Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer

The Sunday Giveaway: 2 Tickets to Russian Transport at The New Group

This week we're giving away two tickets to the recently extended Russian Transport at The New Group starring funny girl and Saturday Night Live alum, Janeane Garofalo!

Russian Transport is about an immigrant couple running a struggling car service while, "trying to carve out the American Dream for their teenagers."  

Classic 'root for the underdog' story, right?

Well, when Uncle Boris moves in, that story takes a unique turn.

And one of you is going to find out what that turn is when you win your free tickets to see the show.

Here's how to enter to win.

Comedians and more specifically Saturday Night Live comedians have a history of making great hollywood actors:  Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, Dan Akryoyd are just three of them who have gone on to great careers in comic roles and dramatic as well.

So here's my query:

What Saturday Night Live star would you like to see on Broadway and in what show?

Cast that SNLer in a show in a comment below and I'll pick one who'll win the tix.

Go! 

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take the Musical Boot Camp!  Click here for info and an application.

- Broadway Road Trip from DC on 4/28.  Click here.

Who won the tickets to Venus In Fur on Broadway?

Valentine's Day may have passed us by, but someone is gonna get all sexified when they head to Venus In Fur.

So enough teasin'.  Who's going?

Congratulations to Robb Johnston!  Start looking for a date, because you won!

Email me to set up the tickets.

Another giveaway goes up tomorrow at 11 AM.  Check it out then.

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take the Musical Boot Camp!  Click here for info and an application.

- Broadway Road Trip from DC on 4/28.  Click here.

The Sunday Giveaway: 2 Tickets to Venus In Fur

She's baaaaaaack.

And when I say She, I mean, the actress that is the reason this show even opened on Broadway in the first place.

Not too long after the critics drooled all over Nina Arianda's performance in last year's Born Yesterday, a revival of David Ives' Venus In Fur was slated for The Great White Way this fall.  With similar praise showered upon Ms. Arianda and the production, the limited run soon turned into an extension, that include an expensive move to another theater.

Now that's a performance that's gotta be worth seeing, right?

Well, one of you is going to see it for free!

Here's how you can win two tickets to see Nina in Venus in Fur this February:

Give me an example of a performance that was so good you'd produce the show again just to see it.  And it doesn't have to even make sense.  If the answer is "Robert Goulet in Camelot", then ok.  Just tell me something that inspired you so much, you'd want everyone you know to see it.

I'll go first.

Raul Esparza in Tick, Tick, Boom. 

Your turn!

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take a Broadway Road Trip from DC on 2/25!  Click here!

Who won the tickets to see Nick Jonas in How To Succeed?

Whooooa!  Twitter just about blