touring shows

[bryan32]

Posted: 5/21/19 at 3:03pm

hi most shows that are touring think that boston is the end of the usa but it is not maine is I would love to see a lot more touring shows to come up to Portland maine

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/21/19 at 4:09pm

It's your venues that don't want to schedule the shows, probably due to cost and demand.  I guarantee you that many shows, especially one night nonequity tours would come to your city if the money was offered.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/21/19 at 4:20pm

The venues book the tours, the touring shows don’t pick what cities they go to. When a tour is announced, theatres around the country start bidding for them. Then the tour itinerary gets prepared so the tour can logistically play in each city that bought it.

[tourboi]

Posted: 5/21/19 at 5:13pm

bryan32 said: "hi most shows that are touring think that boston is the end of the usa but it is not maine is I would love to see a lot more touring shows to come up to Portland maine"

Some tours (mostly non-eq that can do one-two night quick jumps) go beyond Boston. Capitol Center for the Arts in concord NH books several each year, usually for one night (though the AEA Mamma Mia stopped for two or three nights in its final year). Portland ME has a venue that occasionally books one night stops. The cities beyond Boston cannot supply a big enough audience for longer runs than that however.

[OrchardAndRivington]

Posted: 5/22/19 at 5:02am

I think a part of the problem in Portland, ME is the limits that Merrill Auditorium puts on the size of productions playing the venue. I seem to remember a smaller backstage area with a difficult load in situation posing logistical issues for moderate to large scale tours. I think the Portland Market could definitely handle week-long runs of A and B tours...IF they had a suitable venue to present them in.

To me it is a similar situation to somewhere like Birmingham, AL or Waterbury, CT. Both markets can produce an audience for 1 week of the biggest shows, Phantom, Mormon, Les Miz, etc.. while offering the rest of their season on splits and 1-nighters of both Eq and Non-Eq shows.

I still can't believe they put Mamma Mia in Concord with the Equity Tour. that venue is SUCH a challenge. Staff were STILL talking about how that AEA Mamma Mia tour was the biggest show to ever play the Capitol (at that point..) more than a few years after that run.

[Mike Barrett]

Posted: 5/22/19 at 6:43am

Ah, I love Portland and Maine in general. Always feel so relaxed when I’m there. I definetley think Portland could host tours like Waterbury or Worcester. Their seasons include Bronx Tale, Play That Goes Wrong, Finding Neverland, all for one night. Then Waterbury has Les Mis coming and Worcester I believe has Book of Mormon. With the right people behind it, Portland could definitely offer more broadway for northern New England. Hell, even the Ogonquit playhouse doesn’t extremely well, so the market could handle it.