BDT Stage adds final encore, will go 'out with a bang' with 'Fiddler on the Roof'

Jun. 21—Last summer, Boulder-area theater lovers, dinner lovers — and lovers of consuming both dinner and theater simultaneously — received some horrible news: BDT Stage was closing its doors for good.

Many BDT fans believed that the theater's current playbill — "The Sound of Music," which is slated to close Aug. 19 — would be the theater's final dying breath.

In a lovely surprise for theatergoers, last month BDT announced that the theater would remain open for one final season.

For real this time.

According to Seamus McDonough, BDT Stage's producing artistic director, "Fiddler on the Roof" will be running as the BDT Stage's encore season, this time from Sept. 9 through Jan. 13, 2024.

"Originally, when we chose the 'Sound of Music' for our last production, it was because it was our most-requested show over the past 10 years," McDonough said. "It seemed very appropriate to close out with that as our last goodbye to audiences."

Last August, with heavy hearts, owners Scott and Mary Lou Moore announced the building at 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, was for sale. Despite crowdfunding efforts to save the theater from ruin, BDT Stage's home was sold for $5 million to a real estate development firm.

Recently, though, McDonough said the real estate company reached out to the BDT team and asked if they would be up for doing an encore season of shows.

"So now, we're running 'Fiddler on the Roof,' which is the show that we've done more than any other show in our 46-year history to close things out," McDonough said.

But, don't get your hopes up, McDonough said — this extra, unexpected season of shows won't happen again.

"You know, for me, and for our staff and our owners and everybody, saying it's the final show for the 'Sound of Music' and then having a curtain call with another production — that feels OK to do," McDonough said. "But I don't want to drag our patrons around being like, 'Oh wait, this is our last show! Just kidding, this next one is our last show!' It seems unfair to our audience. So definitely, Fiddler will be it."

"At least, in that location," McDonough said, with a flair of mystery.

McDonough said that BDT has received several inquiries from fans and members of the community asking what can be done to save the theater, and for it to continue in a new space.

"Our owners are getting on in age and, you know, don't really want to own a theater anymore," McDonough said. "We are a for-profit entity, so we would have to find a new facility and someone to actually purchase the company to move forward."

For McDonough, BDT is especially close to his heart. His father was the first employee in the building in 1977 and worked there for 35 years. McDonough himself started working at the building on Arapahoe in 1999 as a busser, and eventually worked his way up, holding titles such as technical director, bar manager, and finally, artistic director.

"For me, all I'm concentrating on right now is to make sure that we're going out with a bang," McDonough said.

He said they want to have a proper send-off for BDT Stage.

"It all comes down to family," McDonough said. "All of us here are a family, we've all spent countless hours together, and we've all been through countless life-changing things together. I think of that quote from that one Marvel superhero movie — 'It's not a place, it's a people.' And BDT isn't just a people; moreover, it's a family, and it always will be."

For tickets to the Sound of Music, which will run through Aug. 19, and for the fall production of "Fiddler on the Roof," visit bdtstage.com.