Teatro ZinZanni to close Downtown Chicago show due to COVID, ICE enforcement

Teatro ZinZanni will shutter its current show after Saturday’s performance due to a decline in ticket sales that its founder says stemmed from COVID-19 and was made worse by immigration enforcement efforts Downtown.

The dinner theater with a cirque flair is located on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel downtown in a custom Spiegeltent. It opened in Chicago in 2019.

Founder Norm Langill said the dip began last fall. The company expected an uptick in attendance during the holiday season, but after the expected bump in sales didn’t happen, administrators were forced to make the decision to halt the current production.

“My thinking is that it was affected by the hangover from COVID,” Langill said. “And then the economy, and ICE in Chicago, it just made everybody fearful.”

Langill attributes the “hangover” from COVID to the trend of audiences staying inside and turning to streaming platforms for entertainment. “They stay in with Netflix and order from DoorDash,” he said.

Teatro ZinZanni was founded in Seattle in 1998. Langill said the Seattle production, which is also closing for financial reasons, staged its farewell show last week.

“We just couldn't keep making our cash flow work with substantially less numbers that we were having. So in the beginning of January, we started to look at closing,” said Langill.

While the show is coming to an end, the company is not quitting its lease on the space. Langill has plans to reopen the main show for the holiday season, and he’s currently working to find partners to potentially utilize the space in the near future.

“It's a beautiful space,” he said. “And it's a good size, you know, about 300 seats. There's almost 200 small theaters in Chicago, and a lot of them don't have a place. So we can open our doors and we’re fully equipped.”

The space, according to Langill, has a full kitchen, and state of the art lighting and sound systems. He’s looking for a partner to host shows or nonprofits that need space for galas or auctions.

It won’t be the first time Langill has leased the space. Last summer Teatro ZinZanni hosted a guest show by award-winning comedian and RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar BenDeLaCreme.

“Those were connections we already had,” said Langill. “Now we want to open it up to all of Chicago.”