Brian Smallheer, the scenic and lighting designer for Hurlyburly, sent this photo to me yesterday. Check it out!

Last night’s sold-out show went off what appears to be without a hitch. The theater was cooled down an additional 5 degrees to account for the bodies and the lights in the room for about a good half hour longer than what’s usual. Nobody was dropping out at the end, fanning themselves or anything like that. No uninvited guests, no cellphones, though we did have one very enthusiastic patron who couldn’t help herself from muttering advice from time to time. She actually came up and talked to me after the show, very sweet woman. You could really hardly be upset by it, but I did notice it from stage. As Donna goes to leave at the end of the first act I heard a heartfelt but soft “you get out of there!” When Bonnie said “this town ain’t nothing but mean, despite the palm trees” an “Amen” was echoed.

That we can certainly live with. She obviously enjoyed herself.

The show ended with another standing ovation and now we’ve essentially sold out 3 of our last four shows. Not too bad.

Let’s hope this show can find its audience past opening weekend and that the critical feedback is decent. Word of mouth can work both ways on something like this. Hopefully the people that enjoyed it talk a lot. They say you have a good experience you may tell one person but if you have a bad one you tell ten, and we find that true in the theater as well.

Hopefully those folks who get past the subject matter, the language and some of the darker aspects of this play make the time to try to help us get it in front of other like-minded folks. We’d sure appreciate it!

At this time, just a few hours before curtain, there are plenty of seats open for today’s 4pm matinee. A good opportunity to try to take advantage of the student/senior/military rush!!!