RSS 2.0 FeedJanuary 27, 2010, Local Arts News
KC Rep’s A "Christmas Story, The Musical!" tops previous revenue records
Now that final ticket sales for Kansas City Repertory Theatre's new holiday production of "A Christmas Story, The Musical!" have been tallied, artistic director Eric Rosen, who also directed the record-breaking world premiere, has announced that the production earned $883,151.50 in gross revenue.
Within days after its November 28, 2009 opening, the Rep calculated that A Christmas Story, The Musical! already had become the highest-grossing production in the theatre's 45-year history. By the end of its 6 ½-week extended run, 75 percent of all performances had sold out and 31,118 tickets had been distributed. By comparison, gross revenue for the Rep's 2008 production of A Christmas Carol was $663,142, with 25,812 tickets distributed.
"Developing and directing this show was a wild ride," said Rosen. "It was a calculated risk to put our time-honored production of A Christmas Carol on hiatus for a year so we could develop this new musical, but the decision has paid off in more ways than we ever anticipated. The numbers prove that audiences - first timers and long-time devotees of our previous holiday show - loved A Christmas Story, The Musical!.
An experienced producing partnership for A Christmas Story, The Musical! was vital to the success of the show. From the beginning, Rosen and partners Gerald Goehring, Michael F. Mitri and Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment had high expectations for their new musical. "We couldn't be happier with our partnership with Kansas City Rep," said Goehring. "It was exciting to follow the record-breaking box office reports, which were extraordinary given this challenging economic climate."
On October 1, 2009, when tickets to A Christmas Story, The Musical! first became available for the public to purchase, more than $22,000 in sales came in during the first hour and by the close of that day, the theatre had a record-breaking $47,000 in single tickets sales. First day sales for A Christmas Carol averaged about $34,000.
A Christmas Story, The Musical! was produced by Grammy Award-nominated Gerald Goehring (Off-Broadway: the musical Frankenstein and Raisin' Cane with Jasmine Guy. National tours: God's Fool with Jack Klugman), Michael F. Mitri (Off-Broadway: the musical Frankenstein. Film production: I'll Believe You, The Moment, The Dock Porter), and Robert G. Bartner and Michael Jenkins of Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment (Broadway: Guys and Dolls, Tony Award-winning Boeing-Boeing, Legally Blonde and Sweeney Todd. London: Love Song. National tours: Flower Drum Song and Brooklyn).
The show featured a cast of 21 actors, mostly from Kansas City and New York. Eight of the actors were children.
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