Episode 19: Predator vs. Family Musical Theatre

Family Musical Theatre, a community theatre group, was the last of the local companies to agree to use the Ivory before all the bad press hit the public. Though they usually only produce one show each summer, Horror Show pressured them into agreeing to do three shows a year.

And she also lied to them through her crooked yellowed teeth. Surprise!

The Ivory has a very small stage for a legit theatre, big enough for a small concert or even a very small show, but not a big, old-fashioned musical. And that's what Family Musical Theatre does -- big, old-fashioned musicals with casts of 40-50 people, including kids and seniors. Unfortunately for them, the Ivory's dressing rooms can accommodate only about fifteen people comfortably. And there is no Green Room and there is very little room backstage. When the Family Musical Theatre folks first came to see the Ivory, a few well-placed ears overheard Horror Show lying to them about how many the dressing rooms could hold, how many the stage could hold, how much room there was backstage, how much she would help with promotion and PR, etc. And because the man who runs the company uses a wheelchair, he was unable to get up on stage or backstage to see that Horror Show was lying. Leave it to Horror Show to take advantage of someone's disability.

Although I'm told that before they moved in, they did read this blog...

Of course, while FMT ran "Anything Goes" in July, they ran into some of the same abuses everyone else has suffered through -- no one ever came to clean the bathrooms or restock them, no one cleaned the theatre, and they received virtually no support whatsoever. Horror Show loves telling people the Ivory is a "professional" theatre, yet how many professional theatres have no support staff and never get cleaned? How many professional theatres house only community theatre groups? Then again, how many professional theatres are run by compulsive liars? Hopefully only this one.

It's fun to check out the comically lean Ivory calendar of upcoming shows -- it includes "Anything Goes" in June even though it was actually in July (Horror Show gets dates wrong a lot); and a one-weekend FMT event, the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, "A Grand Night for Singing" in September. They had had a two-weekend show in October scheduled called "Deeper Shade of Blues" produced by something called "The Producers Group," but it disappeared from the calendar (I guess the producers heard about Horror Show!). Then there are two performances of one of Horror Show's awful kiddie Halloween shows; and four performances in November of FMT doing a community theatre musical called "Something's Afoot." And that's it. For the whole season. If you click on the "Coming Attractions" link on their website homepage, it takes you to a blank page. How fitting.

So the Ivory will be open only 16 nights in the next several months. I wonder exactly how they'll make the $6,000 a month they say they need to break even... Does Horror Show have any plans at all on how to fill this theatre and with what...?

I'm sure there will be more stories to come. Until then...

Sic Semper Tyrannis!
An Ivory Survivor