Working in the theatre proves that it really is a “small world.”

On opening night of our current presentation of A Chorus Line, I was talking to two of our long term employees–Nelson and Betty D’Aloia. Nelson is our House carpenter at the Victoria Theatre, and his charming wife Betty serves as our head of wardrobe, also at the Victoria. Now it is no secret that Nelson is 85 years old, still works every show at the Vic, and is a legend in local theatre circles. I asked Nelson and Betty if they had seen the show before. They said that last night was the first time that Nelson had seen A Chorus Line. But it wasn’t that he didn’t know the show, far from it.

They went on to tell me they had both toured with the first National Tour of A Chorus Line in 1976. They travelled the country for a year and half, but because Nelson had been backstage, he had never seen the show! Betty had a chance to see it at some point on the tour and was looking forward to seeing it again. They said that the company in the ‘70s on that road tour was young and inexperienced, but several of them had gone on to have great careers –one of the performers being Bebe Neuwirth of TV fame and currently starring on Broadway in The Addams Family, a show Victoria Theatre Association is an active investor in through Elephant Eye Theatricals.

 In theatre it’s always a small world.

-Ken

Some of our subscribers and media members ask: “How can we get shows to come to Dayton sooner?” One of our active strategies to get Broadway musicals to play Dayton as early as possible in their touring schedule is to periodically make modest investments in those touring shows. The most common way we do this is to work with the Independent Presenters Network (IPN), a group of 45 Broadway presenters who work together to “pool” investment funds in selected shows. If the IPN selects a show to invest in, we have the opportunity of putting $15,000 – $25,000 towards an investment that between 20 or 30 theatres adds up to a significant amount of money and “clout” with producers as to where a show tours. This strategy has paid off with The Color Purple, Legally Blonde: The Musical, and this coming season’s 9 to 5: The Musical–where we are getting the tour in its first year on the road.

One other way we are involved in Broadway productions is through our participation in a producing entity called Elephant Eye Theatricals (EET). If you know your Broadway songs, you get the reference from Oklahoma where “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.” A few years ago, we were given the opportunity to invest in EET, whose goal was to develop productions for Broadway–the actual producing of shows including optioning or developing original properties, hiring artists, and doing everything else that a commercial Broadway producer does. There were 13 performing arts centers that made initial investments into Elephant Eye. On last Thursday, I was pleased to attend the opening night of EET’s first project: The Addams Family.

After a sold out preview engagement in Chicago for 11 weeks, the production moved to Broadway for previews and opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre last April 8, 2010. I was there to represent Victoria Theatre Association and the Arts Center Foundation at the opening along with my fellow EET performing arts center investors and others.

It was quite a night! The street outside the theatre was closed off and the full cadre of New York media was out in force. Lesley and I walked the red carpet and generated little or no interest from the paparazzi! It must have been because Elaine Stritch, Hugh Jackman, the cast of the “Today Show,” Matthew Broderick and Tommy Tune were all behind us. We settled into our seats–in the front row– and waited for the show to start about 15 minutes later than scheduled due, no doubt, to all those celebs being fashionably late. When the orchestra began the familiar theme from “The Addams Family” TV series, the audience immediately added the double finger snap and you could just tell it was going to be a good night. When the curtain went up to reveal the assembled cast–headed by Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia–there was an ovation that went on for literally minutes.

The show is campy, very funny, heartfelt and quite silly in a good way. Nathan Lane is fantastic, as is Bebe Neuwirth. There is an interesting set, good lighting, appropriate costumes, and some great special effects. There was a lot of laughter, lots of applause, and a long standing ovation at the end of the evening. And it all was followed by a fantastic opening night party in the true Broadway tradition.

The reviews the next morning were mixed, especially The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And this, for me at least, is where it starts to get interesting.

Despite the reviews, the show sold an amazing $850,000 on the opening weekend. It has consistently been sold out and is posting revenues in excess of $1,000,000 a week. It is reported to have a $15,000,000 advance on sales.

And in April 14’s New York Times there is a story about how well the show is selling–despite the terrible reviews. It looks like it may turn into a terrific hit, which, of course, is pretty close to winning the lottery in terms of probability.

