Atlanta’s performing arts groups are responding to the recession by turning up the laughter.
Lisa Cremin, founding director of the 
Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, said people are “cocooning” away from their problems and want performances that lift their spirits. She said such decisions make both artistic and business sense.
“More people are wanting comedy,” she said. “When things are tough and scary, they go home and turn on the news so they don’t miss anything big and they want to see how it affects their own lives. And then they want to get away from it.”
At improvisational comedy troupe Dad’s Garage, attendance has skyrocketed. Managing director Lena Carstens said her group played to 95 percent capacity in January and 86 percent in February, which had moee shows. In a much better economy it played to 80 percent capacity in January 2008 and 67 percent in February 2008.
She also said that for the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year, which was August, September and October 2008, ticket sales went up 23 percent.
Carstens said people are seeking a “shared experience.”
“There’s something very appealing about being in a room full of strangers and having a good time,” she said.
To that extent, the 14th Street Playhouse is showing “Who Killed Uncle Pete?” which it bills as a “comedy murder mystery,” June 26 and 27; and “Defending the Caveman,” a “hilarious comedy about the ways men and women relate.” The small PushPush Theater is performing “The Extremists,” a political satire.
It also means that theater companies are going to bankable quantities that people want to see. Cremin said an example of this is the Alliance Theatre’s production starting April 15 of the upbeat “Jacques Brel,” which, according to the Alliance, broke box office records and played to sold-out audiences when it went off-Broadway in 2007.
Cremin said groups that are not pursuing lighter or more bankable shows are not having as much success.
“A few theaters are doing very serious work less about entertainment and more about certain types of artistic expression,” she said. “Some of those groups are struggling to find their audience.”