Do you live in a "small" city that gets broadway shows...but they've been touring already for a couple of years?

If you live in a quote on quote "small" city don't you wish that you could get a 1st National Tour to stop in your city?

I do...I live in Birmingham, Alabama...and I must say that we are coming up and we are getting better shows.....but it takes them what feels like FOREVER to come here.

So I have a question that I need some help understanding..I've noticed that alot of 1st National Tours always go to the "major" cities and they cast always have somebody everyone in the whole theatre world knows

Example: Wicked...you have Stephanie Block, Kendra Kassenbaum, Jenna Leigh Green and you've had Eden Espinosa.

By time the show comes here...they probably won't even be around and so "small" city people never really get to see what's all the hype about these people everyone on Broadwayworld talks about.

I have nothing against the casts that I see cause there AWESOME and GREAT.

I don't know...sometimes I wish we could see the same cast that Toronto, and California, and Chicago, and Boston get to see.

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Unmasked, come over to Atlanta if it's a show you're really dying to see. We usually get them pretty quickly. Atlanta's not that far from you, is it? You should think about it.

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Um, I live in Indy and we always get the sloppy 2nds....

Trust me, I'd rather go to NYC anyday... Not that the tours are bad because most of them are good... However, I'd rather be in NYC.

"but i would say 90% of the people in small city's don't even know who stephanie block is"

haha uhm let's be for real serious here..how about, 99.99999% of the people in a small city don't know who stephanie block is. i wouldn't be surprised if you are the only person in lima, ohio who knows who she is.

Updated On: 10/5/05 at 10:42 AM

a couple of years? ARRGH........usually we get REALLY old stuff in Palm Springs, but this year, FINALLY...some things a bit newer....Throughly Modern Millie, Little Shop of Horrors, Oklahoma (ugh), Linda Eder, Mandy Patinkin....and lots of Opera, etc.....so actually I can't complain.......

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Thats exactly what I do Ashley0139,...I went to Atlanta this pass month to go see "The Phantom of The Opera"...and I loooved every minuet of it. I'm definately going back in May to see WICKED...if I can get tickets...I'm pretty sure once they go on sale there...it will be impossible to get to see them.

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Updated On: 10/5/05 at 11:01 AM

I live in a city that for years has been a 2nd tier city for touring shows. However, it seems like the tide may be changing. This season we are getting Little Women, and supposedly next year our season will have Spamalot, DRS, and Wicked (along with another run of The Lion King)--although none of that has *officially* been announced. I guess maybe the president of the road theatres also has something to do with how soon you get a show. The president here is a big financial supporter of new shows as he is a member of the Independent Producers Network (or whatever it is called). I know for a fact that he has put money into Little Women and Spamalot (see how quickly the tours come to town) as well as The Color Purple and I think the Matthew Bourne Edward Scissorhands.

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See...I have done that....at all the shows The B'ham Broadway Series has a booth at each show and at the booth there is all these information booklets and also on the table there is usually a paper that people can take home...and on that paper there is a VERY LONG list of shows that you list in number of which ones you want to see the most. Wicked was on the list last season so I took awhole bunch of the papers and had people fill them out in my classes and I mailed them to the people.

I hope that worked....cause we all had Wicked as our 1st choice.

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Yeah...I really hope it did something as well. But the B'ham series has come along way and this year I must say that this is the BEST season they have had.

The Lion King
Little Women
42nd Street
Hairspray

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Hey guys....sorry to burst your bubble, but the deciding factor is MONEY. Shows will go to towns based on their subscription bases. If there's not a strong enough subsrciption base for a 1 week-4 week run, then it's not worht sitting down there the first time out. There are other deciding factors as well. Is the venue a member of the League of American Theatres and Producers? Is it part of the Clear Channel Network. As much as I'd love to say those audience surveys have something to do with selection of shows....they really don't.

So...if you want a stronger line up in Birmingham, then get all these people in Hoover who spend millions each year on their high school football team to buy a subscription package for Broadway tours.

nydirector2..........YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!!!!....the school itself is ridculous...it should be a college...and the football team is the main attraction there....and might I add that I did a show in there theatre...and I would like to say that....with all the money that school has and how big the school is....it should have a much bigger theatre...it deserves to have a large theatre...but it doesn't, so you see whats important there.

Plus...FOOTBALL...is the sport down here..I mean I even played through high school.

We are with Clear Channel down here "Broadway Across America" in B'ham and in Huntsville there with League of American Theatres and Producers.


Thanks for suggesting that cause thats something that should be looked into.

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