(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Barrington Stage Company’s 2013 season was the most successful season at the box office since its founding in 1995. Total season attendance surpassed 52,000 for the first time; “On The Town” was its all-time best-selling musical; and “The Chosen” turned out to be its best-selling play.

Celebrating its 19th season in 2013, Barrington Stage Company (BSC) presented nearly 300 performances and events on four stages: the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, the St Germain Stage, Berkshire Museum (Youth Theatre) and Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, along with concerts, staged readings and the free Conversations With… series.

The rarely performed musical “On the Town” opened the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage season, helmed by Tony Award-winning director John Rando and Emmy Award-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse. The production quickly became a hit with critics and audiences alike and, fueled by a rave review in the New York Times, swiftly surpassed all previous ticket and attendance records, reaching nearly 15,000 patrons during its 5-week run.

Following the 2011 sold-out run of Aaron Posner’s adaptation of Chaim Potok’s “My Name Is Asher Lev” at St. Germain Stage, BSC presented Posner’s adaptation of Potok’s beloved novel “The Chosen,” starring Emmy Award-winner Richard Schiff on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. The show was extremely well-received and became the best-selling play in BSC’s history.

BSC’s first foray into Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing,” directed by BSC founder and artistic director Julianne Boyd and starring BSC associate artists Mark H. Dold, Gretchen Egolf, and Christopher Innvar, was praised by critics and introduced many to their first experience with Shakespeare. The closing production of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Clybourne Park” became the best-selling fall show since the 2008 hit “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The St. Germain Stage season included an American premiere and three world premieres (including a new musical from BSC’s acclaimed Musical Theatre Lab) and tackled important social issues with “Bashir Lahzar” (immigration), “Muckrakers” (government privacy in the digital age) and “Southern Comfort” (transgendering). The St. Germain season concluded with BSC Associate Artist Mark St. Germain’s “Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah.”

Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, which opened with four cabarets in its new space on the lower level of the Blatt Center in 2012, was programmed with a full expanded season of 14 cabarets (23 total performances) in 2013, including concerts by Tony Award-winner Tonya Pinkins and the talented sister act, Liz Callaway and Anne Hampton Callaway. This season, the 99-seat venue was over 90% capacity and attended by more than 2,000 people.

In 2013, BSC also introduced expanded season pass offerings, including a full season Combo Pass and the introduction of lower-priced passes, starting at just $60 for the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage Season. Bucking the national trend of decreasing subscriptions, BSC’s total season pass sales for 2013 were 22% greater than 2012 pass sales (following an increase of 30% from 2011 to 2012).

Overall, single ticket sales to the 2013 season exceeded $1 million for the third consecutive year, and total earned revenue from ticket sales increased 12% over 2012. Attendance was just over 52,000, exceeding 2012 and setting an all-time record. This is also the second year in a row attendance surpassed 50,000.

In September, BSC announced that Cole Porter’s musical comedy masterpiece “Kiss Me, Kate” would open the 20th Anniversary Boyd-Quinson Mainstage Season in June 2014, followed by the world premiere in August of “Dancing Lessons,” a romantic comedy by acclaimed playwright Mark St. Germain (marking the eighth world premiere of his work at BSC). This has already yielded more than $143,000 in season pass sales for the 2014 season. The full 20th Anniversary Season will be announced in January 2014.