Wausau Morning Report with Chad Holmes: Thursday, September 25

and welcome back it is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crite low on 98.9 WXCO Ian Welsh on the other side of the glass good morning Ian good morning Jen we'll have more with you coming up because obviously you are getting closer and closer to hitting the stage at the Grand Theater on Thursday night and it's a perfect segue to our segment here with the executive director of the Grand and the wasa performing arts foundation mr. Sean Wright Sean good to see you again

yeah

good morning I wanted to start off because we

been talking this week about center stage band and show choir taking over at the Grand Thursday Friday and Saturday night Ian being part of that and it's at the grand you

in the Grand Theater allow other groups to be able to take advantage of this wonderful facility.

You don't have to do this.

How does this come about?

What is the thinking behind it?

You know, it really is part of our mission to, you know, to provide opportunities for local groups and really help foster that lifelong appreciation for the arts.

And the arts aren't just for touring artists, then they're not just for people sitting in the seats, but they're for people in our community who are talented

and

have the opportunities to perform.

And so, center stage, obviously.

under under Joel's leadership.

It's just an incredible organization.

And yeah, it's one of the joys that we have or things like this, whether it's, you know, center stage or, you know, Sweto and that when they're at the grand or, you know, Central Wisconsin School of LA, it's through the year's Wausau Community Theater.

It is a real joy when we're able to see our own on the stage.

Touring shows are wonderful, but it's great to see the the excitement and the work.

We all know the work that goes in.

And so to see them have the opportunity to star on the stage is a pretty neat thing.

And Ian real fast, what is it like on the stage?

at the Grand Theater.

You know, honestly, just being at the Grand Theater, especially on the stage is a real honor.

Just thinking about all the great performers who have shared the stage with you.

And now you get the opportunity to be a part of that.

I mean, just looking out into the audience and seeing, you know, all the different lighting effects when it comes to center stage and all the different lights and sounds and the music and the way that everything comes together.

Performing at the Grand Theater is truly a great honor.

And

that's one of the things I hope people to take advantage.

It's just if they have not had a chance to sit in the Grand Theater and see a show.

This is

a wonderful

opportunity.

And then hopefully they'll want to come back with some of the great shows that you will be providing.

And I was noticing that it really starts to heat up here as the

temperature is cooled down.

Yes, our season really kicks into high gear.

October is a very busy month, full some prism experience.

Really cool thing because it's a Johnny Cash tribute with talented musicians.

But just as much, it actually has a theatrical.

It is recreating the Folsom Prison concert and so you hear great music, but you hear some of the things that went into it because it was not as simple perhaps as the finished product looked like.

And so I have that coming up week from Friday.

So music and a bit

of drama.

And a bit of drama.

I'm really excited to have Celtic Thunder at the Grand.

And don't call it Celtic.

No, it's Celtic.

It's Celtic.

It's Celtic.

Boston Celtics, it's Celtic Thunder.

Making those two things different.

So that was really, really obviously incredible.

towards the world, a huge PBS favorite, and so this is actually first time in over a decade that they've been to Wausau, so we're really excited to have them here, and then yeah, we just sort of continue on.

Adam's family for two nights, Tusk, Illuminate, Collin and Brad, Abominia, it is a really busy month of October, but that's the way we like it.

And the mixture again.

There's something that jumps out to me, I gotta ask about this, because I have no idea about this.

Pumpkin carving contest.

That's right.

What the heck is up?

I talk about variety,

that's true.

There's only a lot of variety right there.

Part of our free community engagement series.

And so this is not just pumpkin carving.

It is Adam's family themed pumpkin carving.

Adam's family tour has been a great partner for this and actually will be providing tickets to Adam's family to the winners.

So everybody can think of their best Wednesday, Adam's pumpkin to carve and come out and join us for a free event.

If you're good enough and not eligible to win, but I also am not eligible to win because I would not have any.

the skills needed to do it.

