'The best is yet to come,' staffers, performers, patrons say goodbye to P-Town's Art House

Editor's note: This story was changed Aug. 29 to clarify the number of Tony Awards received by Christine Ebersole. She was nominated four times and won twice.

All good things must come to an end, and in Provincetown, the age-old saying is coming true as the Art House Theater prepares to close its doors after 17 years on Commerical Street.

After receiving a sublease with a Nov. 1 expiration date from landlords Bobby Lymbertos and Bena Jashari-Lymbertos, Mark Cortale knew the end was near.

“I saw the writing on the wall, and I am leaving the Art House from a place of incredible gratitude,” said Cortale, producing artistic director of the Art House, which is attached to the 1620 Brewhouse. “It's truly been the best 12 years of my life and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity. It's been such an incredible journey and the support that I have gotten from the community, the audiences and the artists who keep coming back year after year has been more than I've ever dreamt would be possible.”

The building both the Art House and 1620 Brewhouse occupy is owned by Ben DeRuyter, but after many years of owning and operating and some failed attempts to convert the space into a brewery and performing arts center, he leased the building to the Lymbertos in 2022, according to Cortale.

'Best programming that I could do.'

With a final season on the horizon, Cortale wanted to "go out with a bang."

“I did the best programming that I could do this summer,” he said. “About a week ago, the Callaway Sisters were here and Ann Hampton Callaway made a thank you speech from the stage during her show … She was quoting a famous song, but it meant the world to me, she said that she knew the best was yet to come for me.”

Plans for the space following Nov. 1 have not been announced, but according to Cortale, it could be converted into a nightclub.

DeRuyter did not respond for comment on this story. When asked by the Times about the Art House, Bobby Lymbertos said he only oversees the Brewhouse, and the Art House is leased by DeRuyter, which Cortale denies.

Formerly the New Art Cinema, the Art House opened in 2006 with Curt Richardson as programming artistic director. Richardson left the theater in 2008 resulting in DeRuyter taking charge of programming until 2011 when Cortale took over the role.

Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Marilyn Maye: Stars of the Art House

“I will be forever grateful to Ben for trusting me and giving me the opportunity to run the Art House,” Cortale said. “It completely changed my life."

During Cortale's first season, the Art House hosted four-time Tony Award nominee and two-time winner Christine Ebersole, among other stars, during Carnival weekend, selling out three Ebersole shows. This weekend helped kickstart the flocks of famed, award-winning stars the theater would host in the years following.

“It really was a magical weekend and it opened the door to people like Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster and Chita Rivera, who all came the next year,” Cortale said. “All of the artists since that weekend of 2011 … it's been one extraordinary night after the next.”

Of all the returning talent, one name stands out amongst them: Marilyn Maye. Maye, a 95-year-old American Songbook singer, began performing at the Art House in 2011.

"To come up here is happiness," Maye said.

"There's lots of love in those walls," she continued. "With their applause and their love of our music ... That theater just hugs you. It’s very warm and very conducive to an audience being totally with you and zeroed in on what you do.”

During vacations to Provincetown, her “happiness place,” Maye would sit in the Art House and fantasize about performing in the intimate space, a dream that she made reality.

“I did say to my lawyer (who) I visited up here ‘I want to work this room. It's a wonderful, wonderful theater. I really would love to work it because it's so personal and intimate, perfect for what I do, a very personal show lyric,'" she said. "He said ‘Oh no, they just want drag queens up here' … So low and behold, they tried it, and it was very successful the first year and we've been coming every year since that time.”

Marilyn Maye to play her last shows at the Art House Aug. 23 to Sept. 2

For Kathryn Rafter, a season ticket holder at the Art House, it was Maye who introduced her and her partner, Francie Bell, to the theater over a decade ago and it’s Maye who will help them say goodbye as she plays her last Art House shows from Aug. 23 to Sept. 2.

“We stopped in to have a drink at the bar and we were sitting next to a legend, Marilyn Maye,” Rafter said. “She was drinking a martini and she said ‘Have you been to any of these performances?’ and we're like, ‘What performance?’ And she said ‘You've got to come.’ So we went to her show and we've been hooked ever since."​​

”When Marilyn Maye tells you to do something, I guess you do it,” she joked.

In the 12 years Rafter has been a devoted Art House audience member, she's seen it all. From learning how to high kick from Chita Rivera and being privy to Megan Hilty's pregnancy announcement in 2018 to seeing Sutton Foster serenade her dog during her closing number, every show was as good as the next, she said.

“This beautiful, cute, little fluffy dog named Mabel walks down the aisle up to (Foster) on the stage and she sings her closing number ‘Maybe This Time’ only she used Mabel so she's singing to her dog. It was great. People were (giving) standing ovations but it was so unique and wonderful that she felt comfortable to do that.”

'Every seat is great'

Outside of phenomenal sound design by Shelley Jennings, technical director and sound engineer for the theater, what makes the venue so special beyond the wealth of talent is its unique intimacy.

“Every seat is great and it sets up an environment of intimacy,” Rafter said. “I don't know how Mark has done it, but that staff is extraordinary. You feel like you're part of it. You're welcome by family or friends.”

For Cortale, that sense of intimacy was always at the forefront.

“The art house was the most intimate cabaret room that I could have ever imagined,” he said. “The staff that I've had these past 12 years, we were all a family. I had a rule from my very first season that in order to work at the art house you had to be sane … nice and … love great theater. I'm proud to have been able to sustain that.”

The loss of a small Provincetown venue leaves a void, Cortale said

The closing of the Art House marks a dark time for future Provincetown performers as the town loses one of its few-and-far-between small venues. With a lack of smaller venues, artists are left trying to fill up bigger spaces, such as Provincetown Town Hall, and some, Cortale said, will struggle.

“(I’m) very worried about so many of these artists,” he said. “There's going to be a real void created by the loss of the Art House. I just had a conversation with the amazing drag performer, Ginger Minj, who more or less said to me, ‘I can't come back next summer. There's not going to be a venue for me.’”

As for the performers, Maye said it's a "huge loss" due to the nature of the venue.

“I'm very upset about that room,” Maye said. “It's a loss to Provincetown because it's a wonderful venue for entertainment and certainly, as I say, the personal aspect of the theater is so perfect for the singer … The intimacy of that theater is just very unusual and valuable in the entertainment world."

For Rafter, the end of the Art House marks a loss of connection between the audience and performers.

“It's a very unique experience,” she said. “Season ticket holders, we save all year to do this. It's the best value, I think, in the world. We will miss the intimacy and we're hoping that he finds another venue that can showcase the talent. The town hall is a great venue, but it lacks intimacy. I just hope there's someone in Provincetown who has the foresight to create a theater that can host these types of shows.”

Looking toward the future, Cortale said he hopes to find a new intimate space one day, but in the interim is setting his sights on producing in the Big Apple following a sold-out run of “Days of Wine and Roses,” his first “big" off-Broadway show. He also plans on continuing to bring talent to Provincetown Town Hall and bringing playwrights, lyrics and composers to Provincetown through New Works, a developmental theater lab he co-founded.

“It was such a special place and I will miss it dearly but I'm excited about the future,” he said. “I'm not sad, it's bittersweet, but the best is yet to come.”

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Provincetown's Art House closes Nov. 1: Final shows, and what's next?