Tulsa PAC Looks Ahead to 'The Sound of Music' After COVID Cases Cancel 'Mean Girls' Shows

For the first time since the Tulsa Performing Arts Center reopened, a show was canceled because of COVID cases. 

Producers of "Mean Girls" had to cancel its final two scheduled shows in Tulsa Sunday.  

Now, "The Sound of Music" is set to open this weekend. 

Celebrity Attractions said everyone with "Mean Girls" was vaccinated, so breakthrough cases are a big concern going forward with a packed calendar for the rest of the month.  

After "Mean Girls" canceled its Friday evening and Saturday matinee shows because of breakthrough COVID cases, it was a true testament to the saying "the show must go on." Three cast members were flown in from Broadway to give the crowd at the Tulsa PAC a Saturday night performance.  

"We had to hold the show for 15 minutes, which I think is phenomenal and again the production was seamless, it was a fantastic performance,” Celebrity Attractions CEO Kristin Dotson said.  

Dotson said on Sunday, there were more positive tests, and producers canceled both shows for the day. She said a total of four of the eight performances scheduled, were canceled.  

"Every time you make plans, you never know if it's gonna be canceled or not,” Jeanna Alexander from Sand Springs, said.  

She came by the PAC Monday to get a refund for her tickets.  

"It doesn't change the way I feel, we'll continue to come here and enjoy all the shows,” Alexander said.  

"From my understanding, everyone is doing OK. We've got them quarantined here in Tulsa,” Dotson said. “We'll be checking on them and making sure that we can get them back on their feet and back on the road."  

But another cast of performers will be back on stage for audiences in a few days. 

The cast and crew of "The Sound of Music," put on by Theatre Tulsa, is going through daily testing, and almost all of them are vaccinated.  

"Now with Sound of Music we're dealing with age ranges from little bitties, all the way up to old people like me. And even in that case, if the child can't be vaccinated, we ask that the household be vaccinated that the child's coming from,” Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust CEO Mark Frie said.  

Frie, who happens to play the leading role of Captain Von Trapp, wants people to buy tickets with confidence. 

"We're gonna take care of you,” he said. “If a show has to cancel, we're gonna fully refund your money. We're not gonna hold back any fees. We're not gonna do any of that because we're all in this together."  

Celebrity Attractions encourages calling the PAC box office before buying tickets from a third party. 

In one example, Dotson said a woman paid $200 for a ticket that was only $79 at face value, and Celebrity Attractions has no control over whether that woman will get her money back.