Let me ask you something about specifically the the Adams family show that's coming because you mentioned Wednesday and that's become a hit on streaming.

I imagine that any kind of like a revival of people thinking hey the Adams family was this something that you had scheduled beforehand or did you say hey it's something that's sort of popping up again I kind of want to be ahead of the

curve here.

Clearly was in the mind of the producers when they decided to put this this production together and bring it out and so

You know, fortunately by the time that we had the opportunity to bring it, Wednesday was already sort of out there and it hit, you know, I don't think the Wendy's Wednesday, you know, spooky

meal had started, but still

there was plenty of push there.

And yeah, I mean, obviously that's something that's interesting in the Broadway world.

There's always those opportunities that their salespeople too.

Oh,

it's, oh, X anniversary of Jersey boys.

Well, it's been off the road for two years.

It's a good time to bring it back for the anniversary when we joke that we had the 20th anniversary.

River Dance, the 25th anniversary of River Dance, and the 30th anniversary of River Dance, all since 2020, which just doesn't really add up.

But the

thing about your job is timing is so important, isn't

it?

Yes.

Absolutely.

I mean, you

could bring in a wonderful show, but if the timing isn't right, it can be hard to sell.

Absolutely.

I mean, one of the shows that we are really excited about coming out from February, Broadway musical Mrs. Doubtfire, and when the agent brought it to us and brought it to me, he said, when we look at two shows, he's like, I want to look at a Saturday evening and then a Sunday matinee.

He's like, you never get a Sunday matinee.

those were huge in the Broadway world.

And I took one look at the calendar and said, absolutely not.

I said, that is Super Bowl Sunday.

And he said, oh, he's like, I know, he's like, we've done really well in a lot of markets on Super Bowl Sunday.

I said, not in Wausau, Wisconsin.

I said, and certainly not if there is any opportunity that the Packers could be playing in the Super Bowl.

I said, he kept pushing and pushing.

I said, let me ask you a real, I said, I can't sit here and root against the team.

Let me ask you a real fast.

If you had not mentioned it was Super Bowl Sunday, he wasn't.

going to tell you, was he?

Oh, you know, he

actually knew.

I know.

No,

no, no, I mean he actually, you know, I mean I have to say that the Broadway agents we've got could really, no, I mean he was up front and said, you know.

I

would hate to have somebody try to leave you hanging.

No, no, no, he literally said, I know it's Super Bowl Sunday, but we actually do really good business because we do a one PM curtain and then people they're in the mood and I'm like, not here Rich, not, you know, not, not in Wausau.

And I said, and Ellen and I said, the Packers are going to be good or we thought they were going to be good until last Sunday.

And I said, so I could not.

live with myself sitting there if they're in the NFC championship game going

well I'd really like to go to

the Super Bowl but I'm also gonna get I'm gonna get 500 tickets returned for Mrs. Doubtfire so instead a two-show Saturday it is and selling very nicely so yes timing absolutely works

and we will have more with Sean Wright the executive director of the Grand Theater coming up in about 22 minutes

We'll be back at 722 for our next WXCO morning report.

But coming up, it is the top of the hour.

News, weather and sports and then more of mornings with Pat Kratlow here on 98.9

WXCO.

It's mornings with pack right low on ninety eight point nine WXC.

Oh, I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh and every other Thursday we get an opportunity to talk about what's happening at the grand theater with the executive director of the grand and the wasp performing arts foundation Sean Wright I do see some low ticket alerts.

Yes number of these shows already are the tickets are moving pretty well

Yeah, they are you know illuminate great family show coming up in a couple Saturdays is that show is

basically sold out just a handful of tickets left Tusk, which is a really fantastic Fleetwood Mac tribute band.

Tickets getting really low for that show as well.

And then a couple of shows in November, we did add and have added a matinee for Cirque Musica Holiday because our 7.30 PM show is basically sold out.

So if people missed out on that opportunity, we've got a second show lined up for that one.

