Kevin Smith’s #SavetheRio performance is set for March 30
Kevin Smith’s date with the Rio Theatre’s destiny has been set for March 30.
Theatre operator Corrine Lea made the announcement Tuesday on Facebook. The actor/writer/comedian reached out to Lea in late January when news of the theatre’s impending sale was made public.
“We’re excited. Kevin Smith’s coming to the Rio,” Lea told the Courier Tuesday afternoon.
Ticket prices and the show’s format have yet to be confirmed. The gig is being billed as “A Night With Kevin Smith” and all proceeds will be donated to Lea’s ongoing effort to buy the theatre from current owner and former theatre magnate Leonard Schein.
Lea didn’t disclose the purchase price, but previously told the Courier it’s “significantly higher” than the land’s assessed value of $4 million.
An Indiegogo crowdfunding push will be launched Feb. 26, and the deadline to raise the necessary capital to keep the Rio as is will fall somewhere around early April.
Lea’s campaign will be bookended April 1 and 2 with a marathon telethon straight out of the 1980s, complete with rotary phones, performers and all the other bells and whistles. The show will be emceed by Rio mainstays and standup comedians Patrick Maliha and Eric Fell.
“We’re going to have every entertainer, every friend, every performer that we’ve ever had on the stage at the Rio come in and do a little something within that marathon amount of time,” Lea said.
News of the theatre’s impending sale broke in late January, though Lea knew it had been on the market since April 2017. She double downed her efforts to generate the funds shortly thereafter, and had her offer accepted by Schein on Feb. 8. She was given a 60-day window to close the deal and that timeframe ends April 7.
“Me and my other bookkeepers who are working with me, we have an insane accounting deadline,” she said. “We have to get about four months of work done in one month and there’s just no way around it. It has to get done. I feel like I’m in university getting a million papers done and studying for tests.”
Lea has fielded funding offers from all corners, though she’s waiting for the crowdfunding push to go live next week before finalizing details for potential backers.
All donations Lea collects will be put towards a model she describes as part non-profit, part community trust. Those who donate will essentially buy a share of the property, though she will become the landlord and owner of the site, and assume the mortgage and debt.
Details of the Indiegogo campaign will be released Feb. 26 on the theatre’s Facebook page, located at www.facebook.com/TheRioTheatre.
