Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

20at20 returns . . . with a vengeance.

Next week, 20at20, a project of The Off-Broadway Theatre Alliance, returns.

And this year, it's bigger and better than ever.

There are a bunch more shows for you to see this Fall for only $20.  So check it out.  It's only around for 2 weeks, starting 9/2 and ending 9/14.

What's cool about the program is that it started as a simple idea.  And 2 years later it has generated more press for Off-Broadway than any other Off-Broadway promotion that I know of, and has generated more revenue than any other Off-Broadway promotion that I know of.

Ideas are easy.  Execution is what it's about.

Your 2 challenges for the next week?

1)  See at least 1 show during 20at20.

2)  Take a simple idea and execute it. 

When you finish challenge #2? 

Do it again. 

Fun with festivals.

Theater festivals have exploded in size and number over the last five years, just like film festivals.

The Edinburgh Fringe, NY Fringe, Minneapolis Fringe, Toronto Fringe, Midtown International (which announced their award nominations today, coincidentally), NYMF (which gave birth to ABz), and countless others were created to give new plays and musicals an easier entry point to production by covering a portion of the expenses and responsibilities, namely press/marketing and theater rent.

So getting into a festival makes your life easier, right? 

Not so fast, fringe-meister.

Getting into a festival is like an actor getting an agent.  You've still got to do most of the work, especially if you want to stand out.

Festivals are like buffets.  All the shows are lined up next to each other.  The quiche is next to the corn which is next to the strawberry Jello with the marshmallows.

While having all those choices sound too good to be true at first, they can be overwhelming to the consumer, especially if they are “new” dishes the diner has never tasted before.  And remember, you can only eat so many in one sitting.

I mean, think about it . . . how many times have you been to a buffet and found yourself wandering around the bar trying to decide just what you should try.   

That’s what a festival audience does.

And if you’re lucky enough to get on their plate, you’re probably just one of many portions.

With so many choices, it’s hard for the Jello to stand out. 

Your job as a Producer in a festival is to make your show seem like a waiter-served entrée that costs a lot more than the flat rate, all you can eat, warming tray heated, slightly stale, other options. 

You can't just be one of the choices.  You have to make yourself the choice; the one that makes them come back for seconds.

How do you do it? 

Don't do what the other shows do. 

Do more.  And do different.

Why we should have a World Championships of Theater.

Ok, are you ready for this one?

I may have eaten a few too many hot dogs at the Red Sox/Yankee game tonight, because listen to what I'm spitting up:

If the Olympics and Oedipus were born in the same ancient land and only a few hundred years apart, why don't we have a Theatrical Olympics?  Or a World Championship of Theater?

Imagine it . . . put together a governing body of judges from around the globe.  Committees in each country would put forth their best entries in each of the usual categories (i.e. Best Musical, Best Play, etc.).   Those Judges would travel to see each show and pit East vs. West, North vs. South, Hairspray versus Chinese Opera! 

It would be the Miss Universe of the theater!

Ok, maybe it is the hot dogs talking.  (But www.WorldTheaterAwards.com is available, FYI)

But the point is that awards and competition are important for marketing and for audience development, no matter who the organization is.

Having awards, makes people want to win them.

Having winners, makes people want to see them.

(In an early Altar Boyz quantitative focus group, we determined that the most compelling fact that made people interested in seeing the show was that we had won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical.  I'd bet the actual award that 95% of the people surveyed didn't even know who the Outer Critics were.)

Does your city have community theater awards?  What about high school excellence awards?  Any state-wide professional theaters going against each other for bragging rights and a trophy? 

None of the above?  Well, start one.

Maybe we don't need a world champion of theater (although I think we need it more than we need a badminton champion, but that's besides the point).

But we can all always benefit from a little competition, right?  Cuz even if you don't win, you can always tell your audience what an honor it was to be nominated.

"How much should I pay for an option?"

A great question comes from one of my readers on the left coast.

What do you do when, after spending years reading every script that comes across your desk and attending every festival in the free world, you finally find the holy grail of new shows! 

Clear off your calendar, because you're ready to sink the next few years of your life (and the next few years' salaries) into getting this show off the page and onto the stage! 

But before you book a theater, you better make sure you have the right to book a theater.  Time to option the property.

But how much do you pay?  Is there a third party appraiser?  A blue book for scripts?

The antiquated APC from The Dramatists Guild sets the first option for a new musical at $18,000.  Is that appropriate for you?

I don't know.

It's up to you to decide the value of the script and make an offer to the author or the author's agent.

