PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE Ken Davenport, Broadway Producer, Off-Broadway, Theater

How to monetize a niche social network: a case study . . . by me!

BroadwaySpace.com got in front of the powers that be at iMediaConnection a few months ago. Then those powers reached out to me and asked if I'd write a case study on niche social networks.

I did.  And, lo and behold, they just published it!

You can read it here.

And when you do, you'll understand this photo.  But no, that's not my mom.

Are the arts in NYC at a crossroads? Find out tomorrow!

Crain's New York and the Columbia University School of the Arts are presenting a half-day conference on Wednesday examining "the future of the arts in New York City."

Specifically, the conference is about the economic downturn and how the City's arts organizations are dealing with the decrease in attendance, in fundraising, etc.

How are we dealing with these issues in the short-term?

More importantly, how are we dealing with them for the long-term?

The economic downturn has been a cataclysmic event.  Cataclysmic events leave permanent marks on industries.  

What marks has this one left on us?

That's what we're going to try and find out tomorrow.

I was honored to be asked to speak on a panel at the conference tomorrow, along with some terrific co-panelists including Nina Lannan (Chairman of the Broadway League), Todd Haimes (Artistic Director of the Roundabout Theatre), and Scott Morfee (who owns and runs the Barrow Street Theatre, where the terrific production of Our Town is still running); moderated by Steven Chaikelson (an Associate Professor and Director at Columbia).

There are some other great sessions as well, especially for those working in the non-profit sectors.

If you want to go, check out the details here.  

And if you do go, please make sure you say hello afterwards!

Broadway Grosses w/e 9/27/09

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	Avg Pd Adm
A STEADY RAIN	$1,153,779	8,575	100.08%	$134.55
AFTER MISS JULIE	$203,207	4,771	80.59%	$42.59
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,393,384	11,371	100.03%	$122.54
BURN THE FLOOR	$365,706	6,118	73.25%	$59.78
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$533,736	7,744	94.35%	$68.92
CHICAGO	$571,719	7,490	86.69%	$76.33
GOD OF CARNAGE	$867,540	7,651	101.39%	$113.39
HAIR	$821,117	9,344	82.72%	$87.88
HAMLET	$632,206	6,693	71.26%	$94.46
IN THE HEIGHTS	$688,750	8,534	78.15%	$80.71
JERSEY BOYS	$1,146,890	9,892	101.19%	$115.94
MAMMA MIA!	$950,422	11,401	95.14%	$83.36
MARY POPPINS	$601,729	8,475	58.95%	$71.00
MEMPHIS	$294,664	7,605	86.22%	$38.75
NEXT TO NORMAL	$399,553	5,497	89.01%	$72.69
ROCK OF AGES	$601,376	7,252	90.92%	$82.93
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$552,808	8,697	62.73%	$63.56
SOUTH PACIFIC	$703,758	6,950	83.45%	$101.26
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$261,141	6,456	80.86%	$40.45
THE 39 STEPS	$201,071	3,090	65.58%	$65.07
THE LION KING	$1,204,242	12,044	91.02%	$99.99
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$805,209	10,542	81.59%	$76.38
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$176,953	4,096	78.77%	$43.20
WEST SIDE STORY	$1,012,254	10,981	80.89%	$92.18
WICKED	$1,481,120	14,387	99.41%	$102.95
WISHFUL DRINKING	$232,375	5,417	67.44%	$42.90
TOTAL	$17,856,707	211,073	83.91%	$79.76

Attention vendors: you're not the only ones with a pitch.

I got an unsolicited mass email last week from a company that provides a 'service' to the Broadway community.   I was a little bugged by the impersonal feel of the salesy-email so I banged back a quick reply:

"Why yes, I am interested in your service, although I do have a current provider.  Since you asked me about my interest in your product, might I ask you if you have ever considered investing in a Broadway show?"

I got a response pretty quickly.  The vendor kind of e-laughed at me and with a haughty tone said something like, "Oh no, we don't do that."  Then he went on to try and sell me his product (which, frankly, I could have gotten from a zillion providers online - and probably cheaper . . . he had obviously just gotten lucky and nabbed a couple of Broadway accounts).

