Grove Festival Comes Back to End Year With a Surplus

GARDEN GROVE — With the final performance of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” Sunday at the Gem Theatre, the Grove Shakespeare Festival ended a roller-coaster year that went from the brink of financial disaster only a few months ago to an astonishing comeback.

“We will come out of the 1990 season with a cash surplus for the first time in at least three years,” Grove general manager Tony Maggi said.

Maggi estimated that the total surplus for the season will be “about $10,000” when the final box office numbers for “A Child’s Christmas” are tallied. As of Friday, the non-subscription holiday show had grossed $64,415 on the sale of 3,692 tickets. Maggi said the total gross is expected to come to $66,000 for 35 performances beginning with the Nov. 30 premiere.

“That means we’ll do about $6,500 above what we projected,” he said.

The group’s previous production at the 178-seat Gem, “The Importance of Being Earnest” in November, also exceeded projections with a $71,630 gross for both subscription and single-ticket sales.

The Grove, which will go dark for four months until the opening of its 1991 season in the spring, had carried a $42,000 deficit into the season just past. That deficit was cited by theater officials as the primary reason for the September cash crisis that brought the company closer to canceling a season prematurely than at any time in its 12-year history.