Barksdale’s Summer Musical to be Presented at the Empire Theater,
Two days ago we reported about U of R’s new venture downtown and now, we are reporting on the Barksdale’s new downtown show. The Barksdale’s website confirms that Guys & Dolls, their summer musical, will indeed be downtown, at the Empire, but it is mainly for production reasons – it is a big musical needs a big stage (not the theater in the round that Barksdale offers). With the possible exception of future summer musicals, other Barksdale productions will continue to be held at the Willow Lawn location.
And to put an end to any rumors, although there is talk on the street, Theater IV has no plans to move the kids shows to Barkesdale’s Willow Lawn theater.
I think this is a smart move. I have never been comfortable seeing adorable young children on Broad Street at night. I have always admired the parents for braving the traffic, parking and grim street life.
Broad Street is coming around. I look forward to the day when downtown is a convenient and attractive destination. Someday soon, I hope.
Thanks for the good reporting.
Theatre IV *has* staged some of their children’s shows at the Barksdale Willow Lawn location in the past. These were done in the off hours of the Barksdale show running during the same dates. The crew was kept busy switching from show to show, sometimes with barely an hour between the two!
The first one was “The Jungle Book” in Oct/Nov 2004 (Cyrano de Bergerac was playing at the same time). I believe the last children’s show staged there was “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” in Feb/Mar of 2007 (Brooklyn Boy).
I really enjoyed performing kid’s shows in the intimate Willow Lawn space – it always made an interactive(?) performance experience. Kids say the darndest things!