The State of Broadway — Page 3

malcs98 said: As for creatives I’ve been closely following PJ Adzima and his production studio/company Stage Time Studiosand I think they’rereally onto something…a clubhouse, studio, education center and third-space where artists can actually create and collaborate on the next groundbreaking piece of American entertainment. It’s like Warhol’s Factory for the21st century"

Same. And you can tie that legacy even closer to Warhol's ethos when you look at the way Stage Time allies itself to performance art, leftist politics and sexual liberation/active non-monogamy. It's like a genuine counterculture of and for artists is forming again, rather than a series of artists either belonging to or trying to belong to a larger counterculture. We've got freaks again when we need them most.

Fred Mason said: "Landlords don’t owe anybody anything. The only recourse producers have is to stop producing or to build their own theaters. Landlordsusually get a percentage of the box office which means they also have skin in the game, it’s not a rental fee adding to the running cost. Pointing fingers at them is a little bit of a scapegoat for much deeper issues like lack of audience interest."

Actually the landlords owe everyone a lot. They choose which shows are programmed - many of which are specifically appetizing to them. They are the gate keepers of what gets in and when. They don't necessarily always have skin in the game. They get a fee for the usage of their theaters and have stop clauses in place when they want something out. The weekly off the top costs that shows pay to theater owners absolutely adds to the overall running costs. I've heard it takes 2 millions just to load into a theater between union rules and such. If the theater owners skimmed down their greed just a little perhaps some of these shows would be able to run cheaper and longer to have the time to build an audience.