By Dirk Langeveld

BRIDGEPORT — The recently closed Downtown Cabaret Theatre will host a final send-off this weekend, offering people a chance to explore behind-the-scenes spaces and take home items from the theater.

The theater will host a tag sale from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 18th at 263 Golden Street. Visitors can peruse thousands of items including costumes, props, set decorations, furniture, theater memorabilia, office equipment and furniture, shelving and storage, speakers and audio equipment, lighting, projectors, lenses, and more. 

The products on sale do not include the theater’s primary lighting, sound, projection, and rigging equipment. This equipment will remain in place while future plans for the space are deliberated.

Visitors can also tour the theater spaces that weren’t typically open to audiences. These include backstage, the “Prop Dungeon,” and the rehearsal rooms.

Operation Archive

In addition to the tag sale, Downtown Cabaret Theatre is currently asking for donations for “Operation Archive.” This effort is seeking tp preserve records related to more than 500 productions over the theater’s 51-year history, including videos, photographs, programs, and posters.

Operation Archive is seeking to raise $20,000. The Charitable Gifts Funds of Jen, Cory, and Bob Donnalley has pledged to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to this amount.

51 years of performances

Downtown Cabaret Theatre hosted its final show, A Chorus Line on June 28th. The theater says it has put on more than 13,000 performances over the course of its history.

The theater was first established under the direction of Claude McNeal, who successfully introduced a cabaret program at Sacred Heart University in 1971. Downtown Cabaret Theatre held its first performance in a former YWCA space on Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport on Feb. 27th, 1976. The venue offered year-round musical theater with a unique table seating layout.

Although it closed in the spring of 1980, Downtown Cabaret Theatre was revived through the efforts of Richard C.Hallinan, a veteran Irish theater producer, and his wife Susan, a former actress. McNeal had persuaded him to move with his family to Connecticut to run the theater, and he continued to do so until his death in March 2006. Leadership subsequently passed to his son, Hugh Hallinan.

Hallinan said the decision to close the theater was based largely on a sharp decline in ticket sales, which he said fell by 65 percent over the past two seasons. Downtown Cabaret Theatre relied heavily on these sales, which accounted for 85 percent of its revenues. Hallinan also said it had become economically unfeasible to run the theater, noting how each show could only accommodate a maximum of 250 guests and the rent on the space was $120,000 per year.

Hallinan pursued efforts to keep the theater going after the closure announcement, with a Change.org petition amassing nearly 8,000 signatures calling for a way to “find a path forward” for the organization. This suggested three possible solutions: having the city purchase the building, having a nonprofit or anchor institution take over the space, or finding a way for state arts funding to close the revenue gap.

In an email to supporters, Hallinan said he made several attempts to speak with Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim about the theater’s future, beginning on April 28th. He said that while he finally secured a meeting in June, Ganim said he had been unaware of Hallinan’s outreach.

“Whether those communications should have reached the Mayor sooner is something each person can decide for themselves,” said Hallinan. “What cannot be changed is that the opportunity to save the Downtown Cabaret Theatre has now passed.”

The youth theater program hosted at Downtown Cabaret Theatre will be moving to a new location in time to stage a December performance, according to the venue’s website.

Downtown Cabaret Theatre Tag Sale

Saturday, July 18th
11 am to 2:00 pm
Downtown Cabaret Theatre
263 Golden Street
Bridgeport

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.}}