Why Venice Theatre's Christmas Carol Is Playing a 130-Seat Room This Year

On September 29, 2022, Venice Theatre had just finished renovating its mainstage, paid for with a $1 million gift from William H. Jervey Jr., and the company was rehearsing Kinky Boots. Hurricane Ian took the stage house that night. It also put more than 200 holes in the roof of a building that dates to the 1920s and flooded the auditorium. Of the exterior stucco on the mainstage, YourSun reported that "not one spec remained the day after the hurricane."

Four holiday seasons later, Kinky Boots is still waiting to open the rebuilt Jervey Theatre. The show that was supposed to reopen it, the theatre's original musical version of A Christmas Carol, will play a converted office building with 8-foot ceilings instead. For anyone who wants to see live theater in Venice between now and New Year's, this season comes down to a very small number of seats.

The reopening date has already moved twice

The Jervey's reopening date has slipped more than once. In May, Interim Artistic Director Murray Chase told WUSF that there had once been hope of finishing in time for June's AACT WorldFest, the biennial festival that brings in theater troupes from around the world. After that, the target was November, in time for A Christmas Carol.

"But with construction timing working out the way it has been, we don't feel that's a safe assumption and we've adjusted the schedule to make sure we're opening the Jervey in the spring season," Chase told WUSF.

Here's the current plan as WUSF laid it out:

1. Staff get access to the building in January, with a temporary certificate of occupancy expected that month.
2. A series of one-night shows and concerts in the last week of January will "kick the tires" on the new systems.
3. Kinky Boots opens on February 19 and runs through March 14, 2027.

That February date has held. A recent YourSun report still says the Jervey will reopen in February 2027 with Kinky Boots. Venice Theatre's own donation page says the project is "more than 80% funded and built" and that reopening is planned "this season in February, 2027." Chase has also said that if the date slips again, the theatre will probably swap in a different show, because "people have been waiting for 'Kinky Boots' for a long time."

What that leaves for November and December

Moving the reopening to February pushed the entire fall season into the theatre's two smaller rooms. Chase told WUSF that the Jervey rebuild "influenced every decision" about which shows went into the 2026-27 season. Here's what's on the calendar as of the first week of November:

Blood Relations, the Lizzie Borden drama that opened the fall in the Pinkerton, closed November 1. For three nights, November 20 through 22, Freaky Friday and August: Osage County run at the same time, one in each room.

The capacity gap is easy to work out. YourSun reports that Venice Theatre normally runs six performances a week in each space. At that pace, the 130-seat Raymond holds about 780 people a week. The 432-seat Jervey would hold more than 2,500. So A Christmas Carol's two-week run has roughly a third of the seats it would have had on the mainstage. The show's page already marks the schooltime performance "SOLD OUT," and YourSun has said tickets are going fast.

The Raymond was supposed to be a classroom building

Before Ian, the Raymond Center had a different job lined up. According to WUSF, the building is a former law office that was once the Venice Public Library, and it was slated to become the theatre's education facility before Ian hit. A YourSun column describes how staff and volunteers had a working mainstage running there within a few months of the storm, in a space with 8-foot ceilings "and no such thing as a stagehouse."

The Pinkerton came through Ian mostly undamaged and has flexible risers, so it has carried a share of every season since. The Raymond's future is less settled. Once the Jervey reopens, the education-center work that Ian delayed is set to begin, with most or all classes moving into the building. YourSun reports that the theatre is still deciding whether the Raymond's stage will stay. If the stage goes and February holds, this December will be the last time A Christmas Carol plays a room this small.

What the new Jervey will have

The changes are mostly backstage. Tour groups who recently got into the Jervey saw that the seating layout is unchanged: 430 seats plus two accessible seating spots. The stage and backstage areas are larger, and there's a bigger orchestra room. The new stage house rises about 70 feet above the stage, which gives enough room to hang sets for as many as four shows at once. Electric lift systems will raise sets and even actors. That work used to be done by hand, often by several volunteers backstage.

Some of the progress is visible from the street. The scaffolding is down, and "Venice Theatre" now appears on the front and back of the new stage house. A new oversized door near the Boldt Technical Center will let crews roll sets straight onto the stage. The column notes that an orchestra pit under the stage isn't practical given the theater's location. A new space just off stage left will hold any orchestra a show needs. The flooring, the 432 new seats and the lighting and technical equipment are the last major pieces still going in.

You can't walk through the Jervey right now. YourSun reports that the two recent tours of that space were likely the last before reopening. The regular behind-the-curtain tours still run, mostly led by Director of Advancement Camille Cline. They cover the lobby bars, the Pinkerton, the Green Room, the dressing rooms and the costume shop, and from the old second-floor director's booth you can look into the construction site.

Why you can't buy February tickets yet

The other half of the ticket squeeze is on the mainstage side. Venice Theatre's ticket page says Kinky Boots, The Silver Foxes, Come From Away, Pinky's Players and the concerts will go on sale once the seating chart for the rebuilt Jervey is ready. Until then, the shows on sale for the rest of 2026 are the ones playing the two small rooms.

Venice Theatre puts the rebuild at $25 million. That total includes $5.9 million already spent on repairs, rebuilding and fitting out the Jervey, building the Raymond's temporary stage, a contingency fund and insurance deductibles for future claims. The campaign is now in what the theatre calls its "filling the theatre" phase, and you can put your name on one of the 432 seats for $7,500. In March, WWSB reported that William and Sara Gill had committed a matching gift at the million-dollar level.

YourSun's recent profile put the scale of the project in perspective. Venice Theatre calls itself the second-largest community theatre in the country, behind Omaha's. Omaha has about 488,000 residents. Venice had an estimated 30,477 in July 2025. Venice is about one-fifteenth Omaha's size.

If you're looking for more ways to fill the season close to home, see our guide to Venice MainStreet's Friday concerts at Centennial Park or our Venice neighborhood page. Venice Theatre is part of everyday life here, and at NextHome Suncoast we're watching the Jervey's February reopening as closely as you are. If you're thinking about a Venice home within walking distance of opening night, Nick, Beth and the team would love to help you find your Suncoast lifestyle.