Then, with the permission of resort management, Carr started mixing classic musicals like “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music” with more contemporary fare like “Chicago” and “Sweet Charity.” The older Welk show fans who had been the theater’s bread-and-butter in the early years were dying off and there weren’t enough younger theatergoers to replace them.Ĭarr began experimenting with the mix of entertainment, adding magic, variety and tribute shows as well as solo shows by stars of yesteryear, such as Mitzi Gaynor, Shirley Jones and Rich Little. When Carr arrived in 2009, the theater’s audience was already changing. “There’s that stigma that it’s an old folks place, not a place that presents contemporary shows,” he said. In an interview with Carr this week before the shutdown was announced, he said he’d worked very hard in recent years to attract a younger audience without offending the older crowd. Honoring the resort’s history, while appealing to its increasingly youthful time-share owners and guests, has been a difficult balancing act. The theater also had planned to get rid of the life-size Lawrence Welk cutouts and the studio bandstand set with old-fashioned TV cameras. The cracked and faded piece of Welk memorabilia was sold Friday on eBay for $305. Among the items to go is the illuminated 4-foot-tall crystal Champagne glass, which was made in 1980 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
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