I was surprised at his response.  Although, honestly, I don't know why.  Given the previously mentioned impersonal feel of the salesy-email, I shouldn't have been surprised at all.

It would have been nice of him to say that he entertained all sorts of ideas, especially if he was trying to get a face-to-face meeting with me.  His reaction made it seem like doing what I do, and what so many others do, is bonkers, but he was more than happy to suck from the Broadway teat for his entire career.

When I was first starting out, I told another vendor that I wanted to be a Producer.  She laughed.  She tried to convince me to forget it and go into servicing the industry and getting paid for it.  "There's no money to be made on Broadway, but there's a lot of money to be made off of Broadway," she said.

There are a lot of vendors out there that do give back to the business, in the form of investment, etc., but then there are those that just seek to get fat off the people taking big risks.

To those, I say this:  the map of the Broadway world has changed a great deal over the last five years.  There are more competitors than ever.  There are more ways to do it yourself than ever.  If you're not willing to even think about giving back to the industry that has fed you for so long, you may find yourself starving soon enough.

The Phantom sent me an email. Ooooh, creepy.

I signed up to receive email alerts from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber some time ago. If you've never checked out Webbie's website, you should.  The guy video blogs, emails, and more.  He's got to be the most social networking-savvy Knight there is.

He's definitely the most social networking-savvy Tony Award-winning musical theater composer there is.

The irony is . . . he doesn't need to be.

Or does he?

We all know Phantom II is gearing up, and we all know our industry's success rate for sequels. So perhaps Sir Andrew knows that he's got to take advantage of every viral aspect he can, if he's going to get this chandelier to fly.

Well, so far so good.  

Earlier this week, I got this email from The Masked One directly:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At 11 O'Clock on the eighth day of October 2009, I will be making an announcement of global importance.

Should my commands be ignored, a disaster beyond your imagination will occur.

Amor Numquam Moritur.

Your Obedient Servant,

The Phantom

Ok, a little cheesy, yes.  But definitely fun. And for the real phantom phans, definitely cool.

But that's not it . . .

Today, I got a follow-up email from the Love Never Dies site offering me a chance to be one of the few people who could witness this announcement live in London.

Oh, and did I tell you that The Phantom tweets?  

That's a lot of buzz-building e-activity around a show that's had a pretty enviable brand for the last twenty years.  And all their e-efforts are working.  Sir Andy got me to visit this website to watch their trailer.  And after watching the vid, for the first time since hearing about this sequel, I got excited about it.

You know the coolest part about their use of this technology?

When the original Phantom first opened on Broadway . . . it didn't even have a website.  Think on that for a moment!  

You've come a long way, Phantom baby.  It's nice to see your Master keeps up with the times.

5 Shows I want to see at the NYMF.

I've got a soft spot in my heart for The New York Musical Theatre Festival.

The NYMF was our midwife on Altar Boyz, and without her, it would have been an even tougher birth than it was.

Our baby is almost 5 years old now (tear, tear).  It seems like just yesterday that Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abe were taking their first few steps at The Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre (remember when Cheyenne Jackson played Matthew?).

You'll have to excuse me.  When the new NYMF shows start their pre-festival roll out every September, I get pretty nostalgic . . . AND excited.   Altar Boyz was 'blessed' with such good fortune after the NYMF, as was N2N, TOS and a whole bunch of other great abbreviated titles. There is such possibility each and every year!  Going to see NYMF shows is like going to Florida for baseball's spring training    . . . everyone is wondering who the breakout player is going to be? 

I decided to cruise through the NYMF catalog this year and dog-ear some shows that caught my attention, just like I did for the Fringe. 

In alpha order, here are the shows to keep your eye on, IMPO (in-my-producer-opinion).

1.  Fantasy Football: The Musical?

Fantasy Football wins the award for the most press received by any festival show ever.  Thanks to this super clever idea that juxtaposes two worlds that seemingly don't go together (musical theater and football), FF has gotten themselves on CNBC, and in Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, The LA Times, The Philadelphia Enquirer and more.  Will a musical theater fan go to a musical about football?  Will a football fan go to a musical?  Those questions remain, but I for one will be in the audience eager to find out the answer.

