From tribute acts to flexible ticketing, a small-town Oklahoma theater is following trends

GUTHRIE — From booking tribute acts to offering more flexible ticketing options, a long-running small-town Oklahoma theater isn't afraid to make trendy choices in the challenging post-pandemic era.

"Implementing this hybrid of stage plays or musicals and these limited Performance Series runs — like the concerts and comedy acts and musical revues — is providing more variety for the patrons," said Jared Blount, artistic director for Guthrie's Pollard Theatre.

A mainstay in downtown Guthrie, The Pollard is launching its 36th season Sept. 16 with a performance by Oklahoma Led Zeppelin tribute act Uncle Zep at its historic home, 120 W Harrison Ave.

Guthrie theater's new season follows the trends and the theme 'Transformations'

Following the theme "Transformations," the nonprofit theater's 2023-2024 lineup also includes an Elvis impersonator and a returning Patsy Cline tribute show, along with its homegrown holiday favorite "A Territorial Christmas Carol," the uproarious Monty Python musical "Spamalot" and Edward Albee's classic but still controversial play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

While single tickets are on sale for the three 2023 shows, theatergoers also can buy a season pass that comes with six tickets that can be used in any combination to any of the 2023-2024 season events.

"There were a lot of people that said to us whenever they were buying season tickets, 'I wish that I could see this show and then not this one.' And so, after an abundance of hearing that, we decided to make it more flexible for them," said Blount, a longtime Pollard company member who became the theater's artistic director in 2021.  

Here are the shows The Pollard is planning for its new season, along with the ways the company is following the latest trends to stay running and relevant as theaters nationwide continue to struggle to make a full COVID comeback:

'Uncle Zep: We Do Zeppelin' and 'Trent Smith: Young Elvis'

The Pollard Theatre is opening its 36th season with not one but two Oklahoma rock 'n' roll tribute shows. 'Uncle Zep: We Do Zeppelin,' which pays homage to iconic British rockers Led Zeppelin, will be staged at 8 p.m. Sept. 16, while 'Trent Smith: Young Elvis' will depict the “King of Rock 'n' Roll" in his heyday for two shows, 8 p.m. Oct. 6-7.

Both titles are part of The Pollard's fledgling Performance Series, which accounts for half the shows on the 2023-2024 season.

"What we've discovered is, if we want people to come see a show, it needs to feel like an event. With the Performance Series things that we're doing, people have been excited with every act that we've announced, and it seems to be reinvigorating audiences and easing them into the idea that theatrical venues, especially our space, are creating events," Blount said.

Although theater purists may balk at booking tribute bands, Blount pointed out that Uncle Zep's season-opening performance sold out about a week before the show.

"I feel like nostalgia has a great deal to do with what people are engaging with right now,” he said. "That seems to be what people in general are looking for is, 'I'd love to see that show, because I know all of this music. If I'm going to spend money on something, I want to go ... knowing that it's going to be something that I enjoy.'"

'A Territorial Christmas Carol'

Nostalgia undoubtedly will be part of the appeal of The Pollard's Nov. 24-Dec. 23 production of "A Territorial Christmas Carol."  

With a new lead actor and a new set, The Pollard brought back last year the late Oklahoma playwright Stephen P. Scott's Sooner State version of Charles Dickens' often-adapted holiday classic live and in person for the first time in five years. 

"It's been a tradition for people. We open the day after Thanksgiving. A lot of families come together on Thanksgiving, and then the next day, they start Christmas. With all the family already in town, they come to see this show," Timothy Stewart, The Pollard's development director, told The Oklahoman in 2022.

Since Scott, who died in 2018, penned the Dickensian adaptation for The Pollard in 1987, the nonprofit theater company has staged the play at least a thousand times for 150,000 patrons over 30-plus seasons.

The company brought back the holiday hit in 2022 with a new set to replace the old one, which had deteriorated badly since its 1999 debut, and a new actor, Richard Lemin, in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Pollard founding company member James Ong, who starred as Scrooge from 2000 to 2017, died in 2018.

'An Evening With Patsy Cline'

After a sold-out run in February 2023, Oklahoma City singer Shelly Phelps and her band Moonlit Pass Band will return to The Pollard stage Feb. 14-18 to perform "An Evening With Patsy Cline." The musical revue spotlights the Country Music Hall of Famer's biggest hits, recreating in concert a true-to-life ballroom performance like one Cline might have put on in the final months before her death.

The celebrated country crooner, who died in a 1963 plane crash at the age of 30, seems to hold a special place in the hearts of Pollard audiences. The Guthrie theater in past years also has scored a big hit with the play "Always ... Patsy Cline." 

Monty Python's 'Spamalot'

Continuing its 36th season into spring 2024, The Pollard will stage the musical "Spamalot" for the first time April 5-27. Although it is a Pollard debut, Blount said the show has a built-in audience of fervent fans.

The musical is a loving parody of the hilarious 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," which is in turn the iconic British comedy troupe Monty Python's irreverent spoof of Arthurian legend.

The 2005 Tony Award winner for best musical, "Spamalot," which is returning to Broadway this fall, features music by John Du Prez and a book and lyrics by Monty Python's own Eric Idle.

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

The Pollard will close its 2023-2024 season by staging Albee's pitch-black comedy "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" June 7-29. With its searing dialogue and shocking twist ending, the show won the Tony Award for best play for the original 1963 Broadway production and the Tony for best revival of a play for the 50th anniversary production in 2013.  

"It's a classic, but it's one I haven't seen done very often. And I think it's because of the way people probably feel by the end of it. You become so invested in the characters," Blount said.  "At the end, you probably look at your friends and say, 'Well, I wasn't expecting that.' So, it feels weird, but also poignant to me."

Still, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" could be considered a daring choice in these trying post-pandemic times.

"Even prior to the pandemic, we were in a place where we felt like we could do things that were edgy," Blount said. "Now that we're coming out of the weeds a little bit after the pandemic, it feels important to keep that tradition going."

POLLARD THEATRE'S 36TH SEASON

Where: The Pollard Theatre, 120 W Harrison Ave, Guthrie.

Tickets: https://thepollard.org.

• "Uncle Zep: We Do Zeppelin": 8 p.m. Sept. 16 (Sold out).

• "Trent Smith: Young Elvis": 8 p.m. Oct. 6-7.

• "A Territorial Christmas Carol": Nov. 24-Dec. 23.

• "An Evening With Patsy Cline": Feb. 14-18, 2024.

• Monty Python's "Spamalot": April 5-27, 2024.

• "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?": June 7-29, 2024.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma theater's new season runs from tribute shows to 'Spamalot'