Carousel Dinner Theatre To Close Doors After 35 Years

The official web site of Akron's Carousel Dinner Theatre has confirmed various published reports that the 35-year Summit County institution will go out of business on Sunday after closing its current show, "All Shook Up," on Saturday night.

Speculation about the closing was first reported Thursday night on the Web site of the Akron Beacon-Journal reports local news website Cleveland.com .

The news release on the Carousel's Web site explains the news of the closing as follows:

The Carousel Dinner Theatre, LLC has cancelled its 2009 season and closed its doors effective January 4, 2009.

For the past year, the economy has materially affected the theatre's attendance and its ability to make cost adjustments to keep pace with the decrease in attendance. The final tipping point became the reversal of certain stakeholders' written or verbal promises that would have had a major impact on the theatre's continuance for the 2009 season and beyond.

Mr. Joseph E. Palmer accepts full responsibility for this action and regrets the impact on one hundred fifty employees and their families and all others affected by this closure.

Ticket holders who have purchased advanced tickets and gift certificates on their credit cards should immediately contact their credit card company to process a full refund.

Meanwhile, the Carousel box office is selling tickets to Friday and Saturday night's performances of "All Shook Up," a Broadway musical that uses Shakespeare plots and Elvis songs.

The Carousel, founded in Ravenna in 1973 and moved to a former nightclub in Akron in 1988, is Northeast Ohio's only continuously operating dinner theater that operates under contracts with the major theatrical unions: the American Federation of Musicians, Actors' Equity Association and Society of Directors and Choreographers.