It’s not often the audience get to party with the cast on stage…
Unless you’ve got friends in very high places that rarely happens, and even then, not with an actual, drink-serving bar right before a Tony winning Broadway musical.
I’s going down all week at the Kauffman Center for Tony-winning musical “Once.”
“The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on weeknights and the auditorium opens a half hour before the show,” says Theater League head Mark Edelman. “So if you walk in at 7 p.m. , you can go right up on stage and order a drink while members of the cast sit around the bar on stage playing Irish music and singing.”
The stage bar will be selling drinks, but you don’t have to buy, Edelman notes.
“Some people just go up to be a part of it and listen to the music,” Edelman says. “Because you’re right there in the middle of the cast playing music and singing.”
With instruments ranging from violin and mandolin to stand up bass and a beat box, it’s a not-to-be-missed experience.
Kinda like the musicals Hair and Godspell, only different.
“The end of Hair is kind of famous for that,” Edelman says. “The audience goes up on stage and dances with the cast.”
Sans, of course, any cocktail action.
“And in Godspell at the end, the actors bring out these little cups of wine and people come up on stage and drink and dance with them,” Edelman adds.
Does it ever get a little crazy or out of hand?
“I haven’t heard about it,” Edelman says. “It’s pretty well controlled. And you don’t have time to drink more than one drink and you can’t bring it back to your seat in the auditorium.”
The music – which won 8 Tonys on Broadway, including ‘Best Musical’ – concludes the Theater League season in style. And while its nearly sold out, tickets remain for all performances – 7:30 weeknights, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday snd 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.
