BY BO EMERSON
Steve Harris, owner of the Variety Playhouse for 25 years, has entertained a generation of Atlantans, staging concerts by the likes of Adele and Elvis Costello and (returning on Friday) Leo Kottke.
Now Harris is entertaining the idea of selling. He said this week he’s received an offer for the business and that a decision would be reached by the first of November.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “They don’t have a lease worked out.”
Harris wouldn’t comment on the source of the offer. “I signed all sorts of non-disclosure stuff,” he said.
Stomp and Stammer, the free monthly music news publication, reported that Agon Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Georgia Theatre in Athens and two minor league baseball teams, had bought the Variety as of Oct. 1.
Not true said Harris. Any deal wouldn't take place until November, he said.
The agreement with a seller, if it is reached, would mean that Harris would stay on for "at least" a year to help manage the business, he said.
He could stay longer, "depending how it goes. If I can stomach working for somebody. I don’t play well with others, as Wendy likes to say," meaning his wife, Wendy Weeks.
As to whether the deal will go through, "I’m not counting on this happening."
A spokesman for Agon was not immediately available.
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