Bolshoi Gets Tepid Welcome in L.A. for Its ‘Swan Lake’

The Bolshoi Ballet tour, which suffered disastrous ticket sales at its first stop in Las Vegas Oct. 8 to 20, reported minimal improvement as it began an eight-performance engagement in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

According to tour management, about 1,000 tickets were sold to the company’s opening performance of “Swan Lake” at the 6,300-seat Shrine Auditorium. Seventy-five percent of those tickets were advance sales; the rest were purchased the day of the performance.

As of Wednesday, 3,000 advance tickets in all had been sold, which management officials said is more than were sold in all for the company’s eight performances at the 7,000-seat Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas.

Brad Haines, a tour backer who assumed management of the two-city engagement during the troupe’s troubled Las Vegas run, said Thursday that some special ticket discounts have been added to encourage sales. On the day of performance, at the box office only, those over 55 with identification, students with identification and children under 12 accompanied by an adult may buy tickets for $15.

Haines added that the $300 gala tickets, which included a reception with Bolshoi dancers, have been pulled off the market. Regular tickets range from $30 to $95.

Haines is president of an Oklahoma City oil pipeline company, and the other tour investors also hail from that city. As a thank-you for the nationwide emergency aid provided to their city after last year’s bombing there, free tickets will be provided to Los Angeles firefighters and their families to Sunday’s matinee performance. Four free tickets will be available for each family, with additional tickets available for $15.

Plans to donate 10% of the box office from the opening nights of the three ballets the Bolshoi is presenting in Los Angeles--Wednesday’s “Swan Lake,” Saturday’s “La Sylphide” and Thursday’s “Don Quixote”--to Los Angeles’ AIDS Healthcare Foundation remain intact, foundation and Bolshoi officials said Thursday.

Officials also said that some Bolshoi principals will pay a visit today to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Linn House, a hospice in West Hollywood. The organization maintains four clinics and two hospices in Greater Los Angeles. Besides being an opportunity for press coverage that could increase ticket sales, the foundation’s community relations director, Ged Kenslea, said the visit would provide “an opportunity to educate the dancers about what they are benefiting.” For information, call the foundation at (213) 462-2273 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.