Freedman Forum Set to Reopen

ANAHEIM — The Freedman Forum will reopen June 28, with a new group of operators trying to succeed where others have failed in a 2,500-seat venue geared for pop music and comedy.

Roger Shepherd, a veteran Southern California concert promoter, will be in charge of bookings and day-to-day management for the new theater operator, Anaheim Entertainment Group.

Rooting for its success are Anaheim city officials, who see the theater as a significant chip on the downtown area’s economic grid, and the Leo Freedman Foundation, a charitable trust that owns the building and would channel rents from a successful operation into its annual donations to Orange County cultural organizations.

The theater, at 201 E. Broadway, enjoyed success starting in 1987 as the Celebrity Theatre, but its operator ran into financial difficulties after 1992 and closed in 1994. New operators with little experience in the concert business tried to revive the building in 1996 but gave up after staging just seven concerts in a little more than two months.

Initial bookings under the new operator include comedians Carrot Top and George Carlin, country singer Tanya Tucker and a soul music revue with the Stylistics.

During the 1970s and early ‘80s, Shepherd was a founding partner in Avalon Attractions, a major Southland promoter. He later booked concerts for Nederlander and ran his own company, Pacificoncerts.

Speaking Wednesday from his office in Brentwood, Shepherd said he is not daunted by the facility’s recent difficulties.

Competition is expected from the 1,850-seat Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, which severely cut into the old Celebrity’s programming when it opened in 1993, as well as from the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, two sister venues that dominate club-level pop bookings in Orange County and regularly seek to place theater-scale attractions in smaller surroundings seating about 500 fans.

“There’s enough to go around,” said Shepherd, who, booked a Guns N’ Roses show into the old Celebrity Theatre in the late ‘80s. “This size venue exists in every major market. Anaheim is a major market and deserves to have an accessible, well-run theater.”

Shepherd said that he and a consortium of financial backers hope to stage at least eight shows a month at the Freedman Forum--both in-house bookings and rentals by outside promoters who want to use the venue. He anticipates “a full spectrum of rock, comedy, country, middle-of-the-road, some children’s shows and community events” such as seminars and graduations.

In its brief ’96 incarnation, the Freedman Forum was booked by promoters at the House of Blues, who said that it was difficult to persuade rock acts to perform in-the-round on a rotating stage. Shepherd said the theater will be scaled to 1,600 seats for acts that don’t want to sing while spinning.

“We see artists like Tom Petty [and John Mellencamp] scaling down their shows to be more intimate,” Shepherd said. “People want value for money; they don’t want to sit 100 yards from the stage.”

Richard Bruckner, who oversees downtown development for the city of Anaheim, said he is hopeful that the new operators will make a go of their venture and bring a steady stream of after-dark visitors to the area near City Hall.

The first batch of bookings announced are Carrot Top, June 28; Carlin, Sept. 20; Tucker, Oct. 31 and the Stylistics, Cuba Gooding & the Main Ingredient, the Delfonics and Major Harris, Nov. 16. Information: (714) 999-5485.