It is not more than nine months ago that Fredericia Theater went bankrupt, but now a new theater is opening in the city.
Fredericia will thus have a new musical theater, Fredericia Municipality informs in a press release.
The city council approved the foundation foundation at a meeting Thursday. This means that the city has now got a new musical theater, after Fredericia Theater went bankrupt last year.
The city seeks to recreate “the same high artistic quality”, says Christian Jørgensen, who is deputy chairman of the Culture and Sports Committee and board member of the new Fredericia Musical Theater.
– The theater is a beacon for the city, and with a view to brighter times, where we can meet again and have some cultural experiences together, it is great that we can once again look forward to musical performances in Prinsessegade, he says.
The municipality is aiming to become Denmark’s musical capital.
However, the plan suffered a serious setback in March 2020, when Fredericia Theater went bankrupt, while the coronavirus had begun to make its mark on society.
The theater stated that it had been forced to cancel many performances, which meant a significant drop in revenue. Among other things, it was the musical “Shu-bi-dua-2.0” that was canceled.
During the last year before the bankruptcy, the theater had had fluctuating ticket revenues.
Two performances in Copenhagen, “The Prince of Egypt” and “Tarzan”, led to a double-digit million deficit for the theater in 2019.
Since then, it was also found that more had been spent on marketing than the board had allowed.
During difficult times, the municipality had backed the theater with financial grants of millions, and already at the bankruptcy in March it sounded like the city council hoped that after the corona crisis it could once again rise as a theater and musical city.
Fredericia Municipality has allocated DKK 11 million annually in the budget for the new musical theater, which will be named Fredericia Musical Theater.
At the bankruptcy in March, it was an outraged Minister of Culture Joy Mogensen (S) who spoke about the closure.
– I think that Fredericia Theater has been a beacon in Danish cultural life and has done well, especially in musicals. But overall, it has shown that one can be a cultural institution with national influence from the province, she said.
Source: The Nordic Page