‘Lion King’ options drying up
Here’s a lesson I learned while trying to buy tickets to “The Lion King” for some Thanksgiving week houseguests. It’s still possible. Barely.
This Disney extravaganza runs through Dec. 4, but your options are narrowing ever so rapidly.
“Thursdays through Sundays are pretty much gone,” said Jack Lucas, vice-president of WestCoast Entertainment, meaning all Thursdays through Sundays. “There may be a few seats left on some of those days, but they’re scattered.”
Meanwhile, tickets for Tuesdays and Wednesdays won’t last forever, either.
Lucas said the entire six-week run is on track to end up at about 99.5 percent capacity, or 120,000 tickets.
The majority of the tickets were sold before the show opened. After that, the box office experienced a renewed rush which hasn’t yet subsided.
“We’ve sold 15,000 tickets since opening night,” said Lucas. “We’re selling something like 600 or 700 tickets a day.”
Not bad for what is the smallest market, by far, that “The Lion King” has ever played.
About 60 percent of the audience is from more than 100 miles away, with the biggest influx coming from Western Montana, the north half of Idaho, the Tri-Cities area and central Washington (Wenatchee, for instance).
Farewell to MAC art curator
Jochen Wierich, the art curator for the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, will be leaving Nov. 30 for a new job as curator of the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, Tenn.
Wierich has presided over a number of impressive (not to mention, impressionist) exhibits at the MAC in his 3 1/2 years. He said he was “leaving with sadness.”
He said the Cheekwood Museum is known for its collection of American art from the colonial times to the present, as well as for a world-class sculpture garden. He said he felt he needed to make the “next step” in his career.
A search is under way for his replacement.
‘Sacajawea’ at the MAC
The MAC will present “Sacajawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition: American Indian Perspectives,” a traveling performance featuring Dakota Sioux historian and performer Jeanne Eder, on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the museum’s Eric A. Johnston Auditorium.
Eder received her doctorate in history from Washington State University in 2000. This event, which has also played in Seattle and Tacoma, was organized by the WSU history department.
Its purpose is to present tribal perspectives on the Lewis and Clark story.
The event is free. The MAC is at 2316 W. First Ave.
A new Clarion holiday CD
Clarion, the Spokane brass ensemble, has a new holiday CD titled “A Partridge in a Pear Tree.”
A CD release party will take place today from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave. The public is invited to this free event, which will double as an open house for KYRS-FM (Thin Air Radio, 95.3 and 92.3).
Clarion’s first holiday album, “Nutcracker Suite Dreams,” was a regional hit. In addition, arrangements and compositions from that CD were picked up by the world-renowned Canadian Brass and performed at Lincoln Center in New York, among other places.
Clarion also will perform two live holiday concerts: Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 318 S. Cedar St.; and Dec. 18, 3 p.m., at Opportunity Presbyterian Church, 202 N. Pines Road. Tickets are available by calling 489-4633 or through TicketsWest outlets (325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).
First Night update
First Night Spokane 2006 will have a few new twists.
For one thing, the annual New Year’s Eve celebration will present the “48 Hour Film Festival,” screening short local movies made in the space of 48 hours.
For another, it will have a “for-adults” district in the CenterStage block, the 1000 block of West First Avenue. This doesn’t mean it will be naughty; it just means it won’t be oriented to the family crowd, like most of First Night. It will feature cabaret singer Abbey Crawford, belly dancer Zahira and female impersonator Coco Marzipan, to name just a few.
Overall, you can expect to see 150 performers spread out over 45 downtown venues. Look for First Night Buttons for sale soon.