The bad economy may be hurting the local theatre business as it does everything these days, but it’s nice to know that in the month of December there are a number of shows that have sold out a good portion of their tickets prior to opening night. Just a few days after Patrick Schmitz’s Rudolph The Pissed-Off Reindeer sold out the remainder of its run at the Alchemist Theatre. for the year, Dale Gutzman’s Off The Wall Theatre has sold-out of the entire run of its December show La Cage Aux Folles. The Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical replaces the theatre’s usual Holiday Punch comedy show. Choosing a musical over a long-standing holiday tradition might’ve been taking a bit of a risk, but the risk was negligible, as evidenced by show’s advance success. The only performance that wasn’t an advance sell-out was opening night, which was very well-attended.
Also (almost) selling-out this month is Home For The Holidays-- the new John McGivern holiday show at the Off-Broadway Theatre. McGivern’s annual recollections of childhood holidays in Milwaukee typically sells really, really well. This month, in spite of an extended run of the show due to ticket demand, nearly every performance has sold-out before opening night. As of this writing, there are currently seats available on the 1pm Wednesday matinee on the 16th. There are no other seats available.
