By Dirk Langeveld

BRIDGEPORT — The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is urging audiences to take in the venue’s final shows before it takes its final bow this summer.

The theater will close on June 26th after the final performance of A Chorus Line, according to Executive Director and Producer Hugh Hallinan. The announcement comes just months after the theater celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“The outpouring of support has been overwhelming and appreciated,” said Hallinan. “The memories, and the generations of families that have been part of the Cabaret, are loved and will be dearly missed.”

Declining revenues cited

The not-for-profit Downtown Cabaret Theatre has featured year-round musical theatre and entertainment, including a children’s theater program. The unique venue features table seating, with audiences bringing in their own food and beverages. 

Hallinan cited a 65 percent decline in ticket sales over the past two seasons, describing it as the worst drop he has seen in his 46 years working with the theater. According to its website, Downtown Cabaret Theatre relies on box office revenues to cover about 85 percent of its operating expenses, with other funding sources including donations and corporate sponsorships covering the rest.

Hallinan said the theater’s modest financial reserves were depleted over the past six months.

“Unlike larger theaters that have endowments for times like this, the scrappy Cabaret does not,” he said.

Final performances

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre has two shows and two events remaining in its season. The Princess and the Frog, a youth theater production, has five remaining shows between Saturday, May 9th and Sunday, May 17th. Its adults-only Red Velvet Burlesque show will take the stage on May 21st, and a comedy show with Joe DeVito on May 29th. A Chorus Line will open on June 5th with performances scheduled through June 26th.

Hallinan said he is asking supporters to fill the house for these final events, both to provide a joyful sendoff to the Downtown Cabaret Theatre and generate the revenue necessary to wind down operations.

“These are the last four events you are ever going to see at the Cabaret,” he said. “Come back one more time — for the memories, and for what this place has meant.”

Not the first closure

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre was established under the artistic direction of Claude McNeal, following his success in leading the Sacred Heart University Cabaret since 1971. Mayor Nicholas Panuzio and several other business and civic leaders supported the idea of establishing the cabaret in downtown Bridgeport to help with efforts to revitalize the city’s downtown.

After the conversion of an assembly room in a former YWCA space on Golden Hill Street, McNeal moved his program there. The Downtown Cabaret Theatre’s first performance took place on Feb. 27th, 1976.

McNeal later persuaded Richard C. Hallinan, Hugh’s father and a veteran producer of Irish theater, to join Downtown Cabaret Theatre. After moving his family to Connecticut, he found that the theater had shut down in the spring of 1980. Undeterred, he and his wife Susan, a former actress, mobilized a year of fundraising efforts that allowed the theater to reopen.

In 1995, the Downtown Cabaret Theatre underwent a $1.3 million renovation to update the space. This included the installation of a fly house (a rigging system to quickly move stage components), the remodeling of backstage spaces, and upgrades to lighting, sound, and air conditioning systems.

The theater managed to endure despite frequent financial headwinds. Richard Hallinan continued to lead it until his death in March 2006, after which Hugh took over management. Richard’s obituary prominently noted how the theater had requested $500,000 in state subsidies and only received $100,000, saying it would suspend stage operations that summer and attempt to raise the funding necessary for a 2007 season.

Throughout its history, several productions at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre have won or been nominated for the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.

For more information on the Downtown Cabaret Theatre and to purchase tickets for its final shows, visit dtcab.com.

Expanded coverage of Fairfield County cultural events is made possible with support from the Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts

Dirk Langeveld

^{_{Dirk Langeveld has worked as a news reporter, content marketing specialist, and freelance writer. He is the author of “The Artful Dodger: The 20-Year Pursuit of World War I Draft Dodger Grover Cleveland Bergdoll” and has contributed to several books on Connecticut history.}}