A Conversation with DCPA President Randy Weeks

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting and chatting with Randy Weeks, President of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) and Executive Director of Denver Center Attractions. Mr. Weeks has served as Executive Director of Denver Center Attractions since 1991 and as President of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts since spring 2004. I thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to catch up and chat about the DCPA and theatre in general. I had 9 questions set for Mr. Weeks, but as usual, we went off on a few tangents! So our "interview" turned out to be a longer, and more in depth. Here is what he had to say about the DCPA, Denver Audiences, The Business, "RENT", "Spring Awakening", why "Girls Only" works and the new adaptation of the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (Among other things!) Due to the length and the depth of the interview, I have decided to split it into two parts. Enjoy!

On choosing shows for Denver Center Attractions:

It really is not as complicated as one would think it is. With regard to Broadway touring there is an automatic filter that occurs in that shows don't go out unless they are a total success or successful. So that takes out the real question of "boy it would be nice to do "Grey Gardens" but it didn't happen". It didn't go out. So you are basically dealing with the successful shows that are touring. We are fortunate in Denver because of two reasons. One is the geographic location. Denver's location in the country is an important geographic stop if you are going to or coming from the West Coast. The second part of that, with the work of Bob Garner (of Robert Garner Center Attractions that formed the Broadway presenting division of the DCPA), Donald Seawell (Creator of the DCPA), and to some extent I'd like to think the work I have done with our people, It's a great theater town! Denver does support the tours, the Denver Center Theatre Company and it also supports a lot of smaller theaters in the metro area. Per capita, we are right up there with a lot of the large cities in the country. The first time we did "The Phantom of the Opera" we determined that people came from 28 different states to see it.

On some of his favorite/standout moments since being with the DCPA:

Oh my gosh Greg, there have been so many. But some of things that spring to mind, thinking about some of the shows and how the business has changed, there aren't stars that are traveling like there used to be. But doing things like having dinner with Jack Lemmon, going out to the airport to pick up Katherine Hepburn, trying to find Charlton Heston a Corvette back in the days when rental cars didn't rent Corvettes and meeting wonderful people. Those were wonderful moments. And then things like opening "Phantom of the Opera" (the production that opened the Buell Theater) and opening the national tour of "Sunset Boulevard". For Sunset we had a huge huge party. We transformed the Galleria, the shops at the Theatre Company replicated the gates of the Paramount Studios so as you left the Buell Theater you walked through the gates and we had a swimming pool that was twelve by twenty six by one foot deep with a body floating in it. It was just an incredible party. We currently don't have those kinds of parties but hopefully we will have them again someday. The thing that is the most fulfilling is that, you know, as my career has grown, and so forth, I still get to go to the theater! You sit down in a chair; the lights go half and you think "Oh great! Somebody's going to tell me a story! And whether it is a big musical at The Buell or a smaller play at the Ricketson, it's still the same. It's about storytelling."

On bringing in certain shows, RENT and Spring Awakening: 

 There really hasn't been anything I wanted to do that I haven't done.  Because once again, probably the hardest part of booking Denver, booking DCA (Denver Center Attractions), is having to say no to the shows that do want to come here but they don't work for me or they don't work into the schedule.  There are shows that I don't think are good enough quality or they won't necessarily play to our demographic.  I have always said, and I will continue to maintain this position, "It is not my responsibility to be any type of arbiter of taste or morality.  I don't judge content...That's too risky, that's too edgy or that's a taboo subject."

 The conversation then turned to RENT and the controversy over it being done by high schools:

In my conversation with Kevin McCollum (One of the producers of RENT) while in New York for a reading of the new adaptation of the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" that we supported, Mr. McCollum said it is very interesting the way it is playing out. Hopefully it will just bring more attention to the topic of homelessness, HIV and alternative lifestyles. Mr. Weeks said," It's not like the kids don't know! But it must be tough being the high school principal or the Chairman of the school board "(and having to deal with parents, religion, etc.). We have done things here in Colorado with DCA whether at the old Auditorium, the Buell, the Ellie...sometimes we take some heat. But it is not my responsibility to, quote unquote, protect Colorado from something. One of the things that we are being more proactive with, and I think that our patrons are demanding it, and I think that they are right in, that is just a little bit higher visibility on what we perceive to be issues of language, for mature audiences, that type of thing. The touring Broadway community, the theater community in general, has never ever created some kind of a "rating" system that the Hollywood folks have done. So it's been up to individual organizations to kind of make some of those decisions. One of the more interesting comments that I have gotten, and I don't consider them complaints, I got a few e-mails about "Jersey Boys"! (Which played the Buell in December of 2008) It didn't even occur to me until I read a sign in the theater. I think they called it native Jersey language, or something to that affect. And you know those street guys, they swore a lot! And it didn't mean anything to me but, you know, some people are offended by that and they have a right to be offended by that.

The show "Spring Awakening" came up and the discussion over its subject matter and how that will be handled by the DCA, regarding whether parents will feel comfortable taking their kids to see it:

What we are going to be doing is even more proactive than that. And actually really telling people what it is about and what they are going to see. What they are finding in other markets is that the more open and up front you are about it, you actually get better attendance. To some extent, it is the kids who are dragging their parents to come see the show. It's like "Mom, you are going to take me to see this whether you like it or not!"

On DCA being involved in new works:

We are! DCA is working with Denver Center Theatre Company on the "Molly Brown" project. We don't know exactly where it is going to land. One of the problems that we are facing with this project, as all producers around the country are facing, is that it's very hard to raise money. Right now, with the economic tsunami that we've found ourselves in, foundations and individuals have literally lost trillions of dollars theoretically lost on paper. Big musicals nowadays kind of start at eight, nine or ten million dollars for a smaller musical. There are some musicals, that will go un-named, that I think are at twenty five million plus. So that's getting to be pretty pricey! And the payback gets longer and longer. But one of the things that is our quiet little project is "Girls Only", the secret comedy of women. It is doing extremely well and to be very honest with you, I sometimes don't get it! But I don't think I am supposed to because, I'm a guy! And it is the secret comedy of women Girls Only for a reason. We have formed a club and we have women who have seen the show five times or more and that club is growing! There are various groups that enjoy it but women enjoy that fact that it is really, well it is kind of interesting to explain, the sort of bit of magic that occurs when you have two hundred women sitting in a theater laughing, literally, at themselves. And that's kind of the secret of this whole thing. It is as clean as a whistle. There is nothing about men bashing or dirty jokes or conversations about body parts! It is just clean fun! And we've had guys! I think there was one night when we had eight guys in the theater! And that's fine! We don't ban them! It's just that they probably won't have as much fun as their wives or girlfriends!

Stay tuned for part 2 when Mr. Weeks discusses more about "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", discounted tickets, performing a mile high and the business in general!

 

*Photo taken by Terry Shapiro