Largo Primps For Its Closeups

Largo, one of my favorite venues since it opened in 1992 and was booking acts like the Wild Colonials and Love Jones, will shutter its 120-seat Fairfax Avenue location after a final comedy show Monday and open June 2 at the Coronet Theater space on La Cienega. Aimee Mann, who will release an album June 3, will be the first performer.
Move is motivated by wanting to get away from the bar business and having more space.
“You get tired of turning people away,” Largo owner Mark Flanagan said while we toured the new space Wednesday afternoon. The news has been out there for a little while, but the renovations taking place in the two performance spaces make it clear this will quickly become a reality.
Since Flanagan took over as sole owner in 1996, Largo has been known as a haven for singer-songwriters, such as Fiona Apple, Grant Lee Phillips and Nellie McKay, as well as comedians.
The Coronet has been a legit theater since it was built in the mid-1940s and once housed the West Coast offices of Rodgers & Hammerstein. The bar space next door, the former Coronet Pub, is slated for renovation and reopening as well.
New venue boasts two performances spaces — a 280-seat theater and a smaller room that can accommodate up to 70 — as well as a lobby space and a courtyard. The stage from Largo will be placed in the Little Room as it is being called. Unlike the current venue, it will not serve food beyond pastries and gelato and will only have a beer and wine license for the smaller room. Tickets will be sold as they are now, via a phone reservation system, and through a box office that is expected to be open in the afternoons.
“Different is good,” said Jon Brion, the composer-performer whose Friday-night residency, which has lasted 12 years, will continue in the new home dubbed Largo at the Coronet. “Here it is obvious that (the evening) is about the performance. It will be more focused.”
Coincidentally, as the doors on the original Largo are closing, a documentary on the venue will be starting to make the festival rounds. “Largo” has been accepted at the Los Angeles Film Festival — screening June 22 —  and the Times BFI London Film Festival.
The trailer: