KC Rep's World Premiere of A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL! Tops All Records

With final ticket sales tallied for A Christmas Story, The Musical!, Kansas City Rep's artistic director Eric Rosen, who also directed the record-breaking world premiere, has announced that the production earned $883,151.50 in gross revenue.

Within days after the show's November 28, 2009 opening, the Rep calculations indicated that it had already become the highest-grossing production in the theatre's 45-year history. By the end of its 6 ½-week extended run, 75 percent of all performances had sold out and 31,118 tickets had been distributed. By comparison, gross revenue for the Rep's 2008 production of
A Christmas Carol was $663,142, with 25,812 tickets distributed.

"Developing and directing this show has been a wild ride," said Rosen. "It was a calculated risk to put our time-honored production of A Christmas Carol on hiatus for a year so we could develop this new musical, but the decision has paid off in more ways than we ever anticipated. The numbers prove that audiences - first timers and long-time devotees of our previous holiday show - loved A Christmas Story, The Musical!.

A Christmas Story, The Musical! is produced by Grammy®Award-nominated Gerald Goehring (Off-Broadway: the musicAl Frankenstein and Raisin' Cane with Jasmine Guy. National tours: God's Fool with Jack Klugman), Michael F. Mitri (Off-Broadway: the musicAl Frankenstein. Film production: I'll Believe You, The Moment, The Dock Porter) and Robert G. Bartner and Michael Jenkins of Bartner/Jenkins Entertainment (Broadway: Guys and Dolls, Tony® Award-winning Boeing-Boeing, Legally Blonde and Sweeney Todd. London: Love Song. National tours: Flower Drum Song and Brooklyn).

Now in its 45th year, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is one of the nation's leading professional theatres and a member of the League of Resident Theatres. The Rep produces a full season of plays and events at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus, where the Rep is the professional theatre in residence, and at Copaken Stage downtown. Its diverse repertoire includes new works, musicals and classics of literature. The theatre serves approximately 100,000 patrons annually and employs more than 250 professional artists, technicians and administrators. This year, more than 8,500 students from 150 schools in the two-state region will attend special matinee performances, and more than 1,200 students will experience the Rep's classroom programming and workshops.