The entrance to Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.

Stephen Habl likes talking to the cabbies parked outside the Renaissance Providence Hotel, the new lodgings carved from the once-derelict Masonic Temple across the street from the State House. Habl is general manager of neighboring Veterans Memorial Auditorium and he likes touting the theater.

But the cabbies tell him they haven’t been in the building since their high school graduation decades ago.

“We’ve got to change that,” said Habl, a burly man with an easy demeanor who once managed the Warwick Musical Theater and has booked acts for the Twin River slot parlor.

“What we want to do is bring in shows people want to see. We want to do kids’ shows, family shows, something for everyone.”

Habl came on board as manager of the auditorium in September, about a month after the State Properties Committee transferred the lease of the state-owned building to the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, which oversees the convention center and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The RICCA, in turn, hired Professional Facilities Management, the group that runs the Providence Performing Arts Center and nine other theaters across the country, to do the marketing, bookings and box office for the hall. The agreement is for a year.

Because the venue isn’t suited for monster truck rallies and other shows that frequent the Dunk, the Convention Center Authority wanted to bring in an organization with expertise in the performing arts to run the show, said Habl, who is an employee of Professional Facilities Management.

An acoustical gem with just over 1,900 seats, it serves as home to the Rhode Island Philharmonic, which performs there about once a month during the September-to-June season. Festival Ballet Providence puts on three shows there each year.

But outside of those acts and the occasional concert and high school graduation, the hall has been underutilized.

Habl hopes to change all that, not just by renting the facility to arts groups and touring acts but by producing shows, something the previous management shied away from. For instance, it is bringing in the popular new-age orchestra Mannheim Steamroller for a Christmas concert Dec. 3. Rather than rent the space to the group, Habl has purchased the show and will thus be taking all the risks. If it makes money, he’ll be sitting pretty.

“It’s not a theater,” he said, “unless there are people in the seats and someone on stage. We want to keep the doors open and the lights on.”

Construction on Veterans Memorial Auditorium was started by the Masons in the late 1920s as part of a failed complex doomed by the financial woes of the Great Depression. The state took over the hall around 1950 and did extensive renovations to it. In recent years, it has been leased to a foundation charged with raising money to pay for its operation. The state was to turn over ownership to the foundation last July, but began to question the plan, doubting the foundation’s ability to raise enough to operate and expand use of the hall, which has been running a $300,000 annual deficit.

Lynn Singleton, president of PPAC and Professional Facilities Management, said it’s unlikely Veterans will ever make money, unless it jacks up rents for local arts groups, something it does not intend to do. But he said he expects to reduce the deficit by about $100,000 a year. For one thing, the new management has cut the staff from six to three, he said. Things like marketing and tickets sales are handled by the PPAC staff.

Is there enough happening in Providence, though, to warrant another performing arts complex? Habl thinks so.

He said the venue will never compete with PPAC or the Dunk. It will serve more to complement those two houses. It’s not suited for sprawling Broadway shows, for example, PPAC’s bread and butter. But it could book stand-up comics, concerts and smaller shows such as Nunsense, he said.

In the past, Mannheim Steamroller might have played PPAC. But the arts complex is busy that week with the kickoff of the national tour of Grease. So Veterans was a natural alternative.

Habl said he is counting on the booking power of the Convention Center Authority and Professional Facilities Management to send shows his way when they don’t fit those larger venues. The Convention Center Authority also provides backup in case of emergency. When crews were preparing for the recent sold-out concert commemorating Kristallnacht, the night the Nazis unleashed terror on the Jews of Germany and Austria, the sound system was not working. Habl put in a call to the convention center and got hold of a master electrician who solved the problem in a half-hour.

Habl is also getting a fair amount of business from the Renaissance Providence Hotel, which is connected to the auditorium via an atrium. Groups such as a window distributing company have used the building to put on presentations. The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities also held a gala on the stage, and the day before Election Day, immigrants gathered in the hall to be sworn in as new U.S. citizens.

Right now Habl is looking at renting it to a religious group in 2010 that wants to hold a service there.

“I think it would be a great church,” he said.

One of the big challenges facing the auditorium, though, is improving the dressing area and installing a loading dock at stage level, which is a full story above the street. At this point, shows are hefted onto the stage by a six-ton winch that travels along a steel beam, a time-consuming process. Another problem is that there are no showers in the dressing area and just one bathroom. The sinks have spring-loaded faucets so that it becomes cumbersome for performers to remove makeup, as they try to keep the water flowing with one hand and scrub their cheeks and forehead with the other.

Without more up-to-date amenities, it can’t be competitive with other facilities, said Habl.

“The problem with the bad halls is that once that word gets out, you can’t take a shower or unload a truck — people don’t come back,” he said. Habl was not certain what it would cost to renovate the dressing area, but the foundation that ran the building in the past estimated the price tag for the improvements at $5 million. Perhaps the state would issue a bond to cover the renovations, Habl said.

But the other big challenge, said Singleton, is to get the public to frequent the venerable venue. Outside of subscribers to the Philharmonic and fans of the ballet, most people “don’t have a clue” where it is or where to park when they get there, he said. (A couple of nearby state-owned parking lots are usually available to patrons.)

At this point there aren’t a lot of public events booked. An increase in shows will take a while, said Habl.

Besides Mannheim Steamroller on Dec. 3, the Providence Singers and the Rhode Island Philharmonic have booked it for a performance of Handel’s Messiah Dec. 20. Festival Ballet will appear there in February.

Habl said he is also talking with a couple of national acts that might play there during the winter.

While it will always be first and foremost a home for the state’s nonprofit arts groups and a place for civic events, Habl also wants to see a more varied mix of shows taking place there, acts that appeal to people of all tastes. “Rhode Islanders own this building,” he said. “I want to see them use it.”

cgray@projo.com