To All Our Valued Customers, Guests, Friends, and Members of the Newport Playhouse Family,
It is with a very heavy heart that I share the news that The Newport Playhouse will officially close its doors on December 31, 2026.
Writing those words is extraordinarily difficult.
For more than 43 years, The Newport Playhouse has been far more than a theater, a restaurant, or a place to see a show. It has been a gathering place. A family. A home for performers, employees, musicians, technicians, and, most importantly, generations of guests who have walked through our doors ready to share a meal, enjoy a performance, laugh together, and forget about the outside world for a few hours.
When the Playhouse opened in August of 1983, I was an eighteen-year-old kid who thought opening a small theater might be a fun hobby until I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I could never have imagined where that decision would lead.
What began with musicals and just a few performances each month quickly grew into a dinner theater producing hundreds of performances each year. Over the decades, we designed and built more than 250 sets, performed thousands of shows, wrote thousands of cabaret skits, welcomed countless talented actors and musicians to our stages, and served more dinners—and rolled more meatballs—than I could possibly count.
But numbers could never tell the story of The Newport Playhouse.
The people tell the story.
Many of you knew my father, Matt Siravo.
Matt played almost every role imaginable at the Newport Playhouse—performer, leader, director, producer, friend, listener, mentor, and helping hand. Always the consummate gentleman, he was the guiding light who helped make the Newport Playhouse not simply a business, but a family.
The City of Newport even honored him by naming his birthday, February 25th, Newport Playhouse Day.
I had the extraordinary privilege of working alongside my father for 32 years, and even today I can still hear his voice guiding me, both professionally and personally. His spirit has never left this building, and I know it never will.
My own life has unfolded within these walls.
I welcomed five beautiful children into the world during these years, and one of my greatest joys was holding each of them on our stage and introducing them to our Playhouse family.
Some of my deepest friendships began here.
I have watched actors discover talents they didn't know they possessed. I have watched friendships form backstage and across dinner tables. I have seen audiences laugh until they cried, stand and applaud, sing along, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, and return year after year—often bringing their children and eventually their grandchildren.
Through it all, the Playhouse endured floods, equipment failures, renovations, changing times, the natural challenges of operating a small business, and even a worldwide pandemic.
Somehow, “The Little Theater That Could” kept going.
Until now.
The decision to close the Newport Playhouse was not made quickly or easily. Anyone who knows what this place means to me and my family knows that saying goodbye was never something I wanted to contemplate.
But every show eventually reaches its final scene.
As I reflect on these 43 years, what makes me proudest is not simply the number of productions we presented or the years we remained in business. It is what happened between people inside this building.
From the beginning, our mission was to create a welcoming and inclusive place where artists could practice their craft and where our audiences would feel less like customers and more like family.
Over the years, I have had countless guests tell me that an afternoon at the Playhouse lifted their spirits, that a performance made them laugh during a difficult time, or that a song transported them back to another chapter of their lives.
Those conversations have meant more to me than I can adequately express.
They convinced me long ago that laughter really can be the best medicine.
To Our Customers and Guests
Thank you.
Thank you for buying that first ticket.
Thank you for coming back.
Thank you for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and ordinary Sunday afternoons with us.
Thank you for bringing your friends, your parents, your children, and eventually your grandchildren.
Thank you for applauding our actors, laughing at our cabaret, enjoying our meals, forgiving us when things weren't perfect, and supporting a small local theater for more than four decades.
Most importantly, thank you for allowing us to become part of your memories.
To Our Employees, Actors, Musicians, Directors, Technicians, and Everyone Who Has Worked Behind the Scenes
There simply would never have been a Newport Playhouse without you.
Thousands of performances happened because talented and dedicated people walked through these doors and gave something of themselves to this place.
You memorized the lines. You built the sets. You hung the lights. You played the music. You cooked the meals. You served the tables. You washed the dishes. You sold the tickets. You answered the phones. You cleaned the theater. You solved the problems nobody in the audience ever knew existed.
And then you came back the next day and did it all again.
You gave this building its life.
I will forever be grateful to each of you.
One Last Season Together
Although December 31st will mark the end of the Newport Playhouse, we are not finished yet.
We still have performances ahead of us, audiences to entertain, meals to share, stories to tell, and laughter to fill this building.
My hope is that during these final months, everyone who has ever considered the Newport Playhouse part of their lives will have an opportunity to come back through our doors one more time.
Come see a show.
Bring an old friend.
Tell us your Playhouse stories.
Remember the performances that made you laugh.
Remember the people you met here.
And help us celebrate—not simply the closing of a theater, but 43 remarkable years of live entertainment, friendship, family, and memories.
There will undoubtedly be tears when that final curtain comes down on December 31st.
But there should also be tremendous pride.
Very few small theaters get to tell a story that lasts more than four decades.
We did.
And we could never have done it without you.
Buildings close. Sets are taken down. Lights eventually go dark.
But the memories we created together don't disappear when the curtain closes.
They travel with every actor who stood on our stage, every employee who worked within these walls, every family that gathered around our tables, and every member of our audience who laughed with us along the way.
From my family to yours, thank you for giving me the privilege of spending virtually my entire adult life doing something I loved.
Thank you for believing in The Little Theater That Could.
Thank you for 43 unforgettable years.
And most of all, thank you for being part of our family.
We hope you will join us during these final months as we celebrate everything that made the Newport Playhouse such a special place.
And when the curtain finally comes down on December 31st, we will do what theater people have always done.
We will take one last bow.
With Deep Appreciation and Love,
Jonathan Perry
President
The Newport Playhouse