MAD Money
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Moffatt kept quiet about the gift until it was signed and sealed, then sat on her news over the weekend so it wouldn’t be “buried” in a Saturday paper. In the four and a half months since, a little over $1 million of the $18 million MADTC still needed to raise has come in, and Moffatt has begun booking the first season, scheduled to start in November 2003. Whether there will actually be tenants for the theater has been the subject of speculation, and the dates are still being “firmed up,” but Moffatt says that with the exception of Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, the first week in January, and a few odd weekdays here and there, the season is complete. Filling the schedule was made a lot easier not only by the late-fall start, but by the city, which has conveniently turned into the theater’s major tenant. The mostly underground facility, nestled into city property, has a 99-year lease that gives the city occupancy at cost for June, July, and August, traditionally the most difficult booking period. The city apparently doesn’t have a clue as to what it’ll do with the theater during those months, except for some use of the backstage facilities by the Grant Park Orchestra. Word is Grant Park Festival kids’ concerts could be held there (watch out for gummy bears and juice boxes), and it might be a bad-weather venue for regular symphony concerts, though it’s short thousands of seats for a full Grant Park audience.
Shaky Coalition
