What to do about the Manhattan Theatre Club?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 2:29pm

Every time I see one of their shows, I feel myself slowly getting older and older...the people seated next to me are either in wheelchairs or on oxygen. Of course, they don't "get" shows like The Receptionist or Blackbird (where the playwright doesn't spell out the plot), and are left mystified at why they've been subscribing for the past thousand years.

This is the core audience of the MTC, their loyal subscribers, many of whom are starting their descent to Beth Moses.

Just last week at The Receptionist, it sounded as though a woman was choking to death. How much longer can MTC survive, if everyone is slowly starting to die out?

Roundabout has figured out ways to lower the age of the core audience. They've introduced HipTix, family programs, gay/lesbian programs, wine and cheese parties...

When is Manhattan Theatre Club gonna catch on?

[mc1227]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 2:37pm

How is the Receptionist? I am going tomorrow (without my oxygen or walker...lol) I haven't seen much discussed about the show.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 2:47pm

I posted my thoughts here a week or so ago. I enjoyed it very much. It's an extremely well-acted piece that, just when you start to expect one thing, punches you in the stomach, spins you around, and leaves you confused as it suddenly and instantly ends. It's a piece that combines Hannah Arendt's idea of the "banality of evil" with the banality of an office.

Just realize that, well, the plot happens in everything that isn't stated. It's one of those shows.

[mc1227]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 2:54pm

Great.....I'm looking forward to seeing it. Thanks for the info!!!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 3:30pm

Funny thing is, I think LCT's subscribers are even older, if that's possible.

MTC does have gay & lesbian, singles and student memberships which involve cocktail parties and get togethers. I used to do the Sunday night gay & lesbian play and cocktail nights for a few seasons back about 5-8 years ago, but..... how to put this kindly ....... I just wasn't interested in talking to 99% of the people I met at those mixers and after a while ended up hanging out with the staff running the party (a couple of the people who worked in Subscriber Services were friends of mine), who were more typically more fun and interesting and generally closer to my age than most of the subscribers who were there, or else I brought along my own friends to go to the parties with me. I also got to know several of the actors from shows MTC was producing (the casts were always invited for the free wine and food), some of whom are still friends to this day (man, did I get a lot of juicy behind-the scenes gossip about people involved in those shows after the actors had had a bit too much of that free wine). All in all the parties were fun, but I don't think I met a single fellow subscriber in all the years I did that series.

The unfortunate fact is that that the vast majority of the kind of people who are willing and able to buy a full season subscription to MTC or Roundabout are going to be over 50, if not over 60 or 70 or even 80 years old (same with LCT, although in that case the membership only costs $50, but new memberships have been closed for years and will constinue to be until more of the subscriber base dies off -- there are too damn many members for the number of seats available). My friends who worked at MTC used to walk me around the parties introducing me to their co-workers and the actors from the shows by saying "Hey, I'd like you to meet our youngest subscriber!" They said it as a joke, but one glance around the room and it was clear that it was close to the truth. In fact one friend who worked there told me that I was approximately half the average subscriber age. He also said that even the student subscriptions (which were $150+ cheaper than the regular subscriptions) mostly went NOT to 18-30 year olds but to little old ladies who had taken one class at the Learning Annex or some other half-assed school and had a student ID because of it (and yes, at the time ANY student ID counted).

Still, I think few people under 30 (or even 40) buy memberships to theatres for $150 or whatever it is -- either because they don't have that much on hand at any time or don't plan ahead like that or think a year into the future like that. I think most people start thinking like that when they're a bit older and their life is a bit more settled with a more regular and predicatable schedule. I know that I didn't do many memberships when I was in my 20s because I was still going out nightly with my friends to bars and clubs and parties every other night so trying to plan anything more than a week in advance as impossible (which is not to say I didn't go to a lot of theatre, but that I generally did it on short notice -- lots of spur of the moment runs up to box offices with friends to see something that night or the night after).

