By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — The show must go on, even if it has to be outside.
That was the thought behind Backyard at the Gateway, an open-mic piano bar Thursday night at the Gateway Playhouse on Bay Avenue.
“This is a way to offer live entertainment in a safe environment and still keep our doors open,” said Keith Cooper, executive director of the Gateway.
The Theater Collaborative of South Jersey, the nonprofit organization that operates the theater, set up tables and chairs in the space behind the building and had New York City pianist Michael McAssey perform, with hopes that people would get up and sing.
“We’re trying it out. We’ll probably do another one in September and two more in October,” Cooper said. “We are doing all social distancing. We have limited the seats, so I recommend people make reservations well in advance if they want to come.”
Cooper said patrons must call to make a reservation and pay the $10 entry fee at that time.
“All of the proceeds go back to the building,” he said.
The Theater Collaborative was granted a one-day social affairs permit to serve alcohol, and had a full bar inside the air-conditioned lobby, where Karen Sutherland, Debby Jenkins and Katie Calvi were serving drinks to help cool off those sitting outside in the heat.
“The more you drink, the better we sound,” Cooper joked.
He suggested anyone interested in attending a future event follow the Gateway’s Facebook for dates and times.
Jim Dalfonso, chairman of the board for the Theater Collaborative, said it took a lot of time, money and effort to get the theater open, only to have the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down.
“Who would have thought that over 10 years of work, two years into it we would be, for all intents and purposes, out of business? We know we are going to be the last sort of operation, like movie theaters, to open and when we do reopen we don’t know what the entertainment will be like,” Dalfonso said, noting that when they do open there may be occupancy limits.
He said the piano bar may be a model for future events. “If you don’t fill the house you can’t afford to put on full production,” he said. “So we may end up morphing into doing things like this, just inside. Maybe at the end of the day this will be the kind of thing that saves us. You get people in there and an act on stage and a couple of drinks and it will be a nice thing.”
