With the recent temporary closure of Thalia Mara Hall, residents will have to wait and see if the City of Jackson can make the appropriate fixes to the venue in time for an upcoming performance by comedian Kevin Hart.
Arden Barnett, the owner of Ardenland, the company hired to book shows at Thalia Mara Hall, said as of Tuesday afternoon Hart’s performance is still booked for Sept. 22, but “it’s all dependent on the building and what happens there.”
“Until we get clearance from the building on what the schedule is for reopening, then everything is just staying the way it is right now,” Barnett said on Tuesday.
Hart, one of the world’s most famous comedians, was originally supposed to perform at Thalia Mara in May, but that show was rescheduled. His two shows will now be on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Singer and guitarist Joe Bonamassa was scheduled to perform at Thalia Mara on Aug. 10, but that show has been moved to the Mississippi Coliseum, Barnett said.
Mike Williams, the city’s deputy director of the Department of Human and Cultural Services, said there is no definite timeline of when Thalia Mara will be ready, but “we are working on it very expediently and treating it very urgently.”
Last week, the historic downtown venue unexpectedly closed for an unknown amount of time due to the findings of “microbial activity” caused by a malfunctioning HVAC. The announcement came two days after Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said “expertise that we have received, they said we should be able to keep Thalia Mara Hall opened and operating for the short term.”
On Monday, Lumumba and Mike Williams, Jackson’s deputy director of the Department of Human and Cultural Services, fielded more questions from reporters about the venue, including if it would be ready to go in time for Hart’s performance.
“That is our sincere hope, and that is the belief of our performance partners, but of course we have to make sure we ensure the safety of everyone involved and that will be dependent upon the outcomes of our engineer’s reports,” Williams said.
“I certainly hope so,” Lumumba said. “I plan on being there.”
Williams said the remediation team hired by the city didn’t describe the findings as “mold” but “early stage microbial growth.”
The mayor added he thought the situation is “a bit of a hair-on-fire” that made it seem like “Thalia Mara Hall was not a facility conducive for use, and I don’t think that is actually the true facts of the circumstance.”
“To be clear, the microbial growth, this isn’t something that has been moving or has been growing for months and months on end,” Lumumba said. “What happened is that the weekend before the growth was noticed, there was a malfunction with the air conditioning unit … that led to the conditions being conducive for that growth.”
The mayor said Williams and his team immediately responded when the “microbial activity” was found.
“We live in Jackson, Mississippi, so I am certain that everybody is familiar in their own homes of air conditioning units going out,” Lumumba said. “You might be surprised, but the same thing happens for a facility like Thalia Mara Hall.”
Lumumba previously stated the air conditioning has been “operating at a reduced capacity” for about 12 years. And on Monday he explained the facility frequently uses chillers to supplement the air conditioning unit when hosting performances.
“This is not something that we’re unfamiliar with, nobody was asleep at the wheel,” he said. “This is something that they prepare for in the events that they put forth. Unfortunately, a weekend ago, there was an additional malfunction and accordingly they responded and, as Mike said, there are additional plans to address the long-term needs of that HVAC system, along with other things within Thalia Mara Hall.”
The city is in partnership with Johnson Controls, a building technology, software and services company, to replace the HVAC, a plan that has been in place “for some months now,” Williams said.
