What about downtown?

Scaffolding is going up for a fix-up job at one of the region’s primary performing-arts venues—but not where such a project had been expected.

This summer was supposed to see the start of the much-needed modernization of the Sacramento Community Center Theater, which is nearing its 40th anniversary. The project will involve additional aisles to improve access, new seats, more restrooms, an expanded lobby, etc.

But the SCCT makeover never got started. Apparently, the paperwork got sidelined during the recent changeover in city managers (and perhaps Mayor Kevin Johnson’s singular focus on a new sports arena played a part?). The SCCT project may belatedly go before the Sacramento City Council in September, but by then, the opportunity to start the work during July and August—when the theater is lightly used—will have passed.

Instead, the construction will be at the Mondavi Center. Last week, UC Davis announced that crews will be removing all of the sandstone on the south wall of the big beige building, and repairing the waterproofing underneath. Mondavi has had nagging exterior leaks during heavy storms since year one. The general contractor that built Mondavi 10 years ago is doing the work under what the university described as “a mediated settlement,” including “a confidentiality clause preventing the parties from disclosing the terms.”

Suffice it to say that with some 50,000 tiles being replaced (a process that will extend into December), the project is costing somebody a good deal of money.

The Mondavi Center’s exterior redo is not expected to interfere with the upcoming 2011-12 season. Mondavi’s ticket sales are off to a fairly robust start. Several big-draw events are already sold out: singer-songwriter K.D. Lang, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

Ticket sales are also brisk at the Three Stages at Folsom Lake College complex, which opened earlier this year. Upcoming performances by comedian Dana Carvey and the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China are sold out. A second performance of the Irish Christmas holiday program was added as the original show nears a sellout.

Meantime, the unmodernized SCCT is trying to fill some of the dates vacated when Broadway Sacramento cut back to one-week runs for touring musicals. Unlike Mondavi and Three Stages (which host presenting programs), the SCCT does not organize a series; the hall is simply rented out. Promoters are taking some of SCCT’s open dates; comedian Ron “Tater Salad” White and ageless singer Johnny Mathis (who launched his career in the ’50s) will visit in September.

But with the much-needed modernization delayed, SCCT could find itself increasingly in something of a pickle. As patrons visit Mondavi or Three Stages—and find that those halls have better sight lines and acoustics, as well as nicer seats, easier parking and (let’s be frank) shorter queues for the restroom—audiences’ desire to head downtown may wane. There are now other alternatives. With Broadway Sacramento hosting shorter runs (even as Three Stages is adding touring musicals in Folsom), while heritage organizations like the Sacramento Philharmonic and Sacramento Opera regroup and discuss a possible merger to get through these recessionary times, and while orchestra concerts at Mondavi are selling out, any further delays in the modernization of SCCT do not bode well for the somewhat beleaguered arts groups that are still presenting performances downtown.