The Nokia Theatre is Built, Now Will They Come?
NOKIA THEATRE: The Eagles and Dixie Chicks will take the stage Oct. 18, packing 7,100
concert-goers into what is being billed the most acoustically sophisticated venue of its
size in the nation. Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
The spotlight turns on the venue next week. The goal: to make it L.A.'s new center stage.
By Geoff Boucher,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 11, 2007
ON New Year's Eve 1999, television coverage hopscotched around the globe to document the night with images of huge gatherings in famous city squares, urban parks and at legendary landmarks. An avalanche of confetti fell on the New Yorkers jammed in Times Square, Parisians frolicked at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and 3 million Germans gathered around the polished red granite of the Victory Column in Berlin. Similar scenes played out in Beijing and Boston, London and Sydney, Tokyo and Chicago.
And what was the proud civic image beamed to the world from Los Angeles? It was the iconic Hollywood sign, lonely up on its hill, cloaked in fake fog and flickering with strobe and laser light. There was not a soul in sight. The message from L.A. to the world: Who needs living, breathing people when you have a logo with 50-foot letters and special effects?
If Los Angeles ever seemed like an un-centered city, it was that feckless night. There may never be a repeat of it though, because, for better or worse, a $2.5-billion project to create a so-called Times Square West is poised for its first opening night: Next Thursday, the Nokia Theatre, a 7,100-seat venue billed as one of the most acoustically sophisticated spaces anywhere, will open with a double bill of the Eagles (the band that has the bestselling album in U.S. history) and the Dixie Chicks (who this year dominated the top Grammy categories, winning for best album, song and record).
The Nokia is a centerpiece of the deliriously ambitious project called L.A. Live, which is nothing less than an attempt to tilt the city's skyline to the south. The project covers 4 million square feet spreading out from Staples Center and the L.A. Convention Center; it will include a 54-story tower that will house condos as well as a 123-room Ritz-Carlton and a 878-room J.W. Marriott hotel, the new studios of ESPN, a Grammy museum, movie theaters, restaurants, apartments, nightclubs and a Lucky Strike bowling alley. It will take two more years before much of that is finished, but L.A. will get its first glimpse of its promise with the premiere night at the Nokia Theatre and its 40,000-square-foot plaza, which together should give the camera crews a better place to count down the last minutes of the year.
"As far as a public gathering place and a center for a world-class entrepreneurial city, we are going from nowhere to the very best, we are going from a disaster to being a role model," says Timothy J. Leiweke, president and chief executive of AEG Live, the company that owns and operates L.A. Live. "It's incredible what is happening in Los Angeles and what this project will mean."
The project will certainly mean many different things to many people, but not everyone's perspective will be as sunny as Leiweke's. There are already critics who say the development straddling Figueroa Street will be too oppressive, too glossy and too detached from the rest of downtown in spirit and aesthetics. Competitors wailed when the hotel component of L.A. Live got special consideration from the city in the form of loans and hotel-tax rebates. And activists have questioned whether a project catering to the affluent and wealthy is the best way to help a downtown with entrenched issues such as homelessness.
Champions of the project, meanwhile, see it as a chance to infuse energy and investment and goose the visiting convention business. There's also the philosophy that bringing more people from around the region to eat, shop and be entertained will lead to more money and identity for a place that, a decade and a half ago, was a concrete ghost town at night.
Here's one thing that appears certain: The Nokia Theatre brings with it the promise of a scintillating new mid-size music and entertainment venue to the second-largest city in the country.
THE Nokia Theatre sits like a little sister next to Staples Center and, from the street, their metallic swoops, glowing grids and digital ribbons make the family resemblance obvious. There are substantial differences inside, however. Staples (which seats up to 20,000 in some concert configurations) is far more concrete and utilitarian for obvious reasons -- who wants hockey games in an overly plush setting? -- and the acoustics are tricky because it was built with the conflicting imperatives of giving the Lakers a home-court advantage (which means echoing the cheers of fans back down) and also making sure that rock guitar solos don't ricochet out of control. "We didn't mess around with the sound with the Nokia Theatre," Leiweke said. "We spent a fortune to make sure it has the best sound possible."
