| Westport's A Christmas Carol Reaches Out to Broadway Ticket Holders
Those possessing tickets to Broadway shows canceled by the strike can present their tickets at the Westport box office to receive $10 off admission to A Christmas Carol on the Westport stage. Theatregoers will be able to keep their Broadway tickets in case they are needed to obtain refunds from the Broadway productions. The company's artistic director Tazwell Thompson commented, "We want to keep theatre in people's lives. The Playhouse has all the production values of Broadway, yet it's nearby." Westport has an extensive history with Broadway � 35 of its productions have made Broadway transfers. Tazwell stages the Westport presentation of A Christmas Carol, which incorporates many holiday tunes including "The Holly and the Ivy," "Carol of the Bells," "Here We Come A-Wassailing," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "In The Bleak Midwinter," "The Coventry Carol" and "Heigh-Ho the Holly." A Christmas Carol is set to become Westport's annual production for the holiday season.
The Big Apple Gets Spanked
Austin musical collective Asylum Street Spankers is readying a two-week run of its first musical revue in a New York City theatre.
The group has a bunch of dates on its schedule before and after its Off-Broadway run, including tonight at the Cultural Center in Minneapolis, November 30 at Sons Of Hermann Hall in Dallas, December 28 at the Saxon Pub in Austin, January 23 World Caf� Live in Philadelphia, January 26 at the Diesel Club Lounge in Pittsburgh, February 2 at The Kentucky Center in Louisville and May 10 at the College Of Santa Fe in New Mexico.
Asylum Street Spankers' revue, "What? And Give Up Show Biz?," previews at the Barrow Street Theater January 9-10, opens with two shows January 12 and runs through January 20.
Tickets for the New York show will be available through Telecharge.com.
Broadway stagehand strike disappoints tourists
As if the Grinch really had stolen Christmas, children cried and parents were crestfallen. Confusion, surprise and anger played at ticket windows, and dispossessed theatergoers shared the sidewalks with grim pickets on Saturday as the stagehands' strike shut down most of Broadway's plays and musicals. Up and down the Great White Way and in the side streets where Broadway's theaters are clustered, marquees fell dark, and the electric playland of Times Square -- normally pulsing with anticipation for Saturday matinees -- was a canyon of gloom in Midtown Manhattan's petrified forest. Crowds of both US and foreign tourists, busloads from suburbia, throngs who had come by train or cab with children or grandchildren were caught off guard by the walkout and abruptly drawn into chaos: scrambling for refunds, seeking tickets to the few shows that remained open and in desperation looking for other attractions to ease their disappointment.
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"We have definitely seen a boost in ticket sales since the strike began," said Kelly Davis, a spokeswoman for the 59E59 theatre, where a 90-minute adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel has been playing to packed houses. With eight exceptions -- including "Young Frankenstein," the Disney musical "Mary Poppins" and a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s "Pygmalion" starring Claire Danes -- most Broadway shows are shuttered. Theatres are refunding tickets and tourists are scrambling to change plans. Some fans are turning to Off Broadway, smaller venues that are not on the Great White Way. Same-day sales for "Masked," a play about three Palestinian brothers written by Israeli playwright Ilan Hatsor, received a boost from the strike, a spokesman for the production said.
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