I've subscribed at various times to LCT, MTC, Roundabout, The Public, Second Stage, NY Theatre Workshop, BAM, The Vineyard, The Atlantic, Signature, Playwrights and on any given night at every one of them more than half the audience is over 50 (if not 60, 70 etc...). It's unavoidable. Now, I think that The Public seems to draw a slightly younger (and much more ethnically diverse) crowd than most because of the kind of shows they tend to program year in year out (more playwrights of color, women playwrights and more daring works than most other theaters). Signature's August Wilson season last year also drew a very diverse audience (and will probably get a slightly younger crowd this year with its Charles Mee season). NY Theatre Workshop also is more daring programming-wise which tends to bring in a younger, hipper crowd. Same with The Vineyard (though their programming has been pretty crappy as of late).

But at the old established mainstream not-for-profits like Roundabout, MTC and LCT, which are generally less risk-taking and daring in their programming, an average audience age of 60-70 is pretty much unavoidable, no matter how many cocktail parties they throw or youth memberships they offer.

Updated On: 10/27/07 at 03:30 PM

[stella985]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 4:13pm

I've had the same experience. Although more so at the Roundabout then MTC actually. Honestly, it's gotten to the point where I don't like going to matinees at those places because I feel glaringly out of place as someone in my early 20s. I know that non-profits need that group to survive, but I do wish they'd do more to reach out to young professionals.

My family subscribes to the Roundabout and I've gone to a few of their patron events with my mom, and every time my mother has been the second youngest person in the room next to me. I've even been mistaken for an intern a few times (yes, I'm the right age for that but still...).

[Hatchet-Face]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 5:34pm

You should see the subscribers at the Old Globe in San Diego - they are all pushing death.

[myManCape]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 8:24pm

I think MTC takes a slightly bigger risk with its productions than Roundabout. MTC has been a haven for new works and younger playwrights (Lindsay-Abaire, McPherson, Margulies) While it has also taken on some risky revivals in the past few seasons (Translations, Absurd Person Singular). Roundabout defines its seasons by digging up shows that are older than its subscriber base. While the MTC audience might not “get” the shows that are being produced they are going to continue subscribing regardless so I applaud Lynne Meadow and MTC for going with newer, riskier productions.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 8:31pm

A funny story, semi related. I was at Take me out for a sunday matinee and was sitting next to three very nice old ladies (probably in their 80s) and during the third shower seen when the men walked onto to the stage naked, the one sitting next to me screams out "oh no...not again." I couldnt help but crack up laughing. Anyway moral of the story do not see a show with male nudity on a sunday matinee, as the little old woman will not be very happy.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 8:38pm

I really resent this thread.

As someone who has just turned 60, I don't like people being annoyed by my very presence in a theater. I am still ambulatory and don't wheeze when I breathe, but the time may soon be coming when those frailties are a reality for me. It won't stop me from going to the theater.

Should theater be reserved only for the young and healthy?

Trust me, when the time comes for me to suck oxygen and sit in a wheelchair, I'll try to get a seat right nexst to yours at RENT!

[folkyboy]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 8:53pm

i kind of enjoy the older crowds at the talk backs of Encores! subscribers. they tell us SO much about the shows when they were originally put on :)

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/27/07 at 10:44pm

The only MTC show I've seen is Lovemusik, and I gotta say...

I was alone that day and good God was it depressing. I actually really enjoyed the show despite its glaring flaws, but it was really hard to be engaged when I felt like everyone around me was asleep.

I am a Roundabout subscriber just because its such a good deal for students and I'd see most of the shows anyway, but the same goes for some of their straight plays.

This is nothing against the extremely old people (and by old, I don't mean 60s, I mean like fifteen degrees above room temperature old), I think it's awesome that they're still getting out to the theater even when they're rolling around oxygen tanks and what-not. It's more about the awkwardness. I always get asked lots of questions about what I'm "doing here."

I try to avoid Sunday matinees at the Roundabout now... Updated On: 10/27/07 at 10:44 PM