And then yeah, if we just roll through a.

busy fall with a lot of really fantastic shows and a lot of shows we've just put on sale as well.

So it's not too early for the late fall and maybe even the Christmas season.

If you think you're going to want to go to these shows to jump on those tickets.

No, absolutely not.

I mean, looking at the holiday season, Oak Ridge Boys is already sold out.

One of the two Mannheim steamroller shows basically sold out.

Cirque Dreams Hall or Cirque Music Holiday.

Cirque Dreams was last year.

Cirque Music Holiday, the 730 sold out.

So both Mannheim and Cirque Musico, we've had today a second show.

So those, those tickets are.

going fast and of course you know nothing says the holidays like stevo who will be at the grand in december but

how hard is it to add in a show like that we've sold out we like you to do it another

you've got a there's there's a couple considerations one artist has to actually be interested in doing it secondly then you've got to look at it from a cost perspective you know we like to do it when we can because we provide the opportunity for people to to see the show but you obviously if you're successful on one show you don't want to turn around and lose the

dollars on the second show and obviously second show brings in additional costs and so there's a lot of back and forth and sometimes it's just not feasible from the artists or the attractions travel schedule whether whether they're traveling in or traveling out and we've run into that once or twice with the show that we wanted to add a second show and they've wanted to add a second show but then they've looked at the mileage and said well we're coming from Des Moines that would mean we would have to load in at five in the morning and we physically cannot get here.

from, you know, a midnight out in Des Moines to a 5 a.m.

loading in Boston.

Even

when the lights are good.

Correct,

exactly.

And I guess before we wrap it up, it's not too late to become a subscriber, is

it?

No, not too late.

Obviously, only season show we've had so far was The Righteous Brothers.

So, yeah, 30-plus shows still remaining in the season.

And yeah, four shows or more gets you all the benefits of subscription, including discounted tickets on those shows that you select.

And the opportunity is

we add shows as we have those, you know, those second shows for those holiday shows, Justin Willman, Marshall Tucker Band, Steve Oh, and the rest to, you know, you get first access to those tickets as well.

So absolutely plenty of, plenty of shows to choose from to subscribe.

And any updates on the second century campaign you'd like to share?

Yeah, where we are excited.

We are, you know, at that point, we're starting to, starting to really get real, spend some time with our seating company over the last week finalizing.

the details, the cup holders, very important cup holders, you know, the layout of the seats.

And yeah, it's real, it's fun to see the, you know.

the step from a photo to a physical sample seat, to a shop drawing, to quickly getting into production.

Are

you confident when you make the decisions?

Because sometimes it can actually be hard when you have

choices.

Oh, it's so hard.

It really is.

You want to be right because this is for years.

Literally, we had multiple staff yesterday sitting there with the sample seat.

and the cup holder samples, they've sent us like, what if we put it up this high?

What about this level?

What about that level?

You know, and everybody had a different opinion, like, oh, I like reaching down.

So it's like, but then if you're reaching down, you know, suddenly your hair is in somebody's face.

Okay, well, let's keep it.

I mean, yeah.

Yes.

And then there's just the simple, what can they do?

manufacturing wise and everything.

But that's an exciting thing because we are moving into the point of the campaign where it's going from, there's dates on the schedule and we have some pretty renderings to, no, these are seats are getting ordered and materials.

It's becoming real, isn't it?

It's becoming very real.

So we still obviously have about $4 million to go to our fundraising goal.

So people can, we've unveiled a new website, grand100.

that has all of the second century details.

You can get it obviously on grandtheatre.org, but the grand100.org has everything, all of the great content that Sadie Fisher has created and information about the campaign, people who have donated, opportunities for people to get involved and be part of the campaign, and that'll be the hub because as these things start happening, they'll be the great, we know people will want to see all the fun things that are coming up, I believe.

know, I think we're a couple of weeks from now, we're supposed to see the, uh, all of the non, uh, fixed seat furniture package.

