After yesterday's announcement by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero recommending that events with more than 50 people be canceled, the Rialto Theatre announced this morning that they are going dark at least through the beginning of April.

"We have made the decision to suspend all shows and events until at least the beginning of April, and we will be evaluating next steps on a daily basis," Rialto Theatre Foundation Executive Director Curtis McCrary said in an email. "This weekend’s shows at Rialto and 191 Toole—Shoreline Mafia tonight, and Buddy Guy tomorrow at Rialto, and Katastro tonight, The Frights tomorrow, and Girl Friday Sunday at 191 Toole—will all be rescheduled if possible."

The Rialto's decision follows announcements by the Fox Theatre and local venues that they will be suspending operations.

Here's the Rialto's email:

Dear Rialto and 191 Toole ticket buyers, members, supporters, and the community of Tucson:

Like everyone else, we understand the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responsibility of everyone to mitigate transmission vectors and risks to public health, especially the significantly higher risks to vulnerable population groups.

Consequently, we have made the decision to suspend all shows and events until at least the beginning of April, and we will be evaluating next steps on a daily basis. This weekend’s shows at Rialto and 191 Toole - Shoreline Mafia tonight, and Buddy Guy tomorrow at Rialto, and Katastro tonight, The Frights tomorrow, and Girl Friday Sunday at 191 Toole - will all be rescheduled if possible.

Please note that we have already rescheduled Buddy Guy for Tuesday, September 1st. All current tickets will be honored for the new date. Read on for information about requesting a refund if you cannot attend the rescheduled date.

We humbly ask for your patience during the difficult process of rescheduling these dates. We understand that it’s a disruption to you personally, and by that token we hope you can bear with the massive disruption it represents to us as an organization. We will work diligently to reschedule everything we can.

As for rescheduled dates, we will update ticketholders immediately upon confirmation of a new date, and you don’t need to do anything further — your ticket and seat (where applicable) will be the same for the rescheduled date. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled date, you can request a refund and we will refund to your credit card or issue a check for your refund, depending on when you purchased the ticket. The refund will be processed and issued to you within 30 days of the request.

If we are unable to reschedule a particular show or event, we will issue a refund to you automatically — again, either directly to your credit card or via check in the case that the purchase was via our former ticketing provider. Again, we ask for your patience during this significant administrative undertaking.

Finally, we’d like to thank you for your support during a difficult time. We are doing everything we can to hunker down and weather this unfortunate circumstance, and we are grateful for this community. Together we’ll get through it.

Sincerely,

Curtis McCrary
Executive Director, The Rialto Theatre Foundation