Ken Davenport Appreciation Thread

[vanillaboots]

Light Snark only, please.

If anyone gets a plush goat this weekend, PM me.

[qolbinau]

While it almost never seems to pay off in a literal sense, I at least appreciate that he 1. tries new things 2. Invests in shows he believes in - ones that don’t scream commercial success, and 3. Is public about aspects of his producing.

Maybe there is a good reason others don’t do this. But still.

[Sondheimite]

I really liked that Ken was a wild card who did whatever the <<edited by BWW staff> he wanted

...

until he exploited hearing impaired young people to manipulate teenagers in order to "fund" a Tony Award performance that was already paid for WELL in advance.

That's the moment Ken lost me and Ken's production lost my support as a patron.

Which is a shame because I think I'd love the Once On This Island revival.  But I cannot bring myself to support Ken's work after the Spring Awakening Tony Award Performance Kickstarter. 

[qolbinau]

But is that what happened? Just because he might have fronted the cash up to meet a deadline doesn’t mean it was ‘paid for’. Who paid for it? Where did the money come from? If he didn’t expect to get it back from Kickstarter he may never have fronted any cash and no performance may have happened. Would make sense given the total financial failure of the revival in all other respects.

[bwayphreak234]

lol no thanks.

[BroadwayConcierge]

I just wrote a multi-paragraph essay in appreciation of Ken Davenport... but then I realized that it crossed over from light snark into moderate-to-medium snark. So I deleted it all. 

[JSquared2]

qolbinau said: "But is that what happened? Just because he might have fronted the cash up to meet a deadline doesn’t mean it was ?paid for’. Who paid for it? Where did the money come from? If he didn’t expect to get it back from Kickstarter he may never have fronted any cash and no performance may have happened. Would make sense given the total financial failure of the revival in all other respects.

 

Awww, you’re adorable. 
 

 

[Bwayfan292]

Cancelled.

[adamgreer]

BroadwayConcierge said: "I just wrote a multi-paragraph essay in appreciation ofKen Davenport... but then I realized that it crossed over from light snark into moderate-to-medium snark. So I deleted it all."

Good call. You don’t want Patti Murin on your case. 

[Sondheimite]

BroadwayConcierge said: "I just wrote a multi-paragraph essay in appreciation ofKen Davenport... but then I realized that it crossed over from light snark into moderate-to-medium snark. So I deleted it all."

Weekend Moderator is looser with those deletes than Weekday Moderator, good call and post it on Monday! 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Since my message was removed, I will simply amend my previous statement to this: I admire that his tricks and gimmicks haven't caught up with him, though I know they eventually will. I'd like to have even a hint of the brass balls it takes to attempt them in the first place.

[Rainah]

I appreciate the fact that he has produced some fantastic shows that I love, and that I don't think would have happened without his money. Deaf West was a game changer in so many ways, and Once On This Island is delightful. I appreciate that he's willing to take a chance and to embrace diversity. 

And I did learn quite a bit from his website, as someone above noted I appreciate that he is more transparent about what producing entails than any other broadway producer I've seen.

[qolbinau]

JSquared2 said: "qolbinau said: "But is that what happened? Just because he might have fronted the cash up to meet a deadline doesn’t mean it was ?paid for’. Who paid for it? Where did the money come from? If he didn’t expect to get it back from Kickstarter he may never have fronted any cash and no performance may have happened. Would make sense given the total financial failure of the revival in all other respects.



Awww, you’re adorable.


"

But seriously. Where did the money come from? It doesn’t appear out of thin air. If Ken was actually trying to recover funds for his investors then he was doing his job. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t apparently - and it’s mostly doesn’t. Maybe this is a rare example of good producing on his part. 

[Wick3]

I appreciate that he produced one of the best revivals I've ever seen in my life --- Once on this Island! Thank you!