So all the seating you'll see elsewhere in other areas of the grand.

You've thought about this.

It's an idea because sometimes when there's a ballpark that's being built, they have a camera that follows.

Oh, yes.

They will absolutely be a time lapse within the theater so that people can see, especially because, uh,

you know, the fact that we are doing all of this work over this really

abbreviated closure means there's gonna be a lot of various things going on at the same time.

This is not a project where, okay, the seating company comes in and they take their two months, and then the painting company comes in and they take their month.

And I'm sure they're all

very aware of this,

that this window is pretty narrow.

Oh, they're very aware of this, and I don't want to know the things they're saying about us, and me in particular, behind closed doors.

All right, well again, great shows coming up, check out Grant.

grandtheater.org and that's grandtheater with the er.org and grand100.org to get further information on the second century campaign as well.

So, Sean, I always say it's busy, but it's going to keep getting busier and busier, so try to enjoy it.

You know, we will.

I don't have any Cardinals playoff baseball to watch, so, you know, I've got plenty of time on my hands.

You'll become sort of the above the fray baseball playoff expert a couple weeks.

I will work with the Brewers.

There you go.

It's time.

It gives you the

bloodstream, right?

We've got 11 World Championships, you know.

And I'm

sure you like to remind people when you are a little down here, we still have

those 11

World Championships.

The last one was a long time ago.

Very good.

Well, Sean, always great to see you.

Sean Wright from the Grand Theater.

We have the Farm Report coming up, and then more of Mornings with Pat Crichtlow here on 98.9 WXCO.

And welcome back, it is the WXCO morning report, part of mornings with Pat right now, 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.

Another very pleasant start here in North Central Wisconsin a bit chillier than it's been in recent days right now 47 degrees here at our studios in downtown wassup at the corner of Washington Street and North 3rd Street in downtown wassup Sunny skies again.

Hopefully your day is off to a great start.

I am Chad Holmes along with Ian Welsh Ian again.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chad We will have more on your big night in our last segment

But I want to talk a little bit today because yesterday, uh, Tom Tiffany was in Warsaw, one of his first appearances after announcing that he would be running for governor.

And, uh, he basically started trying to set an agenda for his, uh, race for the state house.

And I'm trying to be open-minded about this, but he's got a long record and.

I don't understand this pattern that Republicans like to, well, things are really bad, but they really don't do anything to make things better.

That's, that's basically what they do.

They say that things are not going well.

That's what he says.

Oh, I'm running because I'm, uh, somebody that is, uh, change the way things are done in Madison.

I know how to do things and yet.

They don't believe in using government for a positive.

They don't believe in trying to fix problems They just try to point out problems and say hey, it's your fault and and I don't understand this idea of always Trashing the state or trashing the country when things are not under your control and then saying as Donald Trump says

Well, now everything's wonderful.

I'm sorry, but you don't take over on January the 20th this year and say that everything was terrible.

And then now today here in what September, everything's wonderful.

Fantastic.

I mean, come on.

So I would hope that we are going to see a campaign that actually talks about issues, does not fall into the trap of the horse race, does not fall into the trap of personalities.

Talk about education and education funding.

What does Tom Tiffany believe we should be doing in terms of education and education funding?

I don't want to hear the generalities that, oh, we're not doing well enough.

Well, we hear that all the time.

What are your solutions to the problems?

We need to be better.

Yes, we need to be better on programs like this.

And I think over the next year, something that you and I are going to do is we're going to go.

Issue by issue and look at these candidates and what they are saying about issues Try to take away the personalities whether it's the personalities of the candidates or the personalities of myself or yourself Let's try to get down to the core about the future for the state of Wisconsin

take away the a showman a ship and focus on the actual issues

themselves,

right?

I mean, it's so easy and I saw an interview with Tiffany yesterday where he's talking about, you know, there's a laundry list of things that he thinks are not right with Wisconsin.

