New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘SELLING THE DREAM’
A new vision, a new owner needed for Lyric Hall
In the 13 years since John Cavaliere defied some of his friends’ warnings and bought a rundown antiques store on Whalley Avenue in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven, he has restored a historic theater there, taken up residence on a couch in the balcony and welcomed thousands of people into his home for eclectic performances.
But now the place he transformed into a pleasure palace for himself and the public is for sale. Cavaliere, perhaps inevitably, can’t afford to keep it all going.
“I never thought I’d be selling ‘the dream,’ ” he said. “I’ve worked so hard on this place.”
When you walk through it, you could
easily imagine you have entered a small museum or grand old historic home. The furniture fixtures, almost all of them restored by Cavaliere, are mixed with fine paintings mounted on the walls. And then at the back of this you come upon the theater, replete with velvet curtains, an ornate white tin ceiling and a proscenium topping the small stage with gold laurel wreaths. This was originally the Westville Theater, also known as the West Rock Theater, showing silent films from 1913-16. For nearly a century, until Cavaliere brought it back to life, it had sat as silent as those old movies.
I have been chronicling Cavaliere’s endeavors since January 2006, when he moved his Lyric Hall Antiques & Restoration across town from State Street to Westville. Like his friends and some business-minded people in New Haven, I wondered whether he could pull off such an amibitious project.
But as he told me way back in 2006, “When people say, ‘You can’t do it,’ I see red. I like a challenge.”
Cavaliere has devoted his life to that building ever since . “This place has owned me since I was 41,” he remarked when I visited him there last Wednesday afternoon. “But the universe has told me it’s time to work on something new. Somebody else should take the torch.”
He is not sure what the something new will be and financial realities have forced him to pass that “torch.” As I reported four years ago, he started running into serious trouble at that time when the property was revaluated and his taxes doubled to about $8,000. But his network of friends and supporters helped him keep the doors open.
The killer blow came recently when New Haven Health Department inspector Roslyn Hamilton informed him Connecticut has adopted the national FDA Food Code, requiring businesses serving food to abide by stricter regulations. These new rules would force Cavaliere to spend at least $60,000 to modernize his kitchen. (His current “warming” kitchen has a 1936 refigerator and a 1928 oven.)
When he got this news, Cavaliere at first thought it was “the push I needed. I was really excited. I hired a kitchen designer and an architect. Then one morning I woke up and said: ‘I’m about to own a restaurant! How can I possibly deliver my welcoming hospitality and do right in the gustatory sense?’”
For Cavaliere, Lyric Hall is all about hospitality. “When people walk in the door, they feel at home; they want to come back. When you make people feel welcome, in a warm, cozy setting, things happen.”
These high standards were what made Cavaliere decide not to go through with the restaurant. “If I was going to serve food, I wanted it to be the very best food. My neighbors have dubbed me ‘The Accidental Impresario.’ But ‘The Accidental Restaurateur’? No, thank you. If I’m frayed and frazzled, I couldn’t do a good job. This place has been successful because of the simplicity of it.”
In addition to his passion and drive, Cavaliere attributes his successful run to “my many friends and neighbors who have encouraged me. I could never have done this alone.”
Meg Friedman, who moved to Westville in spring 2017 with her husband, reacalled the day she discovered Lyric Hall. “We had just closed on our house, two blocks away. We went for a walk and came in there; I said, ‘Oh my gosh! Here is this beautiful theater two blocks from where we’re going to live!’ ”
A year later, she told her aunt, the filmmaker Hansi Oppenheimer, “There’s a delightful theater near me which would be a good venue for your work.” And so last December, Oppenheimer’s “fangirl” films were screened there, accompanied by karaoke singing and panel discussions.
Asked her reaction to Lyric Hall being put on the market, Friedman said, “I wish I had a half a million dollars lying around. (The asking price is $550,000.) As a neighbor and a fan of having this lively, unique asset, I hope the next owner and operator is as thoughtful and enthusiastic as John. New Haven has so many unique performing arts organizations. It’d be a shame if some combination of them didn’t take over the space.”
Cavaliere is thinking along the same lines as he envisions the next owner. “I’m telling my friends: ‘Listen, this could be the best thing to happen here if we attract the right buyer with the vision and resources. Connecticut is such a rich place; why can’t a person with that vision come forward? How about a nonprofit or a foundation?”
When Cavaliere and I walked around the intimate theater, which has 60 seats, he reminisced about the varied acts performed on that stage. “We went from chamber music to jazz, poetry, hip-hop, burlesque, cabaret, circus and drag shows.” I told him I was there the night he screened a 1927 silent film called “The Unknown,” about a circus performer known as “The Armless Wonder,” played by Lon Chaney. Joan Crawford was his co-star. There was a live musical accompaniment.
And the shows go on: a “Wizard Rock” show is booked for Jan. 11, featuring Harry Potter-inspired music by Draco and the Malfoys, Ludo Bagman and the Trash as well as Ashley Trix and the WZRDS. It’s tied into the release of a new album by “wizard rocker” Ashley Hamel.
Cavaliere agreed to take me up to the balcony and show me where he lives, He’s got a couch up there and a portable heater. “I live a kind of ascetic existence but I love it. I get to read at all hours! It’s my home theater,” he said, looking at the chandelier and lit stage.
Cavaliere has plenty of stories about what has gone on at his theater. Perhaps the best one is what happened the night of May 6, 2012, when the actress Celeste Holm came to Lyric Hall for a screening of the documentary “Broads,” about tough and venerable Hollywood women.
“She was celebrating her 95th birthday and came here in a wheelchair,” Cavaliere said. “But she was still glamorous, warm and lovely. She went into our bathroom, locked herself in and became very disoriented. She couldn’t get out and was calling for help. I didn’t have a key, so we tried to pry the door open. We told her, ‘Celeste, just turn the lock.’ She was still stuck, so I took off my blazer and I gently cracked open the side window. She looked kind of terrified. I said, ‘Celeste, I’m here to rescue you.’ I have friends who, to this day, can’t believe they hung out here with Celeste Holm.”
What will Cavaliere do with the rest of his life when Lyric Hall is sold? Where will he live? He smiled and said, “I’m reveling in all the options. My life has been regimented for so long. Now I feel like I’m going AWOL and I really like it.”
He looked around. “This entire place is a set piece and I’ve set the stage. It’s time for other people to be on that stage.”