Gas prices are up, grocery costs, too, and dining out is a distant memory for some. So a night at the theater is a tough sell these days, something that Lisa DeCaro and Len Matheo, directors of the Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden, are acutely aware of.
That’s why the couple cut ticket prices for the theater’s two summer shows, and may continue to offer lower prices, depending on “the state of the world and how it works for the longevity of the nonprofit,” said DeCaro, executive director.
Tickets to the current show, a feel-good retro musical comedy called “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” set you back $45 for the good seats — down from $60 — while tier 2 and 3 prices dropped to $35 and $30, respectively. They also offer $15 rush tickets to any show that hasn’t sold out by an hour before showtime (with a couple of exceptions, like opening nights and Denver Actors Fund benefit shows).
When DeCaro and Matheo first pitched lowering prices, some board members questioned whether it would be a bad look for the theater. Slashing costs can be read as an act of desperation, Matheo said. But that’s not what’s happening here. In fact, it’s the opposite. They’re able to cut back because they’re doing so well.
Whatever hit they take in ticket revenue, DeCaro and Matheo figure they can make up in donations with a little extra legwork.
So far the calculated risk has proven out — better than they could have imagined. After they made the announcement about ticket prices, the donations came pouring in.
“That surprised me,” DeCaro said. “But it always comes back, it really always does. We were telling the board we think this will, long term, generate more loyal people, and so far I think that’s happening.”
Miners Alley has been around in some form since 1993, first established as the Morrison Theatre Company before moving to Golden in 2003. In 2013, DeCaro and Matheo took it over from the founders, who were ready to retire. They operated the theater upstairs from a Golden shopfront, serving about 8,000 patrons per year and pulling in around $300,000 in revenue.
DeCaro and Matheo steadily grew the theater’s reach and funding, and by 2019 they were regularly surpassing their $300k mark through ticket sales alone, while generating another $200,000 or so in donations. When the pandemic hit, the community of loyal patrons built over that time pitched in to make sure the theater would open its doors post-COVID. They collected nearly $3 million in donations, about 10 times the amount they’d received the year before.
That pool of pandemic funds became the base of a bid for the old Meyer Hardware building when its third-generation owner retired in 2021. In December 2023, Miners Alley moved out of their cramped upstairs space, where the backstage area was a hallway, and into the 14,000-square-foot vacant hardware store.
Since then, they’ve built out a lively lobby bar and are working toward adding another black box theater, artist housing and an educational wing to the space. They’ve continued to mount well-received shows that lean toward the lighthearted.
“Part of it is to make as many people as possible feel happy for a few hours, or at least moved in a positive way,” DeCaro said. “You should walk out feeling uplifted, inspired, not overwhelmed with everything going on.”
Some shows do dive into harsher topics, like “Assassins,” a Stephen Sondheim musical that follows nine people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate sitting U.S. presidents — a dark comedy about fame and the pursuit of the American Dream. But others are just for the laughs.
“We did one last year about three Midwestern housewives looking for Celine Dion,” DeCaro said. “That one was no meaning, all fun.”
The current show, a 1980s Broadway hit that gets a regional revival every few years, is a country and rock-filled romp on the fictional Highway 57, set at a small-town gas station and the neighboring Double Cupp Diner. The show, as Matheo described it, is “90 minutes of joy, laughter, fun and music.
“And that shouldn’t be something people can’t go to because they’re being hit hard in every other area of their life.”