Sesame Street Live (1980-2025)

Sesame Street Live is a live touring show based on the children's television show Sesame Street produced by Feld Entertainment under license of Sesame Workshop. History The VEE Corporation was started in March 1980 by founder Vincent Egan, who had an idea to produce a live-character show based on Sesame Street. He had worked for the Ice Follies tour, which had a segment featuring Muppets. Egan approached Jim Henson's company and Children's Television Workshop, who were interested. With outside funding, Vee was able to sign a licensing agreement with the Children's Television Workshop for the characters. The first Sesame Street Live show opened in September 1980 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota for a successful five-day run. The following shows in five locations had lackluster attendance costing VEE the profits made in Bloomington. Egan figured that the marketing material was confusing people in those markets as what type of show was not specified. He overhauled the script and marketing while getting his creditors to wait for payments. That Christmas, the show went on to play for four weeks at Madison Square Garden's 4,000-seat Felt Forum in New York City before an audience of 100,000 people. VEE quickly ramped up to two different shows for the 1981–1982 season, then added a third Australia show in 1982–1983. From the 1983–1984 season until the 1988–1989 season there were only two Sesame Street Live shows on tour.