Posted by Olli on 9/25/2001, 7:00 pm Dear Friends, Dear Friends,
I found this to be a BRILLIANT idea - helping the relief workers and NYC theatre at the same time. I figured I would post it here. Please forward this to anyone you feel would be interested. Kaitlin Hopkins, the mother in BAT BOY, wrote this up.
I don't know how to thank you all for forwarding my original email. You all
made a huge difference, more than anything I could have imagined. Yesturday,
for the first time since the attack, people waited in line at the ticket
booth in Time Square for up to 45 minutes to buy a ticket to see a show! You
helped get the word out that Broadway was in trouble and needed help. On a
personal note, my show, "Bat Boy- The Musical" was sold out to standing room
only for our last five shows, thanks to all of you! The news gets better.
Because of your help, we may be able to save our show. The union gave us
permission to go on hiatus for three weeks and if we can generate enough
advanced ticket sales, we can reopen on Oct 18. We will reopen to a five
show week, with reduced pay until the city gets back on it's feet, but we
will reopen!
Here is how you can help, we have three weeks to save our show. We can
rebuild this city one theater ticket at a time! My producers have set up a
toll free number for you to buy tickets to our show, if you live outside of
New York, we will donate the ticket to the relief fund. Rescue workers,
their families, schools, anyone who needs them will be able to see our show
for free thanks to you. That number is 866-876-5673.
If you live in New York and want to come see the show (instead of donating a
ticket ) just call the box office at 212-505-0700. We have spoken to
Ticketmaster and by Monday you will be able to call them and donate a
theater ticket to ANY show, not just "Bat Boy"! We are very excited about
this idea and I hope you will forward this to everyone you know and
encourage them to donate a ticket to their favorite Broadway show . Together
we will save shows from closing and help the city at the same time.
Last night we had 13 fire and rescue workers from Detroit come to see "Bat
Boy- The Musical" as our guests. It was an incredible moment for us as our
producer Michael Alden took them to their seats, the audience saw their
shirts that identified them as fire fighters. They got to their feet,
screaming, cheering and applauding these brave men who came to our city to
help us. We watched 13 grown men cry as they realized the standing ovation
was for them. It was a privilege for us to have them there the night before
they headed back to Detroit. The past few days I have seen healing take
place, I have felt hope in our community for the first time since the
attack. I can't tell you what it has been like for our cast to leave the
theater the past few nights, the audience waits for us to say thank you for
doing the show. That email really got out there, we had people that drove
from Pittsburgh to buy tickets after they had received it. They made us
proud to be artists and helped us feel in some small way we had made a
difference. So, for any of you who are reading this and came to see the
show, we thank you. God Bless you, it meant the world to us.
I would like to leave you with this. Friday night there was a group of
teenagers who read the email and then got 40 kids from their school to buy
tickets to see our show on Oct 18. They waited for us after the show Friday
night to tell us that they would see us on Oct 18, our first night back with
40 of their friends. What more can I say accept, IT'S NOT OVER TILL THE BAT
LADY SINGS!
fondly,
Kaitlin Hopkins Still proud cast member of "Bat Boy- The Musical"
(some of you requested a copy of my original email, I have included it here
to save me some time emailing it separately, thanks again)
I will keep it short as I am so tired but I wanted to send a quick update.
At half hour tonight at our theater ,our producers showed up to talk to us.
Unfortunately, we had to post notice tonight on "Bat Boy", we will close on
Sunday. Even more unfortunate is that, we are not alone. Five other Broadway
shows and several other off Broadway shows also gave notice today. More will
follow in the next few days, even shows like "Phantom " and "Les Mis" are in
danger as they are totally dependant on tourism. Almost every show in town
has no advanced ticket sales as of this past Tuesday. We are all devastated.
The producers are calling for 70% salary cuts and five show weeks to try to
keep afloat, some are trying to get the union to let us all close and then
reopen later with out paying people. All theater owners waved their rent for
last week to try to help but it wasn't enough. We are all hoping the union
agrees to any or all of these things as without them..... well. In the
workshop I am doing of "Dirty Dancing" there are actors from 10 other
currently running shows partisipating. Every actor I spoke to today says
their casts would rather work for a few hundred dollars a week and do less
shows, helping the city get back on it's feet, than close.
It will be too late for many shows even if the unions do agree but we are
supporting our producers in any way we can. I ask all of you if you can take
a moment to email your friends and ask them to buy a theater ticket to ANY
show in the next few days, not just "Bat Boy", any show of their choice. It
is a way we can all fight back against the terrorists. I refuse to accept
that they can cripple this city and our beloved theater community. "Bat
Boy's" producers don't want to give up without a fight, they are trying
everything in hope that some way we can make it and take down our notice on
Sunday, keeping our doors open. We did better than many other shows this
past week, "Rent" played to a house of 50 the other night and we had 140.
Tonight we played to 160 people who were so happy to be there, and we were
so proud to perform for them, even after our news. I think people just don't
realize that the theater is in this much trouble, please help us tell
everyone. It breaks my heart that the city I was born in, the theater
community I was raised in , is in such trouble but we all have to fight
back. I miss you all. Pray for us, we are all frightened but I will not come
back to LA because they have bombed my city and they have won. I will not,
allow them to do this without a fight. Thank you.
Love,
Kaitlin Hopkins
Proud cast member of "Bat Boy- The Musical"
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