First ‘The Nutcracker,’ now ‘A Christmas Carol’: COVID-19 cancels KC Rep’s season
All the world may be a stage, but the stages of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre will now be empty this season because of COVID-19.
The company, which draws 100,000 attendees each year, announced on Wednesday that it was canceling its seven-play 2020-2021 season, which includes its annual production of “A Christmas Carol.” The production, which was scheduled to open in November, was to mark its 40th anniversary and is the Rep’s biggest moneymaker, each year bringing in more ticket revenue than all other Rep shows combined.
“It truly is a heartbreaking decision that we’re not going to be able to do our traditional ‘A Christmas Carol,’” said Stuart Carden, who in September was named as the theater’s new artistic director, following Eric Rosen, who left in 2018 after a decade of leading the Rep.
The announcement comes a month after other major Kansas City arts organizations announced they would not have shows at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts at least through the end of the year, including the Kansas City Ballet’s annual holiday production of “The Nutcracker.”
It is not safe yet, Carden said, to put on productions as COVID-19 infection numbers continue to mount. Those who have already purchased season tickets will receive credit to their accounts.
The season, with shows at the Spencer Theatre at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and downtown on the Copaken Stage, had been scheduled to start in mid-September with “The Old Man and the Old Moon,” a play Carden has described as “one of my signature pieces,” one that has toured the country the past several years. In addition to “A Christmas Carol,” other shows included Kate Hammil’s humorous “Dracula,” the Jim Crow-era drama “The Royale,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights” and the OriginKC new plays festival with “Flood” and “The Vast In-Between.”
COVID-19 already had forced The Rep to shut down three shows from its 2019-2020 season: “Frankenstein: A Ghost Story” and “Legacy Land,” which were part of the new plays festival opening the first weekend of March, and the comedy “Noises Off,” scheduled to open March 27.
The first deaths from the pandemic hit the Kansas City area that month.
“We closed the first two on opening night, shows we were completely invested in,” Carden said. “We thought it was important to invest in those artists, so we paid them for the rest of the run of the show, even though we canceled. And the set for ‘Noises Off’ is still sitting on Spencer stage right now. …
“The loss of revenue was truly extraordinary.”
Carden said that if the pandemic abates, The Rep is hoping and planning to put on digital theatrical performances, possibly even small-scale live “salon” events in the spring.
But much depends on the course of infections as well as adherence to rules for reopening as dictated by various theatrical labor unions such the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and the Actors’ Equity Association.
The Rep has cut its $8.6 million operating budget for the 2021 fiscal year by 40% to $5.3 million because of the pandemic and reduced its staff of 60 full-time equivalent positions to 17. The loss of “A Christmas Carol” alone is expected to slash revenue by $750,000.
“We’re not only going to survive this, we’re going to thrive on the upside of it,” Carden said. “The question is, where’s the other side? What’s the finish line? …
“I really feel genuinely that so many of us in the arts and culture community are going to come out the other side of this even more focused on the positive impact we can make in this community.”
By early July, only two live theaters in the United States, both in western Massachusetts, had received Equity approval, deemed safe enough, to resume live stage productions.
Last month, the Kansas City Ballet, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Kansas City Symphony and the Harriman-Jewell Series suspended their programs at the Kauffman Center through 2020 and, in some cases, beyond.
In late July, the Kansas City Broadway Series announced it would not begin its next season until February and the lineup has changed. It originally planned to open its 2020-21 season with “Mean Girls” in October at the Music Hall, but that production has been postponed. “The Cher Show,” originally scheduled for December, and “The Band’s Visit” in March have been canceled.
Two shows, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” are now part of the upcoming season.
The new Broadway Series six-show package is as follows: “Tootsie,” Feb. 16-21; “An Officer and a Gentleman,” March 23-28; “Jesus Christ Superstar,” May 18-23; “Ain’t Too Proud,” July 20-25; “Fiddler on the Roof,” Aug. 17-22 and “Mean Girls,” postponed. Other shows scheduled are “Orfeh and Andy Karl: Legally Bound,” Jan 21; “Stomp,” Feb. 13-14; and “Wicked,” June 2-20.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 9:30 AM.