I want a

specific.

No.

Well, he talks about dropping below Mississippi in terms of educational attainment.

Okay.

What are you going to do about it?

Is it mean more funding for private schools?

I mean, I mean, disagree with it, but at least there'll be an answer, but he just goes through a list.

Uh, he says we are in the bottom tend to be able to start a business.

You know what that means?

Oh, we can't have any regulation or any rules.

Anybody should be able to do anything they want as long as they're a rich guy.

No, that's not the way to go.

Nope.

Energy class.

Okay.

Well is eliminating solar or alternative energies the way to go?

Well, I want to hear that discussion.

So again, it's going to be a long campaign.

The primary is not until next August.

So we already have a number of candidates on both sides of the aisle.

So it'll be a lot to talk about, but let's talk about issues and not talk about horse races.

Let's not talk about who gets the Trump endorsement, which seems to be the golden goose over on the Republican side.

And instead of just pointing out all the things that we're doing wrong, how about we come up with.

you know, some possible solutions is how we can make it right or how we can improve upon it.

Is it a saying like, oh, there's no way to fix this?

It's like, well, if there is a way to fix it, why don't you give us some examples and we can see if they're

actually have feasible ideas.

The battle of ideas.

That's the bottom line.

We

talked about that constantly because it is important.

It's not just about, you know, who has the more.

Bigger personality or you know the biggest ratings it's about you know talking about these issues and how we want to Fix them for future generations because if we don't start fixing things now the future generations are gonna have a real Workload on their hands and that's not

Fair to them

and by the way, there's also we've talked about what happens on the 7th congressional district where Tom Tiffany has been the representative didn't take long but a Republican candidate has already thrown her hat into the ring it's Jesse ebbin of Stanley and The only thing I know about her right now is she calls herself a Trump conservative.

So there's a start.

We will try to fill in the blanks for her

As we move forward There is one person who is already announced that he will be running on the democratic side.

So we'll we'll talk about that as well.

So again Election season is getting closer and closer and closer.

It'll be a very I would say I would say a very interesting 2026 I agree Coming up after our information update here at the top of the hour.

I will be joining Pat Crichtlow will be

talking about stuff.

So I'll be with Pat coming up and then me and Ian will be back at 822 and we'll talk about what Ian's up to and give the number for the day quiz as well.

It's almost eight o'clock.

Good morning.

47 degrees here in downtown Wasup.

It is the WXCO morning report.

Part of mornings with Pat Krightlow 98.9 WXCO.

And welcome back.

It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crichtlow here on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm Mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app again the sun is shining here on this Thursday morning the 25th day of September

Yeah, we're getting close to October.

How about that?

But right now again, a very pleasant start here this morning.

Temperature is a bit chillier than it's been, but very

You feel it out there again.

It refreshes you really do 49 degrees is the temperature should be another beautiful day in fact It's we're in the midst of some really beautiful weather here in north central, Wisconsin But just because it's beautiful outside doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend at least a little bit of time indoors here over the next three nights Because Ian Welsh along with some other very talented folks from a center stage band and show choir are starting tonight at the Grand Theater their

big production free at the Grand Theater.

What is the title again of your production?

The title of the

show

is hits from across the Atlantic.

So the

British invasion coming here to the Grand Theater and last night was your final rehearsal.

It was, it went very well and we're very excited for opening.

Now tonight, and I hope we have a good crowd.

We had a couple of your castmates on yesterday Are you nervous?

Are you more of any nerves are involved when you get ready for the open air?

It's

It's actually a pretty normal to be nervous before every show But the trick is to you know, take those nerves and focus them in the positive energy It's you give you that extra little burst of energy

Sushi for your opening night audience.

The thing about it is we talked, it's free admission.

You can get tickets at the door.

There are some other sponsors.

You can pick up tickets as well, but there's really not an issue in terms of tickets because it's such a large venue.

And we

never turn anyone

away.

