Klondike stage show closes after 40 years
The curtain is closing on the Gaslight Follies in Dawson City. The Klondike Visitor's Association has decided to pull out of the theatre business. It's been losing money on the production for years.
Tourists have been the mainstay of the vaudeville style production for the past 40 summers. Inside the legendary Palace Grand theatre they watch the Klondike gold rush play out on stage.
Valerie Anderson, executive director of the Klondike Visitors Association, worked as an usher in the theatre years ago.
But she says it's time for the association to cut its losses."It had been one of the first tourism products of our community," Anderson says.
"But we just couldn't afford it financially anymore so it was a difficult decision."
The Association is predicting a loss of $140,000 this season. Last year, it lost $40,000.
Anderson blames it on bus tours dropping the Gaslight Follies from their packages. The association tried to find ways of attracting other customer, but it never paid off.
"In the last few years, we've initiated a lot more smaller programs to get the road traffic coming, but we just can't make up that volume," Anderson says.
The Klondike Visitors Association may be bowing out of the Gaslight Follies. But Anderson says somebody else is welcome to take its place.
The actors, musicians and stage crew take their final curtain call on Sept. 8.