I've paid everything from $1 to $1000s when optioning material.  The answer to the question from the other coast is that the option amount differs depending on so many things, like:

• What is the project?
• Is it completed or just an idea?  A commission?
• Who is the author?  What have they done?
• What do you have planned for the project?  Broadway?  Off-Broadway?  Tour?  Foreign?
• What is the potential commercial viability?
• How many people are interested in it?
• Was it your idea?
• Etc.

I will say this when you're thinking about what to pay.  Front money or seed money is hard to raise in the theater.  Unless you're sitting on some giant corporate development fund, getting people to pay for early readings, workshops, etc. is hard, but that's the money that is oh so necessary.

I often tell my authors and creatives that I try to keep my advances low so that I have more money to put into the shows themselves.  The hungrier authors are usually more than happy to forego a few bucks if it means a few more readings, or a few more rehearsals, or few more musicians.

We're all making an investment in the early stages, and we're all better served in having early money go into the show, instead of into a pocket.

Turn the lights down low. Turn up the Barry White.

And insert bow chika bow bow music here.

Before any sort of main event, it's important to set the mood.  And that goes for the theater as well.

When doing a show, it's important that you don't go-for-gusto until you've warmed up your audience for what they're about to experience.  You want them to be ready.  You want them to be excited. 

You want them to call you the next morning for another date.

Rock bands have opening acts.  Live talk shows have warm-up comedians.  Movies have previews.

What do you have?

Is there music playing while the audience is seated?  What kind? 

Are your ushers dressed formally?  Are they in costume?

Is there a character on stage?  Off stage?  Both?  (Brian Bradley worked up the crowd into a frenzy during the 30 minutes prior to the Alma Mater in the last revival of Grease that I PAed.)

Is the curtain open? Drawn?  What type of curtain is it?  (One of the smallest but most significant changes I've seen to a "pre-show" was on the last Gypsy revival, which I CMed.  For the first few previews, the audience entered the theater and stared at a blank, dark and depressing stage . . . for 30 minutes.  We wondered why they weren't so responsive during the first scene?  We brought in the beautiful "grand drape" for later previews and the audience's somberness disappeared.)

What you do in the 30 or so minutes from when your doors open to when your show begins is crucial.  You're setting the tone for the entire evening. 

So make sure you consider it. 

Because you'll never get the reaction you want from your audience, without proper "beforeplay".

- - - - -

Props to one of our My First Time models, who is one of the Bow Chika girls in the video above.  Can you tell which one?

Special Sunday Post: 13 for 13 Tomorrow

The 13 Box Office opens at 10 AM tomorrow . . . and we're selling $13 tickets to the first 100 people in line, so come on down to The Jacobs Theatre! 

Read the deets on JRB's website here.

I'll see you there! 

Please call your lawyer. Part II.

It's official. 

The phrase, "I'm calling my lawyer!" and its many consumer-screamed derivatives including "My husband/wife/uncle/cousin is an attorney," have jumped the shark.

Listen to this recent mis-use of the lawyer scare card:

At a show in NYC, a woman had to be escorted out of the theater in handcuffs after refusing to put away her guinea pig (?) and for spewing hate speech.  The show that she was (not) seeing inevitably started late.  Here's a quote from the show report . . .

Most of the audience members were very patient and understanding with the exception of one man who threatened to sue us because we were starting the show late.

Remember when this sort of phrase used to get you all sweaty?  You didn't want the big bad lawyers to come huffin' and puffin' and trying to blow your house down.

I'd bet some of you have even used this once or twice when you were dealing with a company that wasn't giving you what you wanted (come on, admit it).

All customer service reps, including theater owners, managers, box office staff, etc are going to hear this at one point or another.  And for me, when someone says, "I'm going to contact my lawyer unless . . . ", that's the equivalent of them using the "F" word.

When someone swears at me or a member of my staff, they've just given us the right to shut down and stop helping them.

And when someone uses the "L" word, they have also drawn a line in the sand.  That's when I say, "Please do contact your lawyer.  In fact, here is the name/address/phone/email/fax/skype of my law firm who I have on retainer, and they would be happy to speak to yours at any time.  Thank you for taking this uncomfortable situation out of our hands and putting it into the hands of professionals."

That usually elicits a blank stare.  And some back tracking.

Odds are that the consumer is never going to do anything.  They were just looking to scare you.  But you're smarter than that. 

And frankly, this is the safest thing to do from a legal perspective as well.  If the customer IS looking to pursue legal action, then you want to be very careful about anything you say and you want to take a hint from Miranda and shut up.

However, if they do want to contact your lawyer and you're a show, you've probably got one on retainer getting a weekly fee.  Let 'em earn it.

At some point in your career, you will probably have some sort of legal action against you, probably for a 1-800-LAWYER-ish slip-n-fall.

Don't let it scare you.  The best and biggest companies in the world get sued all the time.  Consider it a sign of success.

