San Jose’s Tabard Theatre will continue in a new direction

There’s good news and bad news for Tabard Theatre Company fans.

Sunday’s final performance of “Once” will still be the company’s last production after 22 years. But Tabard Theatre itself will live on in downtown San Jose after all.

Jonathan Rhys Williams, Tabard’s executive director, announced this week that Tabard Theatre in San Pedro Square would continue to be a performance venue for music and comedy shows. It will, however, stop producing its own live theatrical shows.

“We hope this news will be a welcome glimmer of hope to many of the folks who have reached out expressing their disappointment at our announcement last month,” he said, adding that they heard from people who had only recently discovered the intimate theater, long considered a hidden gem downtown. “This change will allow us the flexibility to make dynamic day-to-day changes in programs and still provide our downtown San Jose community with quality performances that audiences have come to expect from Tabard Theatre.”

He announced in February that three years of battling increasing costs and decreasing ticket sales, not to mention the ongoing effects of COVID-19, made it impossible for Tabard to complete its current season, which was also to include productions of “Othello” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”