Note: Authored by David Menconi, this piece has been produced in partnership with Raleigh Arts. Menconi's latest book, "Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk," was published in 2020 by University of North Carolina Press, and his podcast, Carolina Calling, explores the history of the Tar Heel State through music.
Raleigh’s Rialto Theatre has stood dark for nearly a year, since longtime owner Bill Peebles' retirement in August of 2022. But the venerable theater, long a Raleigh institution, should begin stirring back to life this summer.
The Rialto’s new owner is Hayes Permar, a 45-year-old Raleigh native. While he’s never run a theater, Permar is already well-known to area audiences as a local sports reporter, broadcaster and podcaster, as well as P.A. announcer for the Carolina Mudcats minor-league baseball team over in Zebulon. But he's given all that up to devote his full-time energy to running the Rialto.
“I think of our niche as gatherings where the point is getting together as much as whatever it is you’re gathering for,” Permar says. “That’s important in a post-pandemic world. Perfect example would be if the (Carolina Hurricanes) were playing in the Stanley Cup finals, I could put ‘Canes 8:00’ on the marquee, and a couple hundred people would be in here to watch on the big screen. I won’t be trying to 'sportsify' the place. But with events that everybody around here would be watching on TV anyway, it would be cool to come watch it together.”
The Rialto has stood as an entertainment venue at 1620 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood—just around the corner from other Raleigh icons including Hayes Barton Cafe & Dessertery, Lilly's Pizza and Bloomsbury Bistro—under various names since 1936 when it first opened inside a converted grocery store. After Peebles took it over in the early 1990s, the Rialto became the city’s premier art-house cinema with movies and concerts (it was also ahead of the curve on movie theaters selling beer).
Permar remembers seeing everything from Red Clay Ramblers concerts to foreign films like “My Life As A Dog” and mainstream blockbusters at the Rialto while growing up. He was also a regular attendee of late-night screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” a longtime Rialto tradition.
With brainstorming help from teams of friends in advisory roles, Permar is putting together ideas for how to bring the Rialto back as a full-time concern. Figuring out how best to position the Rialto in a market that also has an Alamo Drafthouse and online streaming will be a challenge.
Current plans call for the Rialto to ease back with some soft-open private events such as birthday parties later this month. Movies should start showing up onscreen around July, with concerts tentatively planned for the fall.
The 550-seat seating area will remain with the same configuration and capacity. While there are no plans for major remodeling, Permar says the live-performance sound system is getting upgraded, and he’d also like to “freshen up” the lobby and exterior.
“There are plans, projects and visions for what I want to do,” Permar says. “If we come at this from the angle of keeping the Rialto’s spirit alive and cultivating it as a creative place where you can make cool things happen, something will blossom. That’s where we’re at right now. Bill (Peebles) defined it as a movie art house the last 25 years. But ‘Rocky Horror’ didn’t draw the same crowd as ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ or a Connells show. I see it more as a neighborhood gathering spot than art house.”
During the Rialto’s absence, there were fears that it would never reopen. That was a big reason why news of its reopening was greeted so enthusiastically across social media, with fans exchanging stories and giving encouragement to Permar.
“It was never gonna be turned into luxury apartments, which is always the fear when some place you love goes dark,” says Permar. “But I don’t see myself as ‘saving’ the Rialto, or as a preservationist. Some things come and go with growth and people coming in, but it’s important to hold onto some things like the PR (Players Retreat, a local favorite burger and beer joint) and the Rialto. I don’t want Raleigh to be frozen as a museum, but you can grow smartly as you push forward.”
The Rialto is located at 1620 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. You can follow Hayes Permar on Twitter or Facebook to stay plugged in to the next steps for the theater this summer.
Header photo courtesy of Hayes Permar/The Rialto Theatre