 

[Kad]

The issue wasn't where the money came from. It was that the Kickstarter misled people into paying for the performance- it was framed in a way that implied, "We don't have the money, and if we don't get the money, then we can't perform on the Tonys!" It was framed as a charitable act for a non-profit, when it couldn't be and wasn't.

But that was provably not the case, due to the logistics of performing on the awards and the fact the performance was confirmed before the requested total was raised (which was done at the 11th hour by a handful of anonymous large donations... possibly made by the producers in order to save face).

It was asking fans to pick up the tab because there was no way for the producers to repay people otherwise, under the guise of supporting Deaf West and with the implication the performance couldn't happen.

Plus there was further sleaziness like Davenport deleting old blog posts where he had advised people not to donate to Kickstarters, etc. The thread from the time this was all playing out is fascinating and broke it all down.

[JudyDenmark]

qolbinau said: "But seriously. Where did the money come from? It doesn’t appear out of thin air. If Ken was actually trying to recover funds forhis investors then he was doing his job. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t apparently - and it’s mostly doesn’t. Maybe this is a rare example of good producing on his part."

I think the problem was the blatant sneakiness. You can't give a sob story in the text of the Kickstarter that these kids are DEPENDING ON YOUR MONEY to get to perform at the Tonys, when it's a done deal already. Those of us who follow this stuff (and get that Tony performances are locked well before the day before the Tonys) know what's up, but it's not fair to the eager teenagers who naively donated their own money to something based on a false premise. It's a tricky situation... but some honesty would've gone a really long way. It's the shameless lie I had a problem with, not the actual needing money thing. 

That said, the Spring Awakening revival and OOTI are two of my favorite shows I've seen in recent years, so I'm trying to keep an open mind about him. But that Kickstarter nonsense was objectively shady. 

[Bwayfan292]

another thing I dislike about him, is how he handled Gettin the band back together. Refusing to post the reviews on his website and using pull quotes from an earlier production.

[Sondheimite]

It's just... Sleeze.

And Sleeze has always been a part of Broadway, some of the best golden age productions were born out of Sleeze.

But it doesn't make me like watching him sleeze around.  

[Kad]

Bwayfan292 said: "another thing I dislike about him, is how he handled Gettin the band back together. Refusing to post the reviews on his website and using pull quotes from an earlier production."

His crummy site... which, for a while, was the only theatre review aggregate site because he bought StageGrade, did not maintain it, screwed its creators, and then, when it inevitably crashed, had the url redirect to DidHeLikeIt.

 

[trentsketch]

I liked the one where he thought handing out screens to put over cellphones would make people want to see Godspell. Has there been a "Tweet Seat" night since on Broadway?

[qolbinau]

I like this article, which acknowledged both sides of the issue.

https://www.thebillfold.com/2016/05/deaf-west-launches-kickstarter-to-recoup-the-cost-of-performing-at-the-tony-awards/

I can see how the details matter in terms of feeling deceived though. It feels a little shadey.

But at the end of the day, only Ken Davenport was stupid enough to get money behind this production - it had a worthy cause and brought diversity to Broadway not seen before or since - and it lost millions. There was no money to be made here. Perhaps it would have been better PR for Ken just to not have wasted money on the Tony performance. 

[msmp]

trentsketch said: "I liked the one where he thought handing out screens to put over cellphones would make people want to see Godspell. Has there been a "Tweet Seat" night since on Broadway?"

Wait, what? How did this work? (This isn't snark, I'm genuinely baffled as to what happened.)

[LizzieCurry]

http://kendavenport.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/03/the-tweet-seat-debate-on-rock-center-with-brian-williams.html

https://theateradvisor.com/special-tweet-seat-performance-godspell/

[perfectlymarvelous]

Spring Awakening was not the first Deaf West production done on Broadway - their production of Big River, starring Michael Arden, was in 2004. 

I liked the production when I saw it, but the self importance of a lot of the cast members, Davenport, and Arden about being involved with it in the years since is really off-putting.