JUPITER, Fla. — The newly expanded theater may bring big possibilities for taking new original shows to Broadway.
Actor Lukas Poost hasn’t been acting. He has been doing odd jobs.
“[Filling] monthly subscription boxes for cocktails. It's been a very, very different change of pace,” laughed Poost.
Poost and Julie Kavanagh are actors in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and are from New York. They’ve performed at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre before.
Everything's bigger [at the Maltz]. It's bigger. There's so much more room,” said Poost.
This week, the theater showed off its 61,000-foot expansion to the public for the first time.
“It was kind of a no-brainer to wrap the back of the house around the existing building,” said the project's interior designer Inez Ferrari Garcia of Ferrari Interiors.
The theater now nearly doubled in size is a welcome relief for the actors performing in Maltz's first and last show of the season, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
“The dressing rooms were [much tighter],” remembered actor Julie Kavanagh.
“[Before,] if you weren't in a scene and wanted to watch like what your coworkers were doing, good luck with that,” remarked Poost.
The expanded backstage, wings and the fly pace all make it possible for the Maltz to create original works with the hope they make it to where the neon lights are bright.
“[A show] started at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre and then now here it is with a life of its own on Broadway and beyond,” said Kavanagh optimistically.
Broadway, for the Maltz, has been dark because of COVID and construction delays.
“[We were] building a large 61,000 square foot building on the sand,” Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director/Chief Executive Andrew Kato.
Kato said they didn't experience supply chain construction issues but engineering issues.
“We basically have a basement where the orchestra pit goes, and we'll be able to bring people up from traps come through the stage,” Kato said.
Despite show cancelations and Maltz building a “basement on the beach” (a.k.a. orchestra pit) Kato said they aren’t looking back.
“Obviously those are huge disappointments but that's in the rearview mirror. Now we're looking forward,” Kato said.
Fans hoping to see Jersey Boys, which was scheduled for Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium then canceled, have hope.
“We got the rights again, I can't believe it,” Kato said proudly.
The Tony Award®-nominated musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels runs through April 10.