By Mary O’KEEFE

About 400 people were evacuated from the Alex Theatre on Saturday during a performance of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles after a bomb threat was received. A person called in the threat to the Alex box office about 2:13 p.m. after the performance started. Glendale police were called and responded with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad K-9 unit.

Law enforcement didn’t find any evidence of a bomb. GPD took the bomb threat seriously as did the Alex staff.

“As part of our safety protocol we train for [emergencies] like fire and bombs,” said Elissa Glickman, chief executive officer of the Alex.

When the threat came in Glickman and her staff worked with GPD and LASD while they checked the entire 85,000 square feet of the building.

She added people were worried about the evacuations, but reacted well to the instructions to evacuate the theatre.

“Everything happened peacefully,” she said. “The police were incredible.”

She added that after this incident the staff would assess their protocol and make changes if necessary.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of LA has been performing three times a year at the Alex for about 20 years. Next year they expect to add another performance.

The afternoon Saturday show was canceled while the theatre was being checked. The theatre was cleared by 5:30 p.m. and the 8 p.m. evening show went on as scheduled as did Sunday’s performance.

“The only change we made for that evening performance was [bringing in] an extra security person and we had bags checked,” Glickman said. There was also an increased GPD presence.

Checking bags at the door has always been an option that the Alex staff implements on a case-by-case basis. It normally has not conducted bag checks in the past when the Gay Men’s Chorus performs but, moving forward, it will implement that measure.

  Mary Okeefe