2.  Fat Camp

One year after winning the Outstanding Musical award at the Fringe, the writers of Perez Hilton Saves The Universe are back with something that feels more commercial, yet surely still has a comic bite.  Broadway vets like Sarah Saltzberg and Clarke Thorell are just a couple members of the high-profile cast.  It's also directed by Alex Timbers (of The Piven Monologues fame).  They've even got some of the ROA producers on board already.  Summer may be over, but Camp season may be just beginning.  

3.  F#@king Up Everything

I hate the title.  Scratch that. I love the title, but it's a pitchman's worst nightmare (or does that make it your greatest asset?).  Regardless of the amount of cussing in the title - or in the show - something feels indie-cool about FUE.  Combine that with its simple rock and roll girl-meets-boy story, and I'm curious. 

4.  Hurricane

We had 5 people onstage for our NYMF show. Hurricane has almost 30.  I often tell festival producers to produce small shows, because they come off better.  Well, in true "embrace your flaw" fashion, the Hurricane producers have come out saying they are proud to present a show with "the biggest cast ever seen on a NYMF stage."  There are Broadway vets, kids, and even a couple of ghosts.  Oh, and I've gotten three unsolicited recommendations to see this show.  There's some sort of storm brewing . . . and I want to see what it is.

5.  Judas & Me

I've been a fan of Matt Sklar and Chad Beguelin since I heard their demo to The Rhythm Club a decade ago.  They've since gotten The Wedding Singer on the boards, and are also the writers of the much anticipated Elf movie-to-musical. They've taken a detour from big, fat, commercial shows to write a small and quirky musical about a Messiah.  In lesser hands, I'd steer clear . . . but this I wanna see . . . and hear.

What are you seeing?  I hope you're seeing at least one.  If you wanna be a producer, the NYMF is where you need to be.  The next generation of shows and artists are all here showing their wares.  Even if you're not ready to pick up a show on your own yet, you should go . . . and play Fantasy Broadway.  Ask yourself, "Which show would you produce?"

Pick one.

Write it down.

Then watch what happens with that show over the next year.  

And then you'll think, "That could have been my kid."

Get tickets to NYMF here.

I'm not on their List yet, but at least I'm on their website!

I was asked to write a byline for Forbes that was published this week.  It's about how I believe one of the greatest challenges for entrepreneurs is finding time to continue creating once their business has gotten off the ground.

This challenge is an especially tough one for theater producers because launching a product is only the beginning.  Getting it to run, and run, and run, takes time and energy, which prevents you from creating new product.

Forbes wanted some of my tips on how to make sure you focus on the important stuff. 

Read the article here.

When Forbes asked me to write the article, I told them I didn't want to be paid...I just wanted the personal emails of all the people on their Big List.  Investor jackpot, right?  What's a 15 million dollar musical to someone worth a billion bucks!?!

For some reason, they refused to give me the emails.

That's too bad for those Big Listers, because I'd add some bucks to those billions!  Come on, Christy Walton, you Wal-Mart heiress, you.  Wanna have some fun on Broadway?

Who was the first Broadway discounter?

Have you ever wondered where it all began? 

What started the discounting phenomenon?  And more importantly . . . who started it?  

Was it The Geislers, the geniuses behind BroadwayBox.com?  Was it TDF, the org. behind the TKTS booth?  

Was it David Merrick, The Abominable Showman? (a must read, btw)

While all of the above had major impacts on the distribution of Broadway tickets over the last century, one guy beat them all to the slashing-prices punch . . . and he did it in the 19th century.

That guy was a Hungarian immigrant named Joseph Leblang . . . and he started it all in 1894!

Joe had a tobacco shop on 30th Street and he got free tickets in exchange for putting up show posters in his window. Well, smarty-pants Joe started selling those passes for cash.  And since it was all profit to him, he sold them at less than full price.  