There you go.

So they'll sit you on stage if necessary.

I

wish we could.

That'd be a pretty

close query.

It would be dangerous though.

It would be.

I don't want to be in the point because I know there's, is there any dancing involved this time around along with your singing and stuff like that?

There's a lot

of dancing.

involved in this year's show.

I think a little more dancing than usual,

so

it'll be a very high energy show, for sure.

Fantastic, again.

Look

forward to seeing you at one of these shows as well.

Yep.

Either tonight or Saturday, for sure.

One of the other, um, I'm leaning towards Saturday at this point.

I just liked Saturday.

I like where it's like, I haven't had a long day at work.

And anyway, for some people it's wonderful to be able to have work, go have some dinner downtown, go and see a wonderful show.

But this way, and actually I work either way.

I mean, Saturday I've worked too because we have a football game in the afternoon, but it'll be done well before the show.

But one, if I feel it tonight.

You know, if I just get to the point, because I go off and I do my pregame interviews on Thursday, when I get done with that last one, which is usually, it's usually around 5.45, 6.

And it's like, I want to go home and get prepared, you know, and then freshen up.

So it may be a little tight.

So I'm thinking probably on Saturday, but either way, I am looking forward to being there.

I was so impressed a year ago.

When I went to that show, it was just, again, it really was something special and being in the audience.

And I think I told you this last year that the audience was really engaged with the entire production.

It was, you could feel it in the audience that they were engaged with what you were doing on stage.

And it felt as though you guys were very much engaged with the audience as well.

And it turned into such a wonderful show.

And again, as I said during the interview with your cast members,

that this is a production that would be worth.

30 35 bucks.

I mean, it was that good.

I mean, in terms of being at the grand and feeling the energy there than having the talent and the entertainment value come through, it was something that is just, I mean, it's an incredible deal.

It's an incredible opportunity for people to really who enjoy music, who enjoy live theatrical productions to take advantage and people that just like being at the grand theater.

It's, you know, the final chance maybe for some people to see the grand in its current

configuration before the second, second, second century campaign will change things when you are back in about a year from now or probably a little later than then.

I don't know how it's going to work next year.

We had

a different location next

year.

The next

time the Sarasage is at the Grand Theater, it will be in the newly renovated theater, which honestly, I can't wait to

see.

Yeah, because a year from now.

It's still going to be closed, so if you want to keep your show at the same time, you do have to go somewhere else, so.

We are working on a backup location for next

week.

I'm sure it'll work out great, so we'll look forward to seeing you.

And again, folks, go out there seven o'clock, right?

Seven o'clock each night.

Seven o'clock at tonight and Friday and Saturday at the Grand Theater.

It's absolutely free.

Bring your family, bring your

friends.

Bring people you don't know.

Bring everybody,

yeah.

Grab them off the streets.

Bring them in.

If you want to come.

That's a more than one show I You're more than welcome to

all right.

Well, let's finish things off here with our number for the day quiz Okay, you're one for three.

So big big days here.

Yeah, you got to get at least one for a passing grade gag You know both for a winning week big risk today.

It's a Number of guests at the average American wedding The average American wedding how many guests are there?

Okay, so your choices are

All right.

149.

Okay.

189.

Wow.

229.

149, 189, 229.

This is

pretty amazing, these numbers,

all of those numbers.

Because the

average amount of,

yes.

Yes, at the average.

I guess, you know, when you think about it between families and friends, maybe it does add up to a lot.

I just know when I get married, if I get married, it's not going to be.

Any of those numbers

You know I'm gonna say 189 is my final guess I'm gonna say 189

average number of guests at an American wedding is 189 Oh two out of four You over now tomorrow try for a winning week.

Yes.

Well break break alike tonight Thank You Chad

Happy Thursday, everybody.

Have a great day.

And back to Pat Crite Low.

Mornings with Pat Crite Low coming up next.

98.9 WXCO.