Late Night's Morning After

Reed: This is how communities develop. The gays and the artists go in and renovate, and then when it's posh, the rent goes up. We helped it, and in turn it killed us.

Megee: In five years in that space, we did 21 different shows. Our shows went from The Birds in '97 costing $2,000 to Scary Carrie Christmas costing $17,000. We had 24,000 people come through the doors. Mother Trucker had 2,500 alone. God, that was a great show. David writes real scripts.

Darryl Jones: We're an eclectic group of personalities who, more often than we probably realize, substitute for absent family.

Megee: It took a year and a half to get a liquor license. But that was profitable — we would have closed after the 10th-anniversary Bonanza if we weren't selling liquor. Bonanza's liquor sales paid for The Birds, and The Birds' liquor paid for 9 to 5.

Reed: We were going to end last year, but I saw 9 to 5 as a chance to chip away at the debt. Chadwick Brooks and I worked our dicks off raising money for 9 to 5.

Megee: When the Democrats were in office, there was money for the arts. People were happy to hand money over. Now, it's sad. With two years of Republicans left, the foundations of the arts are crumbling underneath us. They want to destroy all that. I really believe it. All of my friends are poor these days. We've been having parties where everyone brings a covered dish to feed each other.

Van Ausdal: At the meeting when the word came through, I looked around at the gang, and it somehow seemed right that this chapter was ending. Increasingly it seemed to be less fun for Ron and Carol.

Megee: My 401(k) was done, and my sister was bankrupt, and the debt was piling up — but I really felt if we kept the magic going that things would be fine. I have to pay off the debt, and I will. I'm not the kind of person who would leave that out there.

Reed: It kills me that Ron's taking that on.

"Time Warp" from the Late' Night's Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Kimberley Queen: This feels like Laverne and Shirley went off the air, my dog died, and Town Topic quit serving double cheeseburgers at 3:15 a.m. all rolled into one.

Reed: Late Night Theatre was the most exciting chapter of my life so far, and I'm glad to have the memory.

Megee: Sometimes you look back and realize we really lived a decadent life. We still do. I love it. I have no regrets. I want to keep being decadent keep finding ways to shake up this city.