interesting article about touring show subscriptions

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/13/05 at 5:28pm

don't have the URL, sorry, it was forwarded around e-mail:

By Alice T. Carter, "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Wednesday, April 13, 2005



Marilyn Nixon loves going to the theater. The Shaler resident enjoys it so
much that most years she makes several trips to New York City to see plays.
But she's not so fond of it that she wants to see "Oklahoma" on New Year's
Eve, "On the Record" the day after Thanksgiving and "Little Shop of Horrors"
on Good Friday.



Apparently, many others agree with her. Nixon is a decade-long subscriber
with Friday night seats to what's now called the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh
series. When she decided to give the New Year's Eve performance of
"Oklahoma" a pass, she tried -- unsuccessfully -- to sell them to her
friends. "I couldn't even give them away," says Nixon. "I have always
enjoyed the season more than not. But this year is the pits.'"



Nixon isn't the only unhappy subscriber. Their dissatisfaction involes more
than scheduling. Lackluster titles, non-Equity productions -- those not
using members of the Actors' Equity Association, a labor union for American
actors and stage managers in theater -- and replacements for previously
announced shows have lots of patrons complaining and contemplating dropping
their subscriptions.



"The feeling you get is that they bring in one great show and one you look
forward to and they surround it by average," says Claudette Graham of
Franklin Park. "I can't even remember half of the shows I saw this season."



"People always complain about the Broadway Series but not like this year,"
says Kelly Bolen of McCandless. "This year has been a disaster from
beginning to end." What really rankled Bolen was the non-Equity casts that
performed "Oklahoma" and "Oliver."



"Until this year (when a show was not Equity), there was always a star,
maybe past peak, but OK. We really miss that," he says.

Others are unhappy that substitutions arrived in place of productions
originally announced. "Patti LuPone: Matters of the Heart" replaced "Tea at
Five" with Kate Mulgrew and "Big River" was added in place of "Wonderful
Town."



"It's like you put down money for a Cadillac and they give you a Honda,"
says Nixon.



By the numbers



It's no secret that ticket sales have been less than spectacular.



With one show left in the 2004-05 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh Series --
"Hairspray" opened a two-week run Tuesday -- attendance figures for the
seven-play subscription series has ranged from 47 percent for the second
week of "Patti LuPone: Matters of the Heart" to 68 percent for "Oklahoma."



Three non-subscription extras fared much better: "Mamma Mia" drew 75 percent
of capacity in the second week of its two-week visit. "Les Miserables"
played to 90.9 percent of capacity on its eighth visit here and "The
Producers" played to 75.9 percent of capacity on its second trip here.



Both the complaints and the numbers are well known to Kevin J. McMahon,
president of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which presents the PNC Broadway
Series along with Clear Channel Entertainment and the Pittsburgh Symphony.



"I've been concerned this year," says McMahon. "I have an MBA. I pay
attention to the numbers. But what I lament most is where a theater is 65 to
70 percent filled, the experience for everyone involved ... is less than
ideal. The difference between 65 and 85 percent is magical. With 65 percent
you can have a good experience. But when every seat in the house is filled
it's a different experience."



Some of the decline can be attributed to busier lives and more numerous
leisure time activities, says McMahon.



But he says, ultimately, what makes people buy subscriptions and single
tickets is a show they want to see.



The problem is Broadway just isn't making enough shows that generate the
excitement that "Hairspray" or "Wicked" do.



"Broadway has routinely been the incubator for 90 percent of what tours
North America," says Scott Zeiger, chief executive officer of Clear Channel
Entertainment, Theatrical. "We got through cycles of extreme creative
excitement, then abandoned wasteland."



During the 2003 season, only two shows with potential touring excitement
debuted on Broadway, says Zeiger -- "Wicked" and "Avenue Q."



"Wicked" will begin a U.S. tour in Chicago in late April. But if you're
hoping to see "Avenue Q" you'll have to head to Las Vegas where instead of a
national tour it will begin a prolonged and exclusive engagement on Labor
Day.



"Getting shows on the road has been increasingly difficult," says McMahon,
noting that more long-term Vegas engagements would exacerbate the problem.



To create more attractive touring shows, Clear Channel invests in new
Broadway productions that have resulted in recent popular shows such as
"Movin' Out" and "The Producers," as well as future touring possibilities
such as the much anticipated "Spamalot" and "Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels."



