Starlight Theatre

So this summer was apparently about following the heat where ever we went. Starting in Albuquerque, we pretty much had temperatures in the 90s and 100s and Kansas City was no exception. To make matters worse though the venue that we played in Kansas City was an outdoor theatre. None of the other musicians had ever played the Starlight Theatre so we really did not know what to expect. I had visions of having a heat stroke during the show at the very least!

As it turns out, the musicians had nothing to worry about. When we arrived at the theatre and made our way down to the pit we discovered that it was like stepping into a meat locker it was so cold. In fact it was really too cold, but I was not complaining based on how hot it was on the stage. Since the stage was open to the elements, the air conditioning made no difference at all. I felt so bad for all the actors wearing their heavy costumes especially Justin in all of his Beast fur.

Our other big concern was the weather. As you can see the audience is completely uncovered so if it rains they get wet. Thankfully the performers are pretty well protected on the stage and in the pit. Given that it is an outdoor theatre, we only had night performances, and there was one scheduled for every night we were in Kansas City. Unfortunately the weather forecast showed rain for a couple of the days during the week. Knowing this we were told that the theatre will not cancel the show until there is lightning or dangerously high wind gusts. So one of those nights with rain forested we arrived at the theatre to find the pit opening covered with a tarp and the keyboard moved down out of the opening. It was a good thing that they moved the keyboard because it started to rain almost as soon as we began the show. Unfortunately the rain did not really let up during Act I. In fact we even stopped the show at one point when the rain was really bad. We started up again, but it was still raining and in fact there was lightning by this point too. Despite the weather, we made it to the end of Act I, and they made an announcement that the intermission was going to be held to let the weather pass. Well we waited close to 30 minutes and the weather made no signs of letting up yet we still got the signal to start Act II. We made it not much further than Wolf Chase #2, and they canceled the rest of the show. We all would have been really excited, but for the fact that given the delays we were ending the show at what would have been our normal running time anyway. After the show we learned that the theatre's policy is that they will only give refunds to the audience members if the show is canceled during Act I. Once Act II starts, then tough luck the theatre will only reschedule the ticket for a later performance date. That would certainly explain why we started Act II despite the fact that it was pouring rain and there were fairly close lightning strikes. Ah business!!

Putting the bad weather aside though, it was kind of fun to play in an outdoor venue like the Starlight Theatre. It certainly made a nice change of pace from the normal (not that I would like to make a habit of it or anything!).