A Christmas musical has broken attendance records at a Perthshire theatre.
Ticket sales for Miracle On 34th Street at Pitlochry Festival Theatre (PFT) have surpassed those of the venue’s previous Christmas musicals, It’s A Wonderful Life and White Christmas.
Opening last Friday, it played to full houses over the weekend, achieving a 94% capacity, with the “sold out” sign hung on the door at both the Saturday performances.
Six performances have already sold out and theatre bosses are reporting very high levels of sales and reservations for the rest of the run.
Theatre chief executive and artistic director John Durnin is delighted by the enthusiasm for the seasonal production.
He said: “Although many people will be familiar with the classic black and white film or the 1990s remake, Meredith Willson’s 1963 musical version for the stage, despite its wonderful score, is barely known in Britain.
“It’s a great pleasure to see so many people booking for the show just on the strength of PFT’s reputation as Scotland’s leading producer of musical theatre a reputation further bolstered by our last two winter musicals.”
“In addition, our production of Miracle has more than a few surprises up its sleeve, all of which seemed to delight the audiences over the weekend, so once word gets around about how PFT puts the city of New York on stage, I think we’ll be even busier.”
A spokeswoman for the theatre added: “With a further surge in ticket sales expected following the overwhelming positive response to the opening weekend audiences have already taken to Tripadvisor, Facebook and Twitter to celebrate this year’s festive musical extravaganza PFT’s ability to attract substantial visitor numbers to Highland Perthshire during the winter and annually contribute up to £20 million to the Perthshire economy remains undiminished.”
Miracle On 34th Street runs until December 21.