Why Don't Shows Try Out in Boston Anymore?

I think it's possible that producers want to try-out a show in a city that is a lot farther away from New York.

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^ Maybe the feel that there are plenty of beautiful theatres in Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Miami, LA, San Francisco, and Toronto are 'staying empty'.

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..and Sarasota and Tampa !

I never understood how Boston and Philadelphia went from huge theatre towns to .. not so anymore. Still lots of thriving regional stuff, but nothing that is major/Broadway-bound anymore.

Philly's got a beautiful theatre that is pretty much sitting empty except the tours that stick around for a long while (the Forrest), the Walnut which independently puts on it's own stuff/S. Sondheim is on the board/trustees believe it or not, and then the big touring house The Academy of Music, amongst countless other theatres!

My first professional show was at the Forrest.

I think some of it has to do with the fact that it's so much easier to take a whole cast to someplace like Seattle or Denver. Once upon a time Philadelphia and Boston were the only viable options because of the transportation system. Most people had to travel by train and taking an entire company across country via train was expensive and tedious. Now, its much easier.

Theatres all over the country are making themselves attractive to producers for out of town tryouts and part of it must be the fact that they're taking Broadway to people who may never get to Broadway.

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Toronto used to get a ton of pre-Broadway runs and great sit-down productions. They have dried up. For years, Toronto was a theatre ghost town. It is starting to pick up now with some of the tours, giving Toronto longer runs. However, Toronto still has its fair share of bad musicals that get comfortable for a little too long.

Chicago now seems to be the epicenter of try-outs.

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I'd rather, honestly, have a production come out with so-so reviews from somewhere like Philadelphia, as opposed to getting entire raves from somewhere like Sarasota. Not to pick on Tale, as I loved it .. but I'd still would have liked to see if they had gotten the Broadway reviews for out of town they may have been able to pump up the production a little differently.

"Why Don't Shows Try Out In Boston Anymore?"

Isn't that the name of Val's introspective ballad in Henry, Sweet Henry?

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Updated On: 7/8/09 at 09:14 PM

Smaxie, if this were Facebook I would "Like" your comment.

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i think some should try out in detroit

Ya, I live right outside of New Haven and always wished that I could have seen New Haven theatre in its prime. Currently we get nothing except for a tour or two, but wish it was still a big out of town try out location.

Boston is too expensive.

Everything from being a tier one per diem town to theater rentals, labor costs, hotel/housing expenses make Boston a difficult city to sit and do production in -

Not to mention that of the three large theaters (Wang, Colonial, Shubert) only the Wang has anything resembling offstage space (very useful when doing production) and that place is booked so solidly that there is no advantage to the venue to rent it out for a production that will not bring in paying customers for a month or more.

Ideally a production theater should be a large venue with plenty of wing space, in a mid-sized town that happens to have inexpensive yet fabulously talented local crews, decent access to technical gear, and a not so hostile press.

Any suggestions?

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Don't forget that The Opera House is another theatre in Boston that can easily be used for big out of town try outs.

But, I do think that it is false to say that no show tries out in Boston anymore. Both High Fidelity and The 39 Steps played Boston before coming to New York.

I do think that it sort of has to do with perception. Yes, with the internet it doesn't matter where a show is going to have its out of town try out due to the fact that as soon as the curtain comes down on the first performance, someone is going to be online writing about it.

But, I do wonder one thing. Are theatre industry insiders more likely to hop a flight to the west coast to see a show out of town and see how it is doing or just wait for it to get to Broadway where it would be less expensive for them to see considering the fact that it is playing in their home city?

If that is the case then I could see the plus side in opening out of town further from New York. Yes, people are going to see it and blog about it online but if it has more control over the people who are going to see it who work in the theatre industry then I can see the plus side in doing it. It isn't a matter of anyone seeing it or writing about it online more of the fact that it controls who does get to see it.

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