It was a jolly holiday for the Eden Park theater. Attendance for the 10th anniversary of A Christmas Carol was 24,561, the highest sales since 1991, when it was part of the subscription package and drew 32,675. Cincinnati Shakespeare consistently has turnaway crowds. CCM has sold about 2,500 subscriptions to its current season. Add Broadway Series' 19,000 subscribers, and the numbers are clear.
Theater sells tickets at a record pace.
Just the handful of theaters mentioned add up to 50,000 people who regularly attend theater in Cincinnati. Let's put this in perspective. The Playhouse's production of Nixon's Nixon continues to be a hit on the international theater festival circuit, wowing audiences and critics in Toronto in 2000 and next month headed for Hong Kong. It builds excitement for all theater. They're proving that they deliver, but for most of the small companies bringing downtown to life at night, it's a struggle for survival every time the curtain goes up.