ONCE ON THIS ISLAND Returning to Broadway

[newintown]

Yes, if you want to include his subsidiary activities, his companies did marketing for Godspell, Macbeth, and It's Only A Play, and general management for Spring Awakening. Nothing to boast about.

[haterobics]

Book writer of Getting the Band Back Together, as well:

http://gettinthebandbacktogether.com/about-the-show.php

[Liza's Headband]

I can also tell you that Davenport Theatrical's labor and employment practices are highly questionable, and their internship program is a bit of a farce (several of my employees are former DT interns). 

[MinnieFay]

Davenport's "intern" program is the WORST!  These kids are made to drop off his dry cleaning, pick up his prescriptions at Duane Reade, do his Starbucks and McD's runs throughout the day, etc.  Pay is ZERO --- not even a MetroCard to get to work.  The turnover rate is remarkable!

[GreenGables]

newintown said: "It might be apt to do a bit of a recap on Davenport's career thus far.

He has been lead producer on only three Broadway shows (that is, controlling the project), all flops; more often, he has been nothing more than a junior fundraiser. The flops for which he was responsible are:

Godspell (ridiculous, American Idol-esque 2011 revival, closed after 264 performances)
Macbeth (ridiculous Alan "Look How Much I Can Do" Cumming, three-actor 2013 revival, closed after 73 performances)
Spring Awakening (respected but unattended Deaf West revival, brought in as a fully developed transfer [i.e., not fully "produced" by Davenport], closed after 135 performances)

Note that each of these shows had already had full productions elsewhere before Davenport picked them up - the Godspell was leveraged off of the director's 2006 Paper Mill production; and of course, Cumming's Macbeth played both Scotland and Off Broadway before Davenport transferred it. So, you see, he has no experience yet leading the full development of a new Broadway production.

And then there's his little Off-Broadway house, not named after himself (he says), but after his mother's father. If he were to name it after himself, it might have been called The Hasija (his real name).

 

"

Not that I'm the world's biggest KD fan, but I don't know if you could call MACBETH a total flop.  A friend of mine was an investor on the show and told me it returned 97% when all was said and done.  So a 3% tax write off + opening night tickets + bragging rights really isnt bad.  I thought it had artistic merit, too.  Agreed on Spring Awakening though, at least from a financial standpoint.

 

A lot of his financing roles have been poor choices too, though.  Allegiance and Bridges stand out to me...

[newintown]

"A friend of mine was an investor on the show and told me it returned 97% when all was said and done."

I'd never call your friend a liar, but that seems highly unlikely. The show played 12 previews and 73 performances for 15 weeks between April to July 2013, achieving an average gross potential of around 48%, with a high-grossing week of $456k, but most weeks bringing in $300k or less.

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Macbeth recouped 89%:

https://www.theproducersperspective.com/my_weblog/2013/11/recoupment-revealed-macbeth-on-broadway-recouped.html

[neonlightsxo]

...this entire thread is about how Ken Davenport isn't reliable or ethical.

[haterobics]

itsjustmejonhotmailcom said: "Macbeth recouped 89%"

That seems to be a very slippery definition of recoup. If you didn't get your investment back, or make any profit... you lost money. If I gave you $10K, and you give me $7K of it back, I'm still down $3K, not up $7K.

[ramsay15]

In a bit of fairness to Ken, he was one of the two lead producers on Altar Boyz and did the marketing for the show.   True, it was Off-Broadway, but the show ran for 5 years, had a tour and made money for its investors. He continues to general manage Avenue Q Off-Broadway. 

[MinnieFay]

ramsay15 said: "In a bit of fairness to Ken, he was one of the two lead producers on Altar Boyz and did the marketing for the show.   True, it was Off-Broadway, but the show ran for 5 years, had a tour and made money for its investors. He continues to general manage Avenue Q Off-Broadway. 

Except he didn't "produce" anything on ALTAR BOYZ.  He transferred it from NYMF.  And he did even less on AVENUE Q --- on that he's just a hired hand. He's never been anything more than a "marketer" --- and a terrible one at that.

 

 

[ramsay15]

MinnieFay said:  Except he didn't "produce" anything on ALTAR BOYZ.  He transferred it from NYMF.  And he did even less on AVENUE Q --- on that he's just a hired hand. He's never been anything more than a "marketer" --- and a terrible one at that.
I disagree with your comment about ALTAR BOYZ.  Ken and Robyn Goodman took a production performed 8 times during the 2004 NYMF festival and gave it a life Off-Broadway. It was not simply a "transfer."  Someone had to have the vision and initiative to license the rights to the show and to raise the $1 million that it took to "transfer" a skeletal production from the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre (a/k/a 47th Street Theatre).  How many NYMF shows "transfer" to Broadway or Off-Broadway?   

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

haterobics said: "itsjustmejonhotmailcom said: "Macbeth recouped 89%"

That seems to be a very slippery definition of recoup. If you didn't get your investment back, or make any profit... you lost money. If I gave you $10K, and you give me $7K of it back, I'm still down $3K, not up $7K.

 

That's just how the industry phrases it. As in, it recouped (or recovered) 89% of its original investment. Recouping 110% would mean a 10% profit.

[LightsOut90]

theres no way Macbeth recouped that much. As an investor we only made back NINE percent of our investment on Godspell. 

[newintown]

Based on grosses and the brevity of the run, I'd be surprised if Macbeth recovered even 25% of its investment. But hyper-exaggerating one's success is nothing new in the arts.

[whatacharacter]

Back to Once on This Island...

I would love to see this be the show that finally gets Eleasha Gamble on Broadway.

[Liza's Headband]

whatacharacter said: "Back to Once on This Island...

I would love to see this be the show that finally gets Eleasha Gamble on Broadway.

 

"

 

The discussion we are having is relevant since KD is the lead producer of this revival (aka: you'll never see it actually come to fruition). 

[disneybroadwayfan22]

If The Wiz isn't happening anytime soon, I would love to see Shanice Williams in this!

[Liza's Headband]

You won't see that because this revival is never happening with KD at the helm (unless he gets the scams naive fangirls like you via Kickstarter) 

[wicked1492]

Sooo....is this happening? Has any announcement been made in the past few weeks that we somehow missed?

[AEA AGMA SM]

I know a few people who are participating in the reading, so that is happening. Whether that reading leads to anything else is an entirely different question.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Sean Grandillo did reveal that he is a part of the reading when he was on Broadway.com's Live at Five this past week.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Sadly, Michael Arden's stock seems to be sliding, given the generally poor reception of his MERRILY playing on the west coast right now. (I saw it and had little good to say about his direction.) Regardless, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND has always been at the top of my list of shows for which I would love there to be a legit Broadway revival.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Or maybe Andy Mientus should be giving him some more ideas.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

According to this article, they are working on some...ooer...interesting orchestration.

Link

[InnerMonologue]

The cast for the reading is pretty much a blend of actors from "The Color Purple" and "Spring Awakening". Carrie Compere is Asaka. (Cynthia, however, is not currently involved).