CHEERS LIVE ON STAGE Will Use Audience Members as Background Actors

While there were just a handful of regulars visiting Sam Malone's bar in the classic sitcom "Cheers," Boston's popular libation destination was always filled with extras enjoying their drinks, chatting with friends, entering and exiting.

So in order to fully populate designer Michael Carnahan's set, and offer a realistic atmosphere, the tour of CHEERS LIVE ON STAGE will be utilizing audience members as background actors.

The Associated Press reports that Erik Forrest Jackson's touring adaptation will utilize about ten audience members to be onstage bar patrons. In keeping with the time of the show's first season, they'll be dressed in 1980s fashions and given stage directions such as when to enter, where to sit and when to exit.

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As reported by BroadwayWorld, Stageworks Media and TROIKA Entertainment have announced that CHEERS LIVE ON STAGE, a comedy based on the best and most memorable moments from the Emmy Award-winning classic hit TV series, will launch a national tour beginning in September 2016. The tour will begin, appropriately, in Boston at the Shubert Theatre, followed by a multi-week engagement at Chicago's Broadway Playhouse, before continuing across the U.S.

Set in the interior of the iconic neighborhood bar (where drinking all day is the Norm!), audiences will laugh along with Carla, Coach, Cliff, and Norm, as Sam "Mayday" Malone and Diane "Buzzkill" Chambers meet for the first time, share a first kiss and a first fight. A special VIP package in many markets will allow patrons to experience the iconic bar onstage at intermission for a photo and beverage.

The two-act comedy is being adapted for the stage by theatre, television, and film veteran Erik Forrest Jackson and directed by award-winning director Matt Lenz. The creative team includes Michael Carnahan (Scenic Designer), Michael McDonald (Costume Designer), and Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Designer). The live show adaptation will be brought to life by Stageworks Media and TROIKA Entertainment. Casting will be announced at a later date.

"Cheers," ranked one of TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time," aired for eleven seasons between 1982 and 1993. It garnered top 10 ratings for seven of its eleven seasons and often earned the number one ranking in the weekly Nielsens. The show received 26 Emmy Awards and 4 Golden Globe Awards.

Visit CheersLiveOnStage.com.