Photo by Tim Cooper

The atmosphere on T Street NW was less a Monday lunch hour and more of a sun-drenched revivalist sermon for the ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the renewal of the historic Howard Theatre more than three decades after it was shuttered.

Gospel music began filling the air just before noon, people in the crowd swayed and chanted out “Hallelujah” and “Amen.” The Rev. Sandra Butler-Truesdale, a curator of the U Street corridor’s cultural history, emceed the ceremony. She pointed to the statue of Duke Ellington that stands in front of the refurbished Howard Theatre, which opens tonight with a concert by Wale after a $29 million renovation.

“The jazz man,” she said, referring to the 20-foot steel sculpture of Ellington that sits on the block of T Street dedicated in the composer’s name, is “a feeling of coming together.”

For the elected dignitaries present, especially those who grew up in the District, the revival of the Howard Theatre was a reason to shout. “Some people thought that D.C. was back when baseball came back,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said. “D.C. is back because the Howard is back!”

Norton, and other speakers, rattled off the long list of legendary black performers who played the theater’s stage during its run from its opening in 1910 to when it closed down in 1980—Billy Taylor, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Redd Foxx, Marvin Gaye and the Supremes, to name several. Gaye, the Washington native, was invoked several times, first when Norton reminded the crowd of her longrunning feud with the rest of Congress for D.C. budget autonomy.

“I’d give the GOP a little Marvin—’What’s Going On’,” she said. “Give them a little James Brown—’Please, Please Please’.”

Photo by Tim Cooper

Mayor Vince Gray sort of upped the ante, unable to restrain his excitement for the restored venue.

“I think the Marvin we ought to be talking about is ‘Let’s Get it On’,” Gray said. “Reminds me of being so proud to grow up in D.C.”

Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), said the taxpayer money put up to pay for the year-and-a-half-long renovation was a “great use of our money.”

Still, whether the District can be a prosperous steward of such a thoroughly overhauled and publicly beloved venue—the longtime jewel box of the LeDroit neighborhood’s heyday as “Black Broadway”—remains to be seen. An essay in the City Paper last week recommended that if anything, now that the remodeling is done, the District ought to farm out the day-to-day operations of running a theater such as booking, promotions and concessions.

But Monday’s ribbon-cutting was for civic pride and urban restoration. After the oversized novelty scissors were put away, a band blasted hot jazz sounds from a stage opposite the theater. Some peopled danced, others lined up for tours.

“Is this a fantabulous day?” Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) asked the crowd.