Ford's Theatre Sets Records with 2016-17, Featuring COME FROM AWAY and More

By: Jun. 07, 2017
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Ford's Theatre Society announced that it set revenue and attendance records with its 2016-2017 theatrical season, which included the musicals Come From Away and Ragtime, productions of A Christmas Carol and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the one-act play One Destiny. More than 153,000 patrons attended performances, and ticket sales brought in more than $6 million, making 2016-2017 the highest attended and highest grossing theatrical season in Ford's Theatre history.

The company's new Free First Preview initiative increased access to Ford's theatrical programming and reached new audiences by offering more than 1,600 free tickets to mainstage productions. Eighty-five percent of Free First Preview tickets were reserved by new-to-Ford's patrons. Additionally, the Ford's Theatre Education Department provided free performance tickets and transportation to 1,361 area students through its student matinee program, a program for D.C. public schools, Title I schools, and schools that have 40 percent or more students eligible for FARMs.

Continuing its commitment to featuring local artists, Ford's Theatre cast local actors in all roles in A Christmas Carol, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Ragtime. Over the last seven years, the average percentage of local actors appearing on Ford's stage has been 92 percent.

The Ford's Theatre production of Come From Away played to sold-out houses and was extended one week due to demand. Over the course of its run at Ford's, more than 27,500 patrons saw the production, which played to 90% capacity. In May 2017, the Ford's production was honored with 14 nominations and a total of four Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Musical Production, Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Christopher Ashley), and Outstanding Featured Actress (Jenn Colella).

Following performances at Ford's Theatre, Come From Away moved to Toronto for a limited run before opening on Broadway, where it now plays at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. The Broadway production has since been nominated for seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, and named winner of six Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Musical. The Broadway production also won three Drama Desk Awards: Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Book of a Musical and Outstanding Featured Actress for Jenn Colella.

The musical Ragtime is now the second highest grossing musical in Ford's Theatre history, surpassed only by the 2012 production of 1776. The production featured an all-local cast, was seen by more than 42,900 patrons, including nearly 9,000 students, and praised as an impressively "Rich and relevant" (DCist) revival that "vividly dramatizes the country's ever-hopeful, still unsettled story" (The Washington Post).

A Christmas Carol, featuring acclaimed Washington actor Craig Wallace in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, played to more than 31,600 patrons during the 2016 holiday season. Additionally, the company of A Christmas Carol raised more than $88,067 for local nonprofit Food & Friends. This fundraising effort brings the Christmas Carol company's eight-year donation drive totals to more than $639,595 for Washington charities that aid thousands within the D.C.-area who struggle with hunger, illness and homelessness.

In January, Ford's produced Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?-the first production staged at Ford's by the iconic playwright. Actors Holly Twyford, Gregory Linington, Danny Gavigan and Maggie Wilder starred in a production The Washington Post declared, "one of Ford's Theatre's finest hours." Metro Weekly raved, "A potent, memorable concoction! A fast and furious battle of emotional, psychological and verbal poetry."

The Ford's Theatre 2017-2018 season begins September 22, 2017, with Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. For additional details, visit www.fords.org.

One of the most visited sites in the nation's capital, Ford's Theatre reopened its doors in 1968, more than a hundred years after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Operated through a partnership between Ford's Theatre Society and the National Park Service, Ford's Theatre is the premier destination in the nation's capital to explore and celebrate Abraham Lincoln's ideals and leadership principles: courage, integrity, tolerance, equality and creative expression.

The Ford's Theatre Society was founded under the guidance of executive producer Frankie Hewitt, who, during her 35-year tenure, established Ford's as a living, Working Theatre producing performances that highlighted the diversity of the American experience. Since the arrival of Paul R. Tetreault as Director, critics and the theatregoing public have recognized Ford's for the superior quality of its artistic programming. With works from the nationally acclaimed Big River to the world premieres of Meet John Doe, The Heavens Are Hung In Black, LiberTy Smith, Necessary Sacrifices, The Widow Lincoln and The Guard, Ford's Theatre is making its mark on the American theatre landscape. In the last decade, the mission of Ford's Theatre Society expanded to include education as a central pillar. This expansion led to the creation and construction of the Center for Education and Leadership, which opened in February 2012. Currently, under the leadership of Board of Trustees Chairman Eric A. Spiegel, Ford's enters a second phase of strategic planning to ensure the organization's place as a national destination for exploring Lincoln's legacy and the American experience through the intersection of history, performance and education.



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