I'm sure the shows weren't too happy about him undercutting their full price at first (just like we're not happy when a full price buyer stumbles upon BroadwayBox when googling the name of a show), but when he started moving an enormous volume of tickets, they started sending him extras to sell!  He started putting people in the street to bark for business, and even had flyers like the one on this page.

Sound familiar?  It's the basic model of the TKTS booth, which started almost 80 years later.

Joe took something that was handed to him, and turned it into a business. At the same time, he revolutionized an industry.

The irony is that a zillion other shop owners were given those free tickets.  They all could have done the same thing.  They all could have made that money . . . and more importantly . . . made that significant impact.

Opportunities are out there.  You just have to keep your eyes open, and then act on them.

For a full description of how Joe did it, read this great article on NYTix.com.  

Broadway Grosses w/e 9/20/09

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	Avg Pd Adm
A STEADY RAIN	$1,167,954	8,570	100.02%	$136.28
AFTER MISS JULIE	$98,091	3,512	94.92%	$27.93
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,342,233	11,370	100.02%	$118.05
BURN THE FLOOR	$346,946	5,545	66.39%	$62.57
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$589,285	7,982	97.25%	$73.83
CHICAGO	$535,545	7,129	82.51%	$75.12
GOD OF CARNAGE	$973,607	8,784	101.86%	$110.84
HAIR	$781,734	9,192	81.37%	$85.05
HAMLET	$575,881	5,655	68.81%	$101.84
IN THE HEIGHTS	$577,946	7,289	66.75%	$79.29
JERSEY BOYS	$1,126,009	9,896	101.23%	$113.78
MAMMA MIA!	$958,245	11,231	93.72%	$85.32
MARY POPPINS	$528,334	7,621	53.01%	$69.33
NEXT TO NORMAL	$360,964	5,495	88.97%	$65.69
ROCK OF AGES	$566,425	7,100	89.02%	$79.78
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$451,274	7,409	53.44%	$60.91
SOUTH PACIFIC	$646,966	6,695	80.39%	$96.63
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$187,238	4,961	82.19%	$37.74
THE 39 STEPS	$184,010	2,860	60.70%	$64.34
THE LION KING	$1,123,205	11,369	85.92%	$98.80
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$789,708	10,979	84.98%	$71.93
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$148,558	3,633	69.87%	$40.89
WEST SIDE STORY	$1,014,276	10,676	78.64%	$95.01
WICKED	$1,441,683	14,207	98.17%	$101.48
TOTALS	$16,516,116	189,160	82.51%	$81.35

I wrote a blog about Jeremy Piven. My lawyers told me to not to post it.

Last week I had the pleasure, along with the other Speed-the-Plow producers, of seeing the cathartic production The Piven Monologues:  A Collection of Internet Comments Related to the Controversy Surrounding Jeremy Piven's Abrupt Exit from the Broadway Production of Speed-the-Plow Due to the Alleged Illness of Mercury Poisoning from Over-Consumption of Sushi down at Joe's Pub.

What was interesting to me about the production, besides my personal connection to the material, and my fondness for the work of its wunderkind director, Alex Timbers, was that the dialogue was made up entirely of actual comments about the sushi scandal, taken from internet chatter on websites of all different shapes and sizes (a similar construct to My First Time, which I have another personal connection to).

It was another example of what I call "Theater 2.0." 

And the good news is that this playlet was more fun than a fish fry.   

Unfortunately, the party pooper (also known as Piven) ended the fun the next day when he slapped The Public with a cease and desist letter, threatening to sue.  

Sigh.

I wrote a long blog about my feelings regardingThe Piv's premature e-lawsuit-ulation, and where exactly I think he ranks on the douche-o-meter.

Unfortunately, my lawyers advised me not to post it.

So, I'll just say this . . .

To the writers of The Piven Monologues:

It would give me great pleasure to produce your show . . . but only if we do it in LA.  

And we can give the proceeds to this charity.

Give me a call.

(In true "The show must go on even in the face of legal action" style, The Public is going ahead with the second performance of The Piven Monologues.  More info here.)