But there just aren't enough of them right now.



"In the last couple years there have simply been fewer shows that made it
out of New York on tour," says McMahon. "I certainly don't think there's
less creativity. But there has not been ... as much risk taking."



Programming a season



If there aren't enough quality shows, then offer fewer plays, suggests
Bolen. It's something McMahon has considered. And McMahon says he has never
been forced to take a show he didn't think was right for Pittsburgh
audiences. "I certainly have declined on shows made available to us,"
McMahon says. "We don't take a show just because it's on tour."



Conversely, he says he has gone after other titles that the other Broadway
in Pittsburgh partners weren't enthusiastic about.

What's frustrating is that, on occasion, it's impossible to schedule a
popular show here because the schedules at the Benedum, Byham and Heinz
Hall. Unlike a city such as Cleveland, that has a Benedum-sized house
sitting vacant 65 percent of the time, the Benedum is active 305 nights a
year.



The Pittsburgh Symphony, a series partner and owner of Heinz Hall, keeps
that facility so busy that holiday weeks are the only times the theater is
available to touring shows. "My preference would be to have an evenly spaced
season with a show every six weeks, starting in September and running to
May, ending just before Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera starts," says McMahon.



But it's not likely to happen. The Trust, which operates the Benedum and
Byham theaters, allows local arts producers such as Pittsburgh Ballet
Theatre and Pittsburgh Opera to schedule their preferred dates of
performances before filling in remaining open days and weeks with Trust
presentations such as the Broadway in Pittsburgh Series.



That makes matching a popular tour's ever-dwindling available dates with
openings in the theater's schedules difficult.



"One of the reasons it has taken three-plus years to get the Radio City
Rockettes Christmas show is because of the lack of theater availability,"
says McMahon.



Hold onto your seats



What keeps many long-term subscribers renewing through dry periods is their
seats. Over the years' subscribers move their seats to their favored
location, which they keep as they renew each year's subscription.

Nixon's Benedum seats are in the second row of the mezzanine. "That makes it
really hard to stop subscribing," she says. Graham agrees: "You get terrible
seats if you don't have season tickets."



Both McMahon and Zeiger believe better days are ahead. "My best hope is that
this is a down cycle," says McMahon. "We will see fresh, new product.
Capitalization will get looser. Risk taking will get better and we'll see
more great shows coming on to the series."



Zeiger hopes subscribers will remember that their subscription will assure
them seats when the next "Lion King"-type blockbuster comes roaring out of
Broadway. He points to shows new to Broadway or still in development that he
believes will be touring within the next few years -- big musicals such as
"Little Women," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"and "Mary Poppins," smaller
musicals such as "The Light in the Piazza" and comedies such as "The 25th
Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."



"When 'Spamalot' or 'Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays' comes to town, they'll wish
they had stayed with us," Zeiger says.



Without a subscription, he predicts, "'Mary Poppins' and 'The Woman in
White' are going to be a big hit, and they'll be scrambling for tickets."





2003-04 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh attendance

"A Night With Dame Edna: The Show That Cares": 60.8 percent

"Urinetown": 56.3 percent

"The Graduate": 67.9 percent

"Lion King" week one: 96 percent

"Lion King" week two: 95.9 percent

"Lion King" week three: 97.5 percent

"Lion King" week four: 98.3 percent

"Lion King" week five: 98.5 percent

"Lion King" week six: 98.5 percent

"Say Goodnight, Gracie" week one: 65 percent

"Say Goodnight, Gracie" week two: 66.2 percent

"Jesus Christ, Superstar": 92 percent

"Movin' Out": 99.6 percent



2003-04 extras (outside subscription package)

"Blast!": 25 percent

"Rent": 64.8 percent

"Grease": 85.8 percent



2004-05 PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh Series attendance

"Disney's On the Record": 57.9 percent

"Oklahoma": 68 percent

"Oliver": 61 percent

"Patti LuPone Matters of the Heart" week one: 48 percent

"Patti LuPone Matters of the Heart" week two: 47 percent

"Little Shop of Horrors": 60 percent

"Hairspray" is playing now



2004-05 extras (outside subscription package)

"Mamma Mia!" week one: 69 percent

"Mamma Mia" week two" 75 percent

"Cats": 63 percent

"Les Miserables": 90.9 percent

"The Producers": 75.4 percent