New Hope's new playhouse rejuvenates the town

A good  script and a savvy thesis on tourist town renewal could be written around the comeback of the Bucks County Playhouse, staging another scene in its dramatic revival story today with a groundbreaking ceremony and live music by a cappella  sensations Vocalosity (playing the venue Friday to Oct. 2).

Thanks to Playhouse benefactors Kevin and Sherri Daugherty,  the theater  will be celebrating  the groundbreaking for a  3,750-square-foot, all-seasons addition, spanning the side of the venue that overlooks the Delaware River.  The $3 million project – slated to be finished for next summer's peak operating season - will add much-needed lobby, dining, and imbibing space that "hopefully improves the bottom line, helps the theater become more  self-sustaining," said Kevin Daugherty. [At present, ticket and ancillary incomes cover about a third of the theater's $2.9 million budget.]

The  new riverside cafe  also will be a  place "to linger for a post-show  drink  and sometimes  cabaret performances from  kids in the cast, interns and apprentices" at this historic 413-seat "straw hat" theater, resident producing director  Alexander Fraser  said recently.

These newbies could very well  turn out to be tomorrow's stars,  as the likes of Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, Tyne Daley,  Rob Reiner, and comedy script king Neil Simon all got their "start" as fledglings  at this resume-building  showcase — back in its strictly "summer stock" heyday (1940s, '50s and '60s), "when New York theater people ran away to the country playhouses, because the Broadway theaters weren't air-conditioned," noted Fraser.

This summer, he  said, the refurbished theater "broke box office records" with a star-studded production of Steel Magnolias,  also did well by the musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,  Charles Busch's The Divine Sister, and a giddy musical  debut, Cake Off, that could earn the  theater  residuals if it transfers to New York. With Bucks County Playhouse executive producer Robyn Goodman pushing  the cause from  New York, "we're working hard to bring stars and strong properties back to New Hope, year-round," Fraser said. A benefit concert starring Megan Hilty will happen off site Oct. 1 at Hortulus Farm, sponsored by the theater's audience- and fund-raising Playhouse Artists' nonprofit. The well-reviewed comedy Buyer and Cellar  – a fantasy set in Barbra Streisand's mall-like basement — is due Nov. 5 to 26.

New Hope Mayor Larry Keller also will pop in at today's  ceremony, to tout how important the  comeback  has been.  Not just as a high-profile landmark and symbol of the artsy hamlet's "Broadway-by-the-river" heritage -- also for what the playhouse means to the town's economic and emotional well-being.

Sparked  by  $6 million in donations from  the Daugherty-steered Bridge Street Foundation  in late 2011-12 that saved the bankrupt theater from the wrecking ball and literally propped up its sagging walls with new steel, the comeback in Playhouse décor, professionalism,  programming (also including a year-long theater development honoring Doylestown's Oscar Hammerstein II),  and  educational/community outreach   have "revitalized New Hope,"  said the mayor.

Playhouse staffers also run the local visitors bureau  and are steering this weekend's New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival show. They also championed  a walkway project  finally giving visitors access to the  river.

Thanks to all that, the town is "drawing new business investment … including a new Riverhouse at Odette's and Landmark Hospitality's renovations of the Logan Inn and Hotel du Village,"  Keller said. "All three projects are proof of how dedicated and committed individuals can make a positive difference in our community."

Otherwise engaged with Speyside Equity,  an investment firm that's done well buying and reviving under-performing manufacturing companies, 50-year-old "fixer-upper"-loving Kevin  Daugherty and his wife, Sherri, have also transformed a decommissioned church in adjacent Lambertville into a community arts center and rehearsal space,  have plans to restore the Playhouse Inn  adjacent to the theater, and will  soon be  turning  the shuttered Four Seasons Mall (across from the Logan Inn) into the farm-direct Ferry Market.

Sherri Daugherty also operates  a nearby women's clothing boutique called Angel Hearts.