Theatre Economics: Broadway And Off Broadway

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 3/30/10 at 1:08pm

Very interesting article for anyone intersted in the producing side of the theatre.

**Hits, Smart Money Ditch Off-Broadway For Tonys**
by Jeremy Gerard

The producers of two new hit musicals, 'The Scottsboro Boys' and 'Yank!' say
they'd rather gamble on Broadway than move into an off-Broadway theater.
The costs are lower, but so are potential profits -- and prestige.

Things have changed plenty in New York since I first started sneaking into
plays in the late 1960s.
Back then, the musical 'Promises, Promises' began a four year Broadway run.
At the same time, a serious new drama like Israel Horovitz's 'The Indian
Wants The Bronx' could open Off Broadway at the brand new Astor Place
Theater, have a profitable 177-performance run and launch a career (in this
case, of an explosive young Al Pacino).
That two-tiered system is all but dead.

Today the money, and there's a lot of it floating around just now, is
going exclusively to Broadway, where investors will roll the dice for a
chance to stand on the stage with a star or two during the broadcast of the
Tony Awards.

As executive director of the Vineyard Theatre, Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell is
a big believer in off-Broadway. The nonprofit company, operating in a
132-seat theater near Union Square, has developed the Tony Award-winning
musical 'Avenue Q' and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'How I Learned to
Drive', among others.
Earlier in her 13 seasons at the Vineyard, Garvey- Blackwell's options
included moving to a commercial off-Broadway house such as the Lucille
Lortel when one of her shows struck box office gold.

Today, with 'Scottsboro Boys', the biggest hit in the Vineyard's history, it's
Broadway or bust.

'Off Broadway is not an option', Garvey Blackwell said. The musical, the
last show written by the 'Chicago' team of composer John Kander and lyricist
Fred Ebb, who died in 2004, sold out its entire run, including a two-week
extension through April 18.

But 'Scottsboro' is a high-risk show about nine young black men charged with
raping two white women in the '30s American South. The audience for Broadway
musicals isn't typically looking for such strong brew; after all, isn't that
what off-Broadway is for?
Not these days.

'It's not a business anymore', said Ben Sprecher. 'The economics just don't
work. The expenses are too high, the profit margins are too low and the
talent won't go there'.
Sprecher once presided over three of Off-Broadway's best known theaters:
The Lortel, in the West Village, the Variety Arts, in the East Village and
the Promenade on the Upper West Side.
Today, the Promenade is a Sephora cosmetics store and the Variety Arts is a condominium.
The Lortel, where Lotte Lenya once sang Pirate Jenny in 'The Threepenny
Opera', is used almost exclusively by the nonprofit MCC Theater. And
Sprecher is producing the Broadway bound musical 'Rebecca', based on the
Daphne du Maurier novel, which he plans to open first in London next season.

The stagehands union doesn't hold sway over Off-Broadway, eliminating one
major expense. But other costs, including pay for actors, stage managers,
press agents and others, are nearly as high as Broadway's.

So if 'Scottsboro Boys', has a future, it will be on Broadway.
Garvey Blackwell said the Vineyard's budget for musicals is $600,000 to
$800,000. Moving to Broadway will cost upwards of 10 times that amount.

The producers who raised $325,000 for the nonprofit York Theatre Company's
$440,000 production of 'Yank!' also want to move to Broadway when it ends
its sold out run this weekend in the Theater at St. Peter's Church in
midtown.
Except for its gay lovers, 'Yank!' is a conventional romantic musical set
against the backdrop of World War II. It has love songs, snappy subplots,
big production numbers and an undercurrent of intrigue.

'Direct to Broadway is our first choice', said Stuart Wilk, one of three
managing partners for 'Yank!' in a producing pool of eight. 'Going to a
regional theater before coming to Broadway is the second choice.'
Some of their advisers have mentioned Off-Broadway, Wilk said, calling it
'the choice that won't die.'

Off-Broadway managers have themselves to blame for the change, Sprecher
said, by charging ticket prices on a par with Broadway. Instead of growing
profits, that move scared audiences and investors away.

Wilk and his partners are looking for a theater under 1,000 seats and figure
it will cost $5 million to move their show to Broadway. Raising that $5
million may not be nearly as hard as finding the first $325,000 for the York
production. Like the creative people who only want to work in a Tony
Award-eligible theater, venture capital is following the same pattern.
'The talent only wants to go where you can get a Tony, and the talent drives
the business', Sprecher said. 'When everyone at the party tells you you're
drunk, you'd better sit down'.

That's a pittance by today's standards, when new shows like 'The Addams
Family', which opens next week at the Lunt-Fontanne, cost $16.5 million.
That's about the same amount investors put into 'A Tale of Two Cities',
which opened in the fall of 2008 and closed after 60 performances.

The producers lost their entire investment. And no one in the cast got a
Tony nomination, let alone an award.

Updated On: 3/30/10 at 01:08 PM