Does Size Matter... For the Tony Awards?

Last week the venue for the 77th Tony Awards was announced—The David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. For the second year in a row, we will have a new venue for theater’s biggest award show. Those I spoke to in the industry were split on the choice.

On the one hand, the venue is beautiful. It will film well for television. It has ample room for a red carpet. Its nice outdoor space can be used for outdoor filming or even outdoor seating. It is also much closer to midtown than last year’s venue, the fairly far, extremely hot United Palace. So, if you’re someone who only views the award show as a marketing tool, and you like the convenience of a location closer to the theater district, you’re pretty happy. Several producers I spoke with loved the choice.

On the other hand, at 2,550 seats, it’s small. Now, it is not the smallest venue for the Tonys. The awards began in hotel ballrooms before moving onto Broadway theaters, which are of course well under 2,550 seats. But this century we are most used to seeing them at larger venues. The most frequent venue for the awards in this century has been Radio City, which seats almost 6000. The United Palace sat around 3,350. But there were three years at the Beacon (2011, 2012, 2016), which sits just around 2,900. (The awards also returned to the Winter Garden during the pandemic-impacted 2021 year, but that was an anomaly.)

The fact that the venue is small causes challenges for those to whom the award show is a celebration they want to attend. Last season, for example, nominees in some categories were not allowed to sit with their plus ones because of the desire to put all nominees within a certain distance of the stage. (Though that is both a size and judgment call issue—the guests were seated in the orchestra, just further back or to the side.) This season some insiders expressed a concern that many guests might not even be able to be in the orchestra. The Koch has an orchestra of just 883 seats. That's over 1000 fewer orchestra seats than the United Palace and over 400 fewer than the Beacon. 

The 883 number may still seem high, but consider the fact that one nominated production may have about 50 producers (and producers usually, though not always, sit in the orchestra). And, additionally, last year well over 100 individuals were nominated for their individual work in competitive categories. Plus, celebrities!

A nominated production typically receives two pairs of complimentary tickets with the option to buy others for all the rest of the producers. For an individual nominee, in most past years, they receive one pair of complimentary tickets, may purchase one additional pair, and then may request to purchase even more. Of course, all of this is space dependent. Usually at Radio City, you got your family seats if you wanted and at least some of them could often sit with you. When the theater is smaller, it becomes hard to handle the requests a nominee might have.

Then there is the public. At Radio City, fan tickets were a constant. Last year at the United Palace, fans were also able to purchase tickets. But in 2016, the last year the awards were at the Beacon, there were no tickets available for public purchase. It seems unlikely there will be tickets to purchase inside the Koch.

In addition to the size issue, some expressed concern with the Koch name being attached to Broadway's biggest night. But, despite the downsides, everyone is hoping for a marvelous Tony Awards. 

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. To read past columns and subscribe https://cloud.broadwayworld.com/rec/ticketclick.cfm?fromlink=2263077&regid=&articlelink=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.broadwayworld.com%2Ftopic%2FIndustry-Pro?utm_source=BWW2022&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article&utm_content=bottombuybutton1. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.