Last week, the chairs were bolted into the wide floor of the Nokia, and the place does look impressive. No seat is farther than 220 feet from the stage. To maximize space for production and seating, much of the food storage and preparation will be done at Staples and wheeled over via an underground tunnel; other staffing needs are also housed on the other side of Chick Hearn Court. (That quick jaunt raises an intriguing possibility: One of these nights, will the Kings, Lakers or Clippers have the national anthem performed by a superstar booked at the Nokia?)
The venue is filled with glowing light; there are 5,000 square feet of LED screens in, on or around the theater and plaza, and the color of the entire building can switch from red to blue to green to white. The video screens everywhere, including atop towers in the plaza, are geared to make events larger than life in the eyes of a crowd that, with street closures, can bump up into the tens of thousands. "This is," Leiweke said, "the Radio City Music Hall for the 21st century."
With a stage 180 feet wide and 80 feet deep, and a sophisticated lowering catwalk and rigging system, the venue is also positioning itself as a state-of-the art site for awards shows. As a result, the Shrine Auditorium and the Gibson Amphitheatre appear to be losing traction with producers who specialize in envelope shows.
Dick Clark Productions signed up first and, on Nov. 18, will make the American Music Awards on ABC the first major broadcast from the venue. That company is also behind the Golden Globes, and there is speculation they will be moving into the new digs as well, especially with the lure of the planned hotel ballrooms for after-parties. That lure may help close the deal with the Emmys as well. AEG has been flirting with that show's producers for years, and although no final word has been given, the TV academy's board of governors gave preliminary approval in May to a 10-year deal with the Nokia venue.
That same month, AEG announced a strategic alliance to promote the brand of Nielsen's Billboard, hints that the Billboard Music Awards and the Billboard Latin Music Awards could soon be tenants as well. The Latin Grammys seem a natural for the site, and Leiweke made it clear he was in hot pursuit of MTV's award shows and the ESPYs.
"I think you're going to see boxing in there too," Leiweke said. "We are the promoters booking the building, and we are going to take a lot of risks. There are also the corporate events and private functions. It's a dynamic building, and there are going to be exciting things there. We've opened a lot of venues in a lot of cities and when people ask me which is my favorite, I always say, 'The next one.' But this one is going to be very special for a very long time."
Nokia Theater Makes Bow
Eagles to perform at venue's christening
By PHIL GALLO
Variety
The Eagles will christen L.A.'s newest theater next week, and if its owners have their way, every major awards show will be using the venue before long. It could even play host to the Oscars. Philip Anschutz's AEG will take the keys from the contractor Friday to downtown's Nokia Theater, which the live entertainment company envisions as the home to 80-100 concerts per year and the epicenter of kudofests.
The first venue to open within AEG's three-phase, 100-acre L.A. Live campus, the $120 million Nokia Theater is being positioned by AEG as "the new Radio City Music Hall." The 7,100-seater opens Oct. 18 with a six-night stand featuring the Eagles and Dixie Chicks.
Venue will host the American Music Awards in mid-November, and discussions are ongoing with the Recording Academy about how to use the building and its courtyard during February's Grammy ceremony, which takes place in Staples Center and has used the Convention Center for its pre-telecast the past two years. "We want every major event to come to Los Angeles -- our competition is New York," said Tim Leiweke, prexy-CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group. "We never want to see the Grammys return to New York. We want the Emmys. We want the NFL to move its draft here."
AEG, which owns and operates the adjacent Staples Center and has privately raised the $2 billion needed to finance L.A. Live, has a list of 20 events it would like to attract, including the Emmys. Because of production demands -- a week of setup is often required -- the building is unlikely to be home for more than 10. The Academy Awards are not on that list; the Motion Picture Academy has a long-term contract with the Kodak Theater, though there are outs as in any other contract. AEG's list does not include any other movie-oriented kudofests.
AEG, which has put nearly 30 shows on sale, is eager for the Nokia to become known as the most technologically advanced concert venue in the city, with its sights set on acts that would otherwise go to the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City or the Shrine Auditorium. For concerts "we make no bones about it -- Gibson is our key competitor," Leiweke said. "But if in five years we're in a tug of war with the Gibson, something is wrong. Once the hotels, restaurants and clubs are open, this will be marketed as one campus."
