Sunday, January 31, 2010

Pasadena Playhouse Closes

I don't think I've seen much on this since it happened, but on Friday Playbill reported that the Pasadena Playhouse will close down this Sunday. It's a large regional theatre with a strong reputation (93 years old, too), and it's rather shocking to see it go just like that. But apparently there was $5 million dollars of debt to be paid, and no way to do it. It may be one of the largest (in budget) companies to close down in this economy, with the possible exceptions of the Studio Arena in Buffalo and the North Shore Music Theatre in Massachusetts. Apparently there are hopes to somehow restructure the debt and reopen the company. Hopefully this will come to pass. It's a sad loss, for now.

2 comments:

Mr. K said...

The most interesting take-away was that they raised a lot of money to rebuild their actual theatre but they couldn't commit the money from that capital campaign to pay off their debts.

Once again, investing in a building instead of people is stupid.

Zev Valancy said...

Certainly, a building shouldn't be the priority when other parts are being neglected!