Musigamist said: "Call_me_jorge said: "Why does Cleveland Playhouse have so many ~active~ subscribers? Do they just have no other competition in the area?"
Having been based in Cleveland for a couple of years now, I can say that the support for the arts and other cultural activities are quite strong here and is seen not just at Playhouse Square, but in many other ways as well. For example, the Cleveland Orchestra is considered topsin the country and routinely sells out its 1,800 seat hall, the Cleveland Museum of Art is very impressive as well, and in additional to PSQ, there are two large regional theaters based in Cleveland (Cleveland Playhouse and Great Lakes Theater) as well as a number of medium and small-sized professional companies (DoBama Theatre, Karamu House, Beck Center), and numerous community theaters. Funding-wise, the county has a regularly renewed taxpayer approved levy to fund Cuyahoga Arts and Culture that helps support these and many other similar organizations.
- The low cost for a subscription—7-show packages range from $175-$1000+, but that low end allows more people to become subscribers."
I've been a subscriber in Cleveland for about 20 years now, my parents added me to their subscription when I was a young kid. When I started going, it was a 2 week market, and a performance that sold no tickets beyond subscribers filled about a third of the house. They turned things around, really within a span of about 7 years, through programming and price.
The houses in Cleveland are massive. The two theatres that house the subscription shows are 2700 and 3400 seats. They could not move the back of the house, so around 2006 they introduced a "Smart Seats" program that offered about 100 of the worst seats for $10 for every performance. This got a lot of people in the door.
Also on the pricing end - tours are more expensive. The prices for these shows have started to become identical to Broadway pricing. That aforementioned $10 seat was now $60 when Doubtfire just came through. They got people in the door, prices did rise, and they were able to convert them by saying "you saw 2 shows this year. For an extra $40, you could have seen 7."
Programming - the audience base has COMPLETELY changed since I started going. The average subscriber around 2004 was a 75-80 year old couple with mobility issues. To their credit, they were able to see this wasn't sustainable and successfully pivoted to "moms and teen daughters". They slashed adult programming almost entirely in favor of shows that you could bring the whole family to.
Bridges of Madison County never came. The 2014 Cabaret tour never came. Fela showed up, but not as part of the season. Plays like Frost/Nixon and August Osage County stopped being scheduled. Cleveland was one of 9 cities that took the original Parade tour - they stopped taking risks like that.
There is now 1 show per season that is "risky" and not family friendly. They have a function where you can swap out of 1 show per season for one of the non-season shows.
They are successful because this is the thing moms can take their daughters to for a relatively cheap nice night out.
PS - that 44k subscription number is reduced from the pandemic. They had 46-48k subscribers at their height. Also a Cleveland Orchestra subscriber - they are not selling out. A decently filled house anymore is about 60% sold. The Blossom season sells. Severance does not.
Updated On: 4/18/24 at 12:35 PM
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