Company for Musicals to Close Down

Music Theatre of Southern California, which presented musicals at San Gabriel Civic Auditorium for more than 17 years, is ceasing operations.

Known as San Gabriel Valley Civic Light Opera until 1994, the company expanded to the Alex Theatre in Glendale in 1998, presenting the first three weekends of each run in San Gabriel and the final weekend in Glendale.

Music Theatre board president Laura Freedman blamed “a myriad of reasons,” beginning with poor box-office response to the first show of the season, “Honk!” Attendance was down more than 50% from the normal total for the run of a production, she said.

“Honk!” opened shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which discouraged attendance, Freedman said.

However, attendance has been generally declining, she said. “The majority of our audience was from the postwar generation for which musical theater was very much a part of the social life,” she said. “Now, that isn’t the case.”

Artistic director Bill Shaw said the slowing economy had led to a dip in contributions to the organization. The company raised $120,000 in a recent appeal to contributors, but those donations are now being returned, according to Freedman.

Music Theatre had no reserve fund or endowment, Freedman said. She declined to say whether the company will declare bankruptcy and would not disclose the company’s current debt, saying only that “if we had an angel walking in with over $500,000, we could remain in business.”

The company’s budget last year was $2.1 million. Four full-time employees and six part-timers received pink slips, but the company also employed many actors, musicians and behind-the-scenes personnel on contracts.

Season ticket-holders, numbering about 6,000, will be able to redeem their tickets for the remaining three productions of this season at these theaters: Pasadena Playhouse, the Broadway series at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the McCoy Rigby series at La Mirada Theatre, Fullerton Civic Light Opera, Downey Civic Light Opera, Haugh Performing Arts Center in Glendora, selected events at the Alex, Musical Theatre West in Long Beach and Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities in Redondo Beach.