Off-Broadway' gives Jimmy a Tingle

By Terry Byrne/ Boston Herald Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Comedian wraps up successful first year at the Somerville theater.

Last year at this time, the 200-seat theater on Elm Street in Somerville was considered a white elephant. Financial problems and mismanagement plagued the space, and when local comedian Jimmy Tingle took over, many wondered if a guy with no theater management experience could turn the place around.

But today, Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway is a hubbub of activity, with a wide-ranging roster of programming that mixes community-based events (the Somerville mayoral debate); theater (the current "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" and from Nov. 6-8 "Dylan Thomas: Return Journey," starring Bob Kingdom); Saturday-morning kids' theater; poetry; corporate events (a monthly Entrepreneurs Dinner); a TV show (PBS' recent David Frost special had a segment from the theater); benefits for everyone from the Planet Girl performers to Club Passim; and, of course, performances by Tingle himself (weekends starting Thanksgiving and running through New Year's Eve).

"It's been a great year," says Tingle. "It's been more work than I ever anticipated, but it's incredibly rewarding."

Tingle admits the transition from performer to producer and artistic director hasn't been easy. "I knew what I had in mind," he says, "but because I hadn't done it before, it was probably harder. I think it's hard for anyone to get the caliber and consistency you want all the time."

One of the theater's biggest problems in the past had been getting audiences in the door - something Tingle got a jump on by opening the theater with his own high-profile show, "Jimmy Tingle in the Promised Land."

"In the first three months, we brought 5,000 people into the place," Tingle says. "I think people are still learning where the theater is, but we've made physical improvements and opened the alley (between the theater building and the Burren pub), so we've made it easier to get in.

"The community has really embraced the theater," he adds. "And working as a small-business owner, I'm feeling much more connected to the community and to the things that interest me. It's still a work in progress, and if it was about dollars and cents, it probably doesn't make sense at this point. But it's so rewarding, I know it's going to work on a much bigger level, maybe TV or radio. I'd love to have a national show come out of here. If they can go live from Baghdad, they can go live from Somerville."

Listen to "An Evening of 75 Laughs with Jonathan Katz”
Recorded at Jimmy Tingle’s OFF BROADWAY
by Miles Smith for Jay Allison and Transom.org
available on The Public Radio Exchange