Next season's Follies delayed until spring 2012

Follies is on the move again.

The show will go on, but not until April 2012.

After losing its home when floodwaters ravaged the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids in 2008, the popular song-anddance extravaganza found a temporary home at Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls. Now that venue will be closed during Follies' previously announced performance dates in July.

The center's Great Hall will undergo sound-system renovations this summer, requiring scaffolding to be set up throughout the 1,680-seat auditorium.

Follies, traditionally one of Orchestra Iowa's most significant events and fundraisers, will stay at Gallagher-Bluedorn in a different time slot until the Paramount reopens in 2012.

'Follies is not being canceled,' said Robert Massey, Orchestra Iowa's executive director. 'This really is beyond our control.

We need to do (the show) and this is the only theater in the region that can accommodate the Follies we all know and love.

This is when (the renovation) has to be done, so we will move to that April 2012 timeline and do it in Cedar Falls.' Moving the performance dates to April actually moves the show back to the spring time slot that audiences, bus tours, casts and crews are used to.

'When we're back in the Paramount, we'll have more control over scheduling,' Massey said. 'Orchestra Iowa will have a March concert and Follies will be in April, staying away from Holy Week.

'We needed to make the move at some point,' he said. 'We probably wouldn't have done a Follies in July and then in April. As long as we're out of the Paramount, this was the logical time to make the switch.' Organizers had explored other venue options, including Sinclair Auditorium, Linn-Mar High School and Theatre Cedar Rapids, but none offered the seating, backstage space and onstage space needed to give audiences and performers the experience they had come to expect.

'We're not going to present a diminished product, but wait until we can do it right so the institution that is the Follies maintains its integrity,' Massey said.

Patrons who have purchased Follies tickets for July 2011 can exchange them for any other Orchestra Iowa performance this season or keep them for the April 2012 production. For season options, go to www.orchestraiowa. org. For information, call 1-(800) 369-TUNE or (319) 366-8203.