All this speaks well of our association with EET. While there may be financial returns in the future (it’s early yet and there is a $16 million show to pay off), Elephant Eye will be considered as a viable producing player on the Broadway scene, making it easier to find investors for its other projects that are in earlier stages of development. It also points to the unique collaboration between a commercial Broadway producer and a group of not-for-profit performing arts centers. And this helps to promote Victoria Theatre Association and the Arts Center Foundation as one of a group of leading theatres in the country that are actively involved in the industry and helping to find new models for Broadway producing and touring in the future.

-Ken

Lots of people ask me: “How do you get your shows?” A good question and the answer can frankly vary depending on the show.

Usually, booking a Broadway show is a relatively straight forward (I didn’t say simple) process. Over the years we have developed great relationships with booking agent companies that represent not only the Broadway shows, but the other kinds of performances we present on our various series. We keep current with what’s on Broadway, what’s going on the Road (on tour), what our peers around the country are presenting.

We follow up on the titles that we think work best for Dayton and our audience, and then start a conversation around the specifics of actually contracting a show. A major consideration on booking a show is to understand the “deal,” or all the financial aspects of bringing the show to town and presenting it in one of our theatres. Everything is negotiated back and forth – handled by Tina McPhearson, our VP of Programming. The technical rider for the show can have a huge impact on the cost of presenting the show, so that information is obtained and a budget is developed based on the rider’s requirements. This is where the “brown M&M’s” in the star’s dressing room comes in (although, a lot of those “taking out the blue M&M’s” rumors are a myth and we usually don’t provide anything out of the ordinary). Sometimes an advance trip to scout out the technical aspects of the show is needed. Once we’re agreed that we want the show, and we can afford it, a deal memo is signed where both parties agree to the basic finances of the deal. After that, we go to the contract stage – and that might take as long as until the show is in town.

Because we do a variety of different types of series and presentations (Broadway, Discovery, Variety, Family) there is some variety in the agreements, but not a lot. Essentially the relationship is that someone has the rights to represent a show (the agent) and that agent’s job is to get as many bookings for as much money per booking as is possible. We look at all the available presentations in the marketplace and decide what we can afford, what we think will provide exciting/challenging/entertaining offerings that our patrons will want to buy tickets to, what dates we have available to us on the crowded venue calendars, what dates the show is being routed in our “neighborhood,” and then, we either say “yea” or “nay.”

Most of our Broadway presentations started out on – wait for it – Broadway. Some were very successful (like WICKED or The Color Purple or Disney’s The Lion King ), but a show doesn’t necessarily have to run for years in New York and then run successfully on the road for year to eventually end up in Dayton, Ohio. Next season’s 9 to 5: The Musical is a good example.

9 to 5 closed before making back its initial investment – a measure of success on Broadway – but a tour is still scheduled for next season. In this case, a new producer put together a tour that would be organized to be successful from both an artistic and financial perspective and offered it to theatres across the country. Theatres agreed 9 to 5 would be a good touring vehicle – sometimes shows that aren’t a big hit in NYC can play very successfully outside of Broadway. We signed on because we were initial investors in the show on Broadway and so already had a pre-existing relationship with the production. And, because we made a small investment in the show, we got a preferential date for the first national tour. That’s how Dayton gets to do the show before many larger cities, something we are always trying to do.

Something we always have to keep in mind is that Broadway tours are put on this earth to make money: they are looking to make back their producers’ investments as quickly as possible. The quickest way to do that is to play the biggest cities you can for as long as you can and then move on to smaller markets. So a hot new touring show will first play Chicago and Los Angeles for multi-week engagements – sometimes multi-month. Then they’ll progress to the next rung of cities – in our region, cities like Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Louisville. They will make as much money is these markets as they can – and sometimes cities have “first right of refusal” to have the show back a second time before the tour can move on to the next rung of slightly smaller cities like Dayton.  

Selecting shows for a season is not a science. There is a good deal of kismet, chance, happy circumstance or whatever involved. There are only so many shows and only so many weeks. And sometimes you don’t get the show you want, or the show you get doesn’t turn out to be as popular as you predict. It’s at that time a tried and true saying is helpful – THAT’S SHOWBIZ!

- Ken