Anaheim Venue’s Latest Setback : ConcertsPoor sales for a show mean another cancellation instead of revival at Freedman Forum.

A Christian pop-rock concert was to herald the revival of Anaheim’s Freedman Forum Concert Theater. Trouble is, one day before Saturday’s benefit, the show was canceled, one more in a long string of scrapped dates at the 2,500-seat venue formerly know as the Celebrity Theatre.

Promoter Joe Pastorelli blamed it on sluggish ticket sales and a dearth of promotion and publicity for the concert. He and others insist that the perpetually troubled venue has a future on the Orange County concert scene despite increased competition coming in the form of the neighboring Sun Theatre, which opens this week and has booked a number of shows through the end of the year.

The Celebrity Theatre once generated as much as $350,000 in rental income annually for its owner, the Leo Freedman Foundation. It was a thriving pop venue in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but went vacant in the face of management problems and competition from other nearby venues.

Richard Stern, who now rents the theater on a show-by-show basis, said that despite the latest cancellation, he was moving ahead with plans to “revitalize the venue.”

“It should be a multifaceted facility that’s continually in operation,” said Stern, whose brother, Ellis, is a trustee of the foundation, which owns the Freedman Forum and was looking to sell it as recently as December. “It’s silly that it’s not being used better and more often.”

Stern said he merely leases the building and has no control over the acts or the promotion. But he said there are several proposals in the works for upcoming shows. “We have nothing in writing yet, but we’re hopeful we can get things turned around.”

Saturday’s five-act bill was to be headlined by Out of the Grey, the husband-wife duo of Scott and Christine Dente. Also slated were Julie Turner & Ray Midlider, the Celebrate Recovery Band, Broken Walls and the Rock Harbor Band--all affiliated with Orange County religious organizations. The show was organized to raise money for battered women and children’s support programs administered by Mariners Church in Newport Beach.

Pastorelli, who’s also a member of the local rock group White Lies, said he was forced to cancel the concert when advance ticket sales stalled at around 250. About 200 of those tickets were sold directly by the band members themselves, who are members of, in addition to Mariners, Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Canyon Church in Mission Viejo and Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa.

Asked if booking the event at the Freedman Forum was ill-advised, Pastorelli paused but stood by his choice. “Looking back, we probably could have held it on the grounds of the Mariners Church, but I wanted to present it at a venue not directly tied to any of the participating denominations.

“Plus, I think members of the public who were nonbelievers, so to speak, wouldn’t have their guard up as high going to a nonreligious venue.”

Previous canceled gigs include Echo & the Bunnymen, the Spinners and Pat Benatar. Although veteran pop-rocker Benatar has now canceled three engagements (including two promoted by Pastorelli--the first at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in June and an Aug. 22 make-up date at the Freedman), Pastorelli said he’s optimistic that she’ll appear early next year.

“She’s committed now to playing the Freedman during either the second or third week of January,” he said. White Lies “will be the opening act, and the financial rewards look very good for us. . . . Benatar is the key to getting the venue back on track. When other bands see that she finally will have played there, they’ll become interested again themselves.”

But if the long-dormant Freedman needed any more bad news, the new Sun Theatre makes its debut with a free performance by local pop-rock band Psychic Rain on Tuesday. A sold-out show by veteran rockers Styx officially gets things underway Thursday. (A second Styx date has been added Saturday.)

The 1,200-capacity venue, also in Anaheim, already has scheduled 10 more acts, including Dwight Yoakam, Squeeze, Ozomatli and Lucinda Williams, among others.

Stern contends the Freedman Forum can rise from the ashes again despite having to compete for artists with the Sun’s Ken Phebus--the Goliath of Orange County talent buyers.

“Because of Disneyland and the local pro sports teams, Anaheim is a destination location, and I think there’s a tremendous demand for good theater and music here,” Stern said. “We’re trying to fill a niche that very few venues have. The Sun Theatre is less than half our size, and I don’t believe they’ll have that much impact on what we’re doing--or should be doing.”

Phebus, who booked acts at the Galaxy Concert Theatre and Coach House before accepting his new position, says he isn’t concerned.

“I’m so aggressive in what I do that I’m really blind to competition. . . . I honestly don’t think about it all that much,” he said.