DATE: Thursday, October 9, 1997             TAG: 9710090001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

VIRGINIA MUSICAL THEATER BACK THIS YOUNG STAR

The American musical is a national treasure. The Virginia Musical Theater, a not-for-profit enterprise lodged at the 960-seat Virginia Beach Pavilion auditorium, plucks gems from the treasury, polishes them and lays them before an expanding number of fans living in Hampton Roads and beyond. VMT merits robust financial support, especially from Virginia Beach residents and businesses but also from corporate, foundation and individual donors to the arts throughout Hampton Roads.

Like Virginia Opera and Virginia Stage Company, VMT is a regional asset. Like the opera and the stage company, it imports Actors' Equity performers for leading roles while also employing locally based actors, musicians, technicians and stagehands, all of whom are paid.

Despite scant publicity during its first six seasons (when its name was Commonwealth Musical Stage), VMT has increased season-subscription sales from 359 in 1991-92 to more than 2,000 this season and its performances per production from two to eight, plus two more for schoolchildren from throughout Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore and Northeastern North Carolina.

Subscriptions seem destined to continue growing. Virginian-Pilot entertainment writer Mal Vincent's profile of producing director Jeff Meredith (Daily Break, Oct. 1) raised VMT's visibility considerably, leading to a sellout of the opening-night performance of ``South Pacific,'' by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and strong sales of tickets for this weekend's four performances. When the curtain came down on the first performance last Friday, the full house responded with a standing ovation.

VMT is the sole year-round professional musical theater in Virginia. It mounts five productions each season. The VMT administrative staff couldn't be leaner - three full-time workers. Seventy percent of VMT's $500,000 budget is underwritten by ticket sales - a remarkable feat for a nonprofit arts group.

VMT has established a case for greater funding from the Business Consortium for the Arts, which currently allocates $3,000 to the company, continued increases in funding from the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission, which allocates $35,000 - and substantially more help from affluent Beach residents disposed to nurture the best arts and cultural institutions in their resort city. The Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival, which properly insists on high-quality performances, should include VMT productions among its major festival events. (VMT is staging Andrew Lloyd Webber's ``Evita'' when the second annual festival takes place next spring).

Virginia Opera, Virginia Symphony and Virginia Stage Company are Hampton Roads' Big Three performing-arts organizations, rightly commanding the lion's share of donated dollars. But Virginia Musical Theater is demonstrating the same commitment to excellence as the Big Three, and, like them, delivering it. Attention must be paid.

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