Alcohol is a supporting player in J.B. Priestley’s drawing-room thriller, “An Inspector Calls,” which opened in September at Everyman Theatre. But spirits were front and center at the first Taste of Everyman, a new audience-building initiative that premiered the same month. The upper middle-class Edwardians in the play “drink a lot of Port,” points out Michele Alexander, director of marketing. So why not prime the audience, so to speak, with a pre-show nip of White Ruby Port?
A similar event is planned for December 17, when John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar,” a love story set in Ireland, will be paired with—you guessed it—Irish whiskey. Rounding out the three-part series will be the Philadelphia-based Bluecoat gin, poured January 28 for the Everyman production of Michael Hollinger’s “Under the Skin,” a play set in the City of Brotherly Love.
The tastings, $60 (including a ticket to the show; or a $25 add-on for ticketholders), will be accompanied by hors d’oeuvres from Chad Wells, chef at Alewife, the restaurant next door. “It’s a fun, new way for audiences to connect with the theater experience,” says Alexander. Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette St., everymantheatre.org—M.T.
