News
Editorial -- Times & Transcript -- March 1, 2016
We have long been familiar with the breadth and depth of ‘performing arts’ talent that Metro Moncton has to offer so it comes as no great surprise to us that a local production of ‘The Sound of Music’has drawn high critical praise from Metro’s well-informed theatre crowd.
However,we do sit up and take notice when an 800-seat venue like the Capitol Theatre is able to achieve 6,000 ‘bums in seats’ in just four days.
So first off, kudos to the production team just for the selection. The Sound of Music may come off to some as a bit of an old chestnut that should have been put in storage by the squirrels long ago, but clearly director Marshall Button and his crew knew what they were doing. The local crowd wanted it, proved it with their hard-earned dough and in so doing perhaps ‘set the stage’ for future productions of this kind at Metro’s venerable but lusciously appointed Capitol Theatre.
We support all aspects of Metro’s bustling arts scene as one of the main drivers of a high quality of life that is so attractive to corporate CEOs and ‘small businesses’ alike these days. For anyone contemplating a branch office or a brand new venture somewhere in Atlantic Canada,Halifax needn’t be the only choice just because it’s big. With this production Metro proves once again that though it is barely a third the size of HRM, its ‘small town yet cosmopolitan’ spirit can support many different forms of entertainment.
We feel this production can be fairly described as ‘venture capitalism with a human face,’ a model used with stunning success by some of Metro’s longest-running and most successful entertainment-related products, such as the World Wine & Food Expo.
The Sound of Music did have the assistance of a modest though pivotal $85,000 grant from the Gallant government, but the rest of the production’s admirably tight budget of $140,000 was raised entirely by the Capitol and donations from sponsors, with $160,000 raised from ticket sales.
Mr. Button says any profits will be rolled right back into future projects and that is fantastic news.
Bear in mind the 75-person cast and crew were all hired from Metro Moncton and area. It is a fine thing indeed to see so many members of the local artistic community land a paid gig at an event that also spilled 800 happy people out onto the larger city’s waiting restaurants and bars, twice a day for four days straight in the dead of the Monctonian winter.
The theatre also deserves a curtain call for the recent addition of some hardware. A movable digital screen, the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada, can be arranged into 60 different 20-inch screens. It represents a turning point for smaller venues like the Capitol, which can now offer fans anything from sweeping mountain majesties to the cozy comfort of the von Trapp family’s living room.
Our congratulations to the Capitol, the production crew and their brilliant musical co-conspirators Tutta Musica of Sistema New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.
