Orlando Arts Center May Compete for Broadway Tours

According to reports, Broadway tours in Orlando may be competing to play at the Northland Church or the Orange County Convention Center instead of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

A meeting was held on Thursday with the Dr. Phillips Center Executive Board to discuss these issues.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Ron Legler, president of current presenting organization Florida Theatrical Association, said he will find another venue and take his Broadway blockbusters elsewhere. "We have every intention of remaining a Broadway producer in Orlando," Legler said.

Read some of the comments below:

"We have the connections; we have the personal relationships," said Legler, the association's president nearly 13 years. "The Broadway community is rallying behind us."

"Sometimes the decisions are hard," said Board Chairman Jim Pugh. "We have to do what's best for the performing-arts center."

"Every dollar we can save is a dollar we don't have to go out and raise," Pugh said.

"It allows us to do many things for the community that we can't do if we don't have an income," Chuck Steinmetz, head of the center's operations committee, said.

Arts-center officials still need to raise about $75 million in construction costs. More meetings will be held in January.

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