If I didn’t know any better, and didn’t notice a few hard-to-miss signs, I would think theaters are doing relatively well, at least compared to movie theaters. The latter are dying rapidly, with closures left and right. I remember when Berkeley was a film lover’s paradise. Now most of the movie theaters are closed. And the market for serious films is in serious trouble, to the point where I wonder if it will ever come back. Even when something looks intriguing, it plays to a handful of people each night and then vanishes after a week or two - as everyone knows it will be available at home soon.
By comparison, live theater is holding up OK. The Berkeley Rep may have to offer discounts on TodayTix but the theaters are mostly full for serious fare like Cambodian Rock Band (which was terrific) and English (which just won a Pulitzer Prize). But I didn’t pay much to see either play, which isn’t great news for the Berkeley Rep.
Some of the things that work on Broadway, like hiring famous actors in serious plays, don’t work for regional theaters. The work has to draw audiences without much help. And there has been a strong push for it’s-good-for-you plays that aren’t crowd-pleasers even if the play is excellent. And many of them aren’t really all that special.
It often feels like many regional theaters have forgotten that entertaining shows can help the medicine go down a lot more easily. I see creatives who clearly recognize this, and theaters need to figure out a way to provide balanced seasons that are more realistic about how many depressing plays people really want to see. (I have a high threshold for grim plays, but I still have a spouse to persuade.)
Theaters and major things like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival are in survival mode now, and perhaps that will lead to better ideas moving forward. I don’t want live theater to shy away from challenging new works; some of my favorite new shows have caught me off guard and got me thinking. It’s one of the things that keeps theater alive.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with a little retrenchment. I saw A Chorus Line for the first time last week at the San Francisco Playhouse (small theater, packed house, my family paid full price). That theater has planned a conservative season that’s more revival-heavy than usual, which is probably smart. Audiences need to be lured back into theaters, where they hopefully will recall why they liked it in the first place.
