Waukesha Civic Theatre's "Moon Over Buffalo" Plays To Record Attendance; Critics Baffled

WAUKESHA — The Waukesha Civic Theatre's Second Stage production of "Moon Over Buffalo" has sold 1,847 tickets in its first two weekends, surpassing the theatre's all-time Second Stage record of 1,802 with four performances still to go, box office manager Ruth Aldern confirmed Sunday. Artistic director James Morton attributed the result to "indoor seating away from the rain."

"I don't want to take anything away from the cast, who have been very good," Morton said. "But the ticket data lines up with the radar almost perfectly. We think people would be equally happy watching someone read the phone book in here right now."

"The building is dry, the seats recline slightly, and the cookie is $4. That is the whole show."

— James Morton, Waukesha Civic Theatre artistic director

What The Box Office Saw

Aldern said Friday's performance sold 249 tickets, Saturday's sold 258 and Sunday's 2 p.m. matinee sold 224, for a three-show total of 731 during the stretch of the weekend when heavy rain moved through southeastern Wisconsin. The first six performances, held under drier conditions, had sold 1,116. Saturday's 258 works out to 89.9 percent of the 287-seat house, the highest single-night figure the Second Stage has recorded, and included 61 walk-up sales.

Aldern said 14 of those walk-up buyers asked at the window whether this was "the one with the cookie." The $4 intermission cookie sold out during Saturday's intermission for the first time this run. "We ordered for a 76 percent night," she said.

The theatre noted that 1,847 tickets across nine performances is 71.5 percent of capacity (the full possible total being 2,583), a figure that sits inside the 68 to 76 percent range the theatre had already described as "steady." Aldern said the record is "a total, not a rate," and that the total is a record because "it's a longer run than most."

Critics Baffled

The result has left the area's small critical community without a framework. Gerald Pruitt, 66, who has reviewed community theatre for 31 years in a monthly arts newsletter distributed at the Waukesha Public Library, said he attended Saturday's performance prepared to write a mixed-to-positive notice and instead found himself "reviewing the humidity."

"The audience laughed at the door jokes, but they also laughed at the ushers, and at one point at a woman folding her umbrella," Pruitt said. "I can't tell what's the play and what's the weather. I've filed a review of the 2 p.m. matinee at three stars, and a separate note explaining that the three stars may be the rain's."

Linda Fenske, 47, of Pewaukee, said she had been walking from a West Main Street parking space toward a nearby errand when she stepped into the lobby to wait out a downpour. "It felt rude to stand there without a ticket, so I bought one," she said. She paid $22, sat in row K and said she "liked the part with the sardines." She has since asked the box office whether the ticket can be applied to a second, drier visit. It cannot.

Planning Around The Forecast

Morton said the theatre's programming committee has already begun discussing how to "build a season around what we've learned." Under a proposal circulated Sunday, Second Stage openings would be fixed no earlier than 10 days before curtain, giving staff time to consult the 10-day forecast and select the play accordingly. In the event of a dry stretch, the theatre would substitute a shorter program, described in the proposal as "a lower-cost reading."

Asked whether the theatre owns a phone book, Morton said it does not. Aldern later located a 2011 Waukesha-area directory in a box office drawer, alongside an unopened pack of thumbtacks, and said it would be kept "within reach, should the need arise."

"Moon Over Buffalo" closes September 27 with a 2 p.m. matinee. Tickets remain available at $18 to $24 through the box office or online. The forecast for Thursday, Morton noted, "is being watched with interest."