On South Eola, an Abbey Road

On South Eola, an Abbey Road

They’ve broken ground – finally – on the downtown performing arts center. Just keep in mind that there are still about three years until Phase One is finished. Phase One!

But at least, in the meantime, we have The Abbey, a new performance space at the corner of Pine Street and South Eola Drive in downtown Orlando.  It holds about 250 people in comfortable theater seats, somewhat fewer than that when it’s arranged, cabaret-style, with tables and chairs.

No, you won’t be seeing a full-scale production of Les Mis in this 7,500-square-foot room. But it’s nicely scaled for more modest theater pieces, as well as for various music, dance, film and comedy productions.

Co-owned by the Florida Theatrical Association, which brings us those big Broadway touring shows, and True Marketing, an imaginative local public-relations outfit, The Abbey offers live music Wednesday through Saturday nights, plus a range of special events.

Next month it will offer a musical called Broadway on the Rocks, from New York’s Big League Productions, about actors who meet at their favorite after-hours watering hole to talk shop and life. The action will increase in coming months, with multiple performances by the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Ballet and Central Florida Jazz Society, among others.

Eventually, The Abbey’s owners hope that it will also become a sort of ongoing Fringe Festival, featuring some of the 50 or so local arts organizations that don’t have permanent homes.

“This year, we were approached by many of the Fringe people to do their shows afterwards,” says Ron Legler, president and CEO of the Florida Theatrical Association. That didn’t quite work out because The Abbey had just opened and the technical systems were still being tweaked. But things are changing fast.

One of the first questions people ask about The Abbey is why it’s called that. Although the venue has no religious affiliation, its name plays off the spiritual implications of The Sanctuary, the building in which the small theater is housed. And in case you were wondering, that name, The Sanctuary, is a nod to its location, which was once the site of the city’s first synagogue.

Who knew? 

The building also contains The Mezz, The Abbey’s sister “urban event space” that plays host to weddings and such. The owners of these spaces have partnered with several existing and soon-to-open restaurants to re-brand the former South Eola District as the catchier sounding Eola Square.

As I entered The Abbey’s long, rectangular space on a recent visit, the first thing I saw was an attractive bar, adorned by nine cylindrical mini-chandeliers. Moving toward the raised stage, I passed a sort of lounge area, with couches and a faux fireplace, and then the main seating area. The room is primarily basic black, although, in keeping with the quasi-spiritual theme, there’s a stained-glass-style ceiling above the lounge area with bright, constantly shifting colors.

This new venue is paving the way for the long-overdue Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts by providing a place where shows and performers of all sorts can get a foothold downtown. “We really want to be known as an incubator,” Legler told me.

Can’t wait to see what hatches. Visit abbeyorlando.com for more information.

- Jay Boyar