L.A. Live, a giant construction site that sits to the north and a bit west of Staples Center, will be a $2 billion collection of hotels, including a Ritz Carlton and Marriott; the 2,300-capacity Club Nokia; the Grammy Museum; ESPN broadcast facilities; nine restaurants; a movie theater; and the Nokia Theater. "We'll be in the convention business with the city," Leiweke said.
Before that day arrives, AEG is focused on getting everything in place for Monday's load-in of the Eagles' gear. Tuesday evening, the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 33 Stagehands ratified a five-year contract with the theater by a vote of 320 to 32. "We're pleased we finally came to a meeting of the minds with AEG," said Local 33 business rep James Wright, noting the package is comparable to that at other area venues. "This is a contract we can build on." When AEG opened its Nokia Theater in Gotham's Times Square two years ago, it had attempted to do so non-union. When workers threatened to walk prior to the opening concert, AEG inked a five-year deal with the IA.
At 7,100 seats, the Nokia is larger than most of L.A.'s large theaters: Gibson has 6,200, the outdoor Greek Theater boasts 5,700 and the Kodak has 3,000-3,400. The Nokia stage is distinctively large: 180 feet by 80 feet. The orchestra level is practically a hall unto itself: 4,340 of the venue's seats are in the lower level, and the upper reaches of the hall can be blocked by curtains to make the room feel like a smaller theater.
Among the Nokia's major selling points, Leiweke noted, will be its electronically operated rigging systems for lights and sound equipment that keep humans off the catwalks; two 16 foot by 29 foot LED screens alongside the stage; a dozen dressing rooms; hospitality suites; and a covered load-in area that can accommodate three semis. "There are three ways to load in. We have enormous wing space and two levels (to store equipment)," Leiweke said, connecting the building's offerings to cost savings for promoters and acts. "The orchestra pit is on hydraulics; there's no need to bring a projection system. There's less time needed to get in and get out. People will spend less money producing a show here" than at any other house in L.A.
AEG created two VIP seating areas -- opera boxes on the sides and the first two rows of the mezzanine. The 12 opera boxes, six on each side, stacked in two levels, sold for about $150,000 each. Company has sold 220 of the 256 premium seats licenses that were offered for between $2,500 and $5,000 per year. License gives the owner the right to purchase tickets plus parking privileges and access to a private club.
The Eagles-Dixie Chicks shows sold out in a flash, and AEG has since been announcing future shows -- Neil Young on Oct. 30, Anita Baker on Nov. 3, John Fogerty on Nov. 23, Enrique Iglesias on Dec. 7 and George Lopez on Dec. 26, 27 and 31, to name just a few.
But Leiweke is well aware that L.A. Live has not yet achieved name recognition and that only the people who attend Lakers, Kings and Clippers game know how to navigate the area south of Olympic Boulevard between the 110 and Figueroa and find parking. AEG has printed a half-million parking guides to distribute to patrons and said it has added 3,000 parking spaces to the area. Concerts are scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m.; tipoff for a Clippers-Suns game on opening night is at 7:30, as are most other sporting events. "We are going to have some issues," Leiweke said, adding, "We're working on a better infrastructure.
"We have to teach people where (new parking) is. We have to teach people how to get into the building, because we can't have 7,000 people using the front door at once. We have to teach them that there are four lobbies, all equal size. These are challenges that will be solved by habit."
Leiweke envisions a time when all the elements of L.A. Live will be used for a single purpose, such as a weeklong "American Idol" festival that would include the staging of the singing show's finale, concerts and club appearances by former finalists and a fan fair that would involve the Convention Center. There is a tunnel between Staples Center and the Nokia that creates the opportunity for an artist to sing the national anthem before a sporting event and then walk across the way backstage. Plans also call for a tunnel from the hotels to the backstage area, allowing a performer to commute to a show on foot.
In a way, AEG, which promotes shows in addition to running venues, will be operating in a fashion similar to its key competitor, Live Nation. With the club and theater, AEG has venues for a performer at the 2,000-seat level, the 7,000-seat level and the arena level. Live Nation, with its remodeling of the Hollywood Palladium, has 1,000-2,000 seats covered by House of Blues, the Avalon and Wiltern; 4,000 capacity at the Palladium; and 6,100 at Gibson. It is a free agent when it comes to arenas.
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