buses and music fans in cowboy boots who would bring their money, and the jobs those dollars would create, to a part of North Carolina that desperately needs both.
But instead of interstate passers-by on a recent Sunday evening, many of the folks in attendance were locals in church clothes; elegant dresses for the women, sharp suits for their dates. A group arrived in a limousine. As lines formed near the popcorn machine, a few people sipped wine, but no one seemed to be drinking beer.
It wasn't all that long ago that the city fathers anointed as their savior Randy Parton, a country singer and little brother of Dolly Parton. They plunged into debt to build him a 1,500-seat palace, let his wife fill the place with eggplant-colored carpet, and named it after him.
The city's plan, in which it would repay the debt with theater admission profits, collapsed practically from the get-go. Dismal ticket sales, bungled management and backbiting drama doomed the project. In December 2007, less than five months after the theater opened, the city kicked Parton out, eventually paying him to leave permanently.
The city ended up taking control of the building, renaming it the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.
After the theater sat empty during the summer of 2008, Lafayette and Marguerite Gatling of Chicago stepped in to take over, signing a lease-purchase agreement this spring.
Lafayette Gatling grew up in neighboring Northampton County before moving away as a young man and making a fortune with a funeral home and as a developer. The couple changed the theater's mission from a country-music destination to a space focused on bringing in a variety of entertainment that would attract the local population, including the large numbers of black and churchgoing people in the surrounding counties.
Since then, the theater has produced a rodeo, a car show and a Dionne Warwick concert. On the night of the limousine's arrival last Sunday, the theater hosted a performance of the gospel play "I'll be Home For Christmas," starring Bern Nadette Stanis, who played Thelma on the '70s TV show "Good Times."
The Gatlings have ambitious plans for the theater and its surrounding property. They think the theater can serve its intended purpose, creating jobs and driving development in the area, and serving as the lynchpin in a wider entertainment complex.
It will take time and, with banks tightening their credit lines, money that isn't readily available. The Gatlings recently asked the city to renegotiate their lease.
Credit isn't the only problem. Some in the community are still resentful that the city originally borrowed the money without a vote. Others remember that it was mainly white business and community leaders who championed the initial project, along with an entertainment package that left out black audiences.
The feelings in the community are "still very sore," says newly hired theater manager Charles Davis. But the building is here, and it is in everyone's interest to see it succeed.
If the city were truly sick of the theater, it could tear it down, Davis says, but "that's not going to solve anything either."
Eyes on the prize
Davis is a logistics expert and event planner who built a career in the entertainment business. Before flying to North Carolina to interview for the job, he Googled the theater and learned the outlines of the story. It wasn'tuntil he started the job that he realized the depths of the ambition behind the project, and the community's feelings about it.
Many in Halifax County, who this year saw their unemployment rate top 14 percent, agreed that something needed to be done to help create jobs. They hoped the Parton theater would help re-engineer this former textile hub as an entertainment destination. The most ambitious plans included a dolphin-filled aquarium, a roller coaster once owned by Elvis Presley and a variety of restaurants and hotels.
The city borrowed $21.5 million to build the theater and kick-start its operation. The Gatlings worked out a rent-to-own deal for $12.5 million, which includes a $1 million discount if they make all the payments on time. Their last payment is scheduled for May 1, 2023.
"The bottom line is we're still stuck with $10 million in debt," says Jim Garrett, who works in property management in Roanoke Rapids and has been a vocal opponent of the city's handling of the project. "The taxpayers are going to be left holding the bag."
The Gatlings, with Davis at the helm, believe they can help fulfill the promise of the original plan.
"This theater can still do what it was built to do," Davis says, noting that the complex needs additional development to help draw audiences. The more successful the theater is, the more developers will be willing to build adjacent to the theater. Roads and other infrastructure have long been in place around the theater. So far, only a hotel has been built.
"It's kind of a catch-22 situation," Davis says. "We just have to be smart and very strategic in how we try to grow things."
Familiar faces
Already, some in the community are pleased with the theater's new direction. More than 600 people attended "I'll be Home For Christmas."
Deborah James of Gaston, who attended the play, had also visited the theater to see Parton perform. She remembers going to the theater during Parton's reign and not knowing many of the people working there. The singer brought in a lot of his own people.
The Gatlings have produced a much homier feel.
"We already know the people here," James says. "It makes a big difference."
At the moment, the theater employs 22 part-time staff members and two full-time workers. That number could double as the theater adds events.
Speaking on the phone from Chicago, the Gatlings each say their investment has two purposes: to help the community and to make money. Lafayette Gatling says he has long wanted to work a project in his home community.
Since reopening, the theater has hosted a sporadic series of events. This has been part of the plan, Davis says, as he works to get everything in order before scheduling a fuller slate of performances in the second quarter of 2010.
Davis envisions the building in the mold of a performing arts center, with traveling Broadway plays, dance troupes, comedy acts and blues, country and rock concerts, much like the new Durham Performing Arts Center.
The Gatlings believe the theater is the first part in their plan to revive the original vision of the entire project. The alternative is not an option.
"It's a beautiful building," Lafayette Gatling said. "To have it just sit there and deteriorate would be senseless."