Cuz we're not afraid of big bad lawyers in wolf's clothing anymore. 

Guinea pigs? 

Yes.  We are scared of them, so keep those half-rats out of the theaters, will ya?

Please call your lawyer. Part I.

A friend of mine was cutting a deal with a promotional partner recently and when he received the contract, he told the potential partner that he'd be get back to him after his lawyer reviewed the paperwork.

The partner told him not to bother and squashed the deal, for the sole reason that my buddy wants to spend his own money on a second set of legal-eagle eyes.

My friend was thrilled . . . because he knew right away that this was not a guy to do business with.

Anyone that gets skittish when you want a second opinion is someone you should be skittish about.

I cut creative deals on my shows.  Before I do, I make it a point to encourage the other party to speak to their agents, their lawyers, their pet hamsters, whomever, before they sign on the dotted line.

By encouraging people to get a second or third opinion, they'll trust you more. 

And at some point when a discussion comes up about a clause in the contract and they state that it wasn't explained to them properly . . . well, they can't point the finger at you.

No refunds. No exchanges. Except . . .

Sometimes, people don't like my shows.  Sometimes, they even leave before they are over. 

What can you do.  You can't please everyone.  And frankly, I bet people walked out of Oedipus Rex during previews (incest, violence . . . makes Spring Awakening look like "Hee-Haw").

Sometimes those people ask for their money back.

Then what do you do?

The theater has always printed its harsh "No Refunds/No Exchanges" policy right on the ticket, as if to say, "Don't even ask or we'll beat you with a stick."

Most people don't ask.  And frankly, they shouldn't.  You don't ask for a refund if you don't like a movie, or if you're unhappy with the exhibits hanging on the wall at your museum.  You're paying for an objective experience, and taking a risk right along with everyone else.

The problem is that the cost of a theater ticket is a lot more than a movie or a museum, so I'd wager that we get more refund requests than both combined. 

You can't give customers their money back just because they didn't like the show.  But in today's customer service The "Don't Ask For Your Money Back Or The Box Office Treasurer Will Beat You" policy doesn't work either. 

It's your responsibility as a Producer to temper your customer's unhappiness as much as possible, to try and reduce the volume of that customer's word of mouth.  Because it most certainly is not going to be good.

So what can you or your able-minded box office do? 

If people are leaving early, I do just about anything short of a tap dance to get them back in the theater to see the full show.  Both Prom and Altar Boyz are both shows that take a few minutes to get groovin'  and snap judgements aren't good for any show. I even promised one couple I'd take them out to dinner if they sat through the show and then still wanted their money back (they ended up buying me dinner . . . and even expressed interest in investing in a show in the future). 

When people won't stay, I always offer those people a chance to come back to see the show again.  Most refuse, so I offer them vouchers that they can give to friends who they think might like the show more.  I even suggest they give the vouchers away as Xmas gifts (you save them money and you become a hero). 

If that fails, I offer them free tickets to another one of my shows, or a steep discount.

T-shirts?  Drinks?   I keep going to additional offers like a never-ending flowchart.

Maybe they won't take me up on any of it, but they see that I'm trying to do everything I can to provide them with some value.  The effort alone usually softens their temper.

And if it doesn't?  And they are still as mad as ever and they still want their money back?

I still won't give it to them.

Why?  Because people like that are going to speak poorly about your show no matter what you do. 

You could triple their money back, and they'd still talk about you like you Oedipus-ed your mom.

I'm addicted to Speed.

The tweets are true. 

Earlier today, I twittered that I had signed on as one of the Producers of the 20th Anniversary revival of David Mamet's Speed The Plow starring Entourage's Jeremy Piven, Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and Broadway's Bobby-baby, Raul Esparza. 

I'll admit . . . Seems like a strange choice for the Producer of The Awesome 80s Prom, My First TIme, Altar Boyz and 13, doesn't it? 

Sing it with me now: "One of these things is not like the other things . . . "

So if this show seems so far from my "style", why am I doing it?

Well, there was a super long list of "pros" that got me to opt-in for my 2nd show that'll open this fall, including the lead Producer, Piven and Mamet himself.

But one of them was simply that it wasn't my style.

In poker, the best teachers will tell you that it's important every once in awhile to "vary your style of play."  If you're a very conservative player that only bets when you've got the nuts, bluff once in a while.  If you're an aggressive player, play one or two hands tight every couple o' rounds. 

Shaking up your style forces you to get out of your comfort zone.  And most importantly, it keeps you learning and growing so that you're ready to play in any game at any stakes, no matter who is dealing.

So I'm varying my style of play . . . with a play.

And with this cast and this play, it feels like I've been dealt a couple of pocket aces.

Stay tuned . . . gonna be a busy fun fall.