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TheatreWorks Silicon Valley announced this week that it’s postponing the world premiere production of the new musical “Alice Bliss” that had been set to run July 12 through Aug. 6 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.
The company cited high costs and the continuing impact of the pandemic as factors in the decision.
“TheatreWorks has a rich legacy of fostering new works and we give our professional ‘all’ when we bring these stories to the stage, augmenting additional costs with added funds from a variety of sources, including our own reserves. However, since the pandemic we have experienced various revenue losses, mostly due to subscription attrition – a trend experienced by theatres nationwide. As such, we find we cannot do justice to ‘Alice Bliss’ at this time and have made the extremely hard decision to postpone this production to the future. We feel it is prudent, both to ensure that this show receives the first outing it deserves and to ensure that TheatreWorks maintains its own fiscal stability in the coming months and years,” said TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Executive Director Debbie Chinn in a press release.
“Alice Bliss” is a musical set in upstate New York about a teenager who tries to hold her family together while her father has gone to fight in the Iraq War. The show is based on the novel by Laura Harrington with book by Karen Hartman, music by Jenny Giering and lyrics by Adam Gwon.
TheatreWorks partnered with Saratoga’s Montalvo Arts Center in 2021 to host a residency to help develop the show, following a similar process that works typically go through for the company’s New Works Festival, though due to the pandemic, the piece ended up being developed as a stand-alone project.
The company’s next production, “Steel Magnolias,” will continue as planned, opening early next month. Robert Harling’s show about a close sisterhood of women in a small Southern town runs June 7 through July 2 at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts.
“Alice Bliss” does not yet have a new production date, according to CBCO PR/Marketing, which handles publicity for TheatreWorks. Those with tickets for “Alice Bliss” have four options: convert their tickets into passes for TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival, taking place Aug. 11-20; exchange the tickets for a performance of “Steel Magnolias;” donate the value of the tickets to the company or get a full refund.
For more information visit theatreworks.org or call the box office at 877-662-8978.