Fire Dept. Sites Arson As Cause Of MTS Warehouse Fire, Neil Patrick Harris Lends Support

KOAT Albuquerque is reporting that the fire which destroyed Musical Theatre Southwest on Tuesday was the result of arson. As previously reported the theatre warehouse that housed the Musical Theatre Southwest burned to the ground yesterday. The fire began Tuesday afternoon and continued to burn into the day on Wednesday. Despite the fire department's efforts the roof of The Warehouse caved in.

The Warehouse stored an innumerable amount of costumes and props from the theatre's long history. Also lost in the fire are DVDs and videos of the theatre's past productions.

Neil Patrick Harris, a Musical Theatre Southwest alumni spoke about the tragedy with Action News 7 saying "My brother Brian let me know about it and I looked it up online and I was shocked. I was John Darling in the production of 'Peter Pan' that they did. It was one of the first bigger scale things that I had ever done." Harris goes on to say he is interested in helping raise awareness to help the theatre keep its doors open. "It's a hard industry to maintain. You know, community theatre is tough. It's scrappy, and so to lose a lot of your resources in one fell swoop is a big blow."

To make a donation to the theatre write Musical Theatre Southwest, PO Box 81052, Albuquerque NM 87198. For more information on Musical Theatre Southwest visit http://www.musicaltheatresw.com/

Musical Theatre Southwest's upcoming season incudes THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and WILLY WONKA which will continue as scheduled.

Musical Theatre Southwest was founded in 1966. From the first shows put on as Albuquerque Light Opera (ALO) to the original founding of ACLOA (Albuquerque Civic Light Opera Association) to the current status of MTS; Musical Theatre Southwest has been transforming itself to become the premiere source for community theatre in Albuquerque, NM.