KRC vs The Grand
Who does the booking for the K-Rock Centre? I’d like to know because the KRC has made what I consider to be a pretty big error. It is bringing in a show from out of the country – a show that is happening at the Grand with local musicians and dancers one night later: The Nutcracker. Yes, it’s that magical time of year and families are getting ready to revisit one of their favourite Christmas traditions.
The Kingston Symphony and The Quinte Ballet School of Canada have been putting on The Nutcracker at The Grand Theatre for many years now and it has always been a well attended event in our city. The performance is a beautiful one that showcases (and pays) our local talent. This year, the first year we have the Grand back I should add, the KRC has booked The Moscow Ballet to come perform The Nutcracker the night before our locally produced show opens. This doesn’t seem like very good coordinating to me. Shouldn’t we focus our attention and support on our local artists? Shouldn’t we be supporting the opening of our beautiful new theatre? Why aren’t the KRC and the Grand working together to make sure this type of conflict doesn’t arise?
Now, hopefully ticket prices will be enough to deter people from checking out the KRC version of the show. Tickets at the KRC range from $60-$74.25 plus CRF (which I couldn’t find a definition for anywhere on their site) and “applicable service charges”. So I’m guessing you’d be looking at spending at least $70 for one person to attend. The Grand’s prices range from $10-$25 and they are offering a much more intimate show. I imagine it may be difficult to see everything in such a large venue. Ballet was meant for a theatre, not an arena.
It will be interesting to see how attendance is for both shows. Will people support our homegrown Nutcracker? And will this continue to happen? I don’t think Kingston is big enough for this to become a habit of the KRC. I hope this was a mistake that will be corrected in the future. Whatever happens, I know which show I’ll be attending.
Wild and crazy prediction…the Krock show will be poorly attended, and the Grand will be close to sell out. Just basing it on the general trends of past shows involving the KRC and KSO respectively. But I’m a bit biased…
CRF = Capital Recovery Fund
Before we get too introspective about the local coordination, perhaps we should consider another factor that might send people towards the K Rock Centre rather than the Grand.
The balcony seating was obviously designed by the same midget who advises the budget airlines… The seat pitch is shamefully inadequate for anyone who has moved on from Grade 5. And the seat width is almost as bad – shades of Ally McBeal here – you would need to be anorexic to avoid intimate contact with your neighbour. Why is it that Kingston’s decision makers seem to put profit before common sense time and again ?
Part of the renovation was removing a few seats from each row to fix this problem. The new seats are wider. I haven’t sat in them myself so I’m not sure how they are. Have you been to the theatre since it’s reconstruction?
Danielle – l wouldn’t have posted the comment if I had not suffered through a balcony session..
And two young people with me were equally uncomfortable. There’s less than 4″ between the seat front and the back of the one ahead. Ludicrous.!