Why do Regional Theatres Feel the Need to Do a Christmas Show?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:30pm

I'm resubscribing for many of my usual regional theatre seasons and I'm just finding it completely annoying that they feel the need to do a Christmas show. Some have as an add-on, which is fine, but I get annoyed when they devote a regular season spot to a Christmas show as I don't partake in the holiday. It just seems like they're caving to the economy and pushing this. I just can't go to the same production of A Christmas Carol and White Christmas every year!

[tazber]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:33pm

One person's "caving to the economy" is another person's "good business sense".

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:34pm

It's most people's "good business sense", taz.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:38pm

A good Christmas cash cow is one of the oldest traditions in regional theatre.

There's been a statistic going around for ages (I don't know if it has any actual validity) that the two most produced shows in the country are A Christmas Carol and Our Town. The former because it's popular during the holiday season and the latter because it has a big cast and no set.

[singtopher]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:47pm

'Cause Christmas shows sell like gangbusters. It's a time of year when people seek entertainment, and the vast majority want something seasonal.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:52pm

But does it need to be part of the season package? Add on I get. I get that it makes money, but do they expect their subscribers to see a variation on the same thing every year?

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 10:56pm

Also, A Christmas Carol is in the public domain. I took part in a DOOMED production with a regional(ish) theater that had been adapted by the artistic director. It was an unpleasant experience for everyone involved - most of all the audience - but they proceeded to truck that production out every year for the next decade because they did not have to pay royalties. Of course, the official line was they were "building a holiday tradition."

Blech.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 11:00pm

Yeah, they "adapted" a version here too. And it's really awful and I fell asleep the one time I suffered through it.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 11:06pm

I like the idea of theatres doing shows that take place in and around Christmas, but aren't explicitly Christmas shows. SpeakEasy in Boston did a fantastic production of Drood as their "Christmas" show in the 2007-2008 season.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 11:10pm

Oh definitely. Or even a family show would be fine. There are creative ways to do a holiday show without alienating the non-Christians.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 5/18/10 at 11:15pm

For me it's not the Christianity so much as the mediocrity.

[A Director]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 3:27am

Mildred - There are some people who like to see A Christmas Carol year after year just as there are those who see The Nutcracker year after year, Are you that alienated by a theatre doing A Christmas Carol? Have you ever thought of giving your ticket to the show to someone who would like to see it or someone who couldn't afford to see the show?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 3:46am

Christmas shows are cash cows. In San Diego we get The Grinch every year at The Old Globe and up until a few years ago The REP would do a new version of A Christmas Carol every year. It started out traditionally set and then got stranger and stranger every year. I believe the last one was a jazz age adaptation set in the 1920s? It was bizarre. There was also a puppet version one year and some kind of circ de soleil inspired version another.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 8:06am

I worked at a well known regional theater and many of the comments here are spot on. This theater kept the sets and costumes in storage and did A Christmas Carol every year because it was cheap, it sold well and put the audience (but not the crew) in a festive mood.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 8:08am

For over 30 years, Trinity Repertory in Rhode Island has been doing an adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Adrian Hall (a former artistic director). It is never included in the season packages, but the subscribers DO get first dibs on tickets. The show is a hit year after year, mostly due to the fact that it is directed and conceived differently every year. Also, Rhode Island is small and traditions are easy to form.

Point is, Christmas shows in regional theatres are easy money. You can bring the whole family. It has a universal appeal, unlike the regular season which doesn't always have shows for everyone.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 8:11am

I did A Christmas Carol for four years and it always put us in a festive mood. Though that may have been due to the backstage antics rather than what was going on onstage. Some of the things that went on were practically written into the run sheets and were passed along from year to year and fully expected by both cast and crew.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 8:15am

Plus with A Christmas Carol, they can get a lot of school kids in to see a show, get them interested in theater and Dickens at the same time.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 9:53am

without alienating the non-Christians.

You must be new to this country.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/19/10 at 10:20am

This is a christian nation. To ever say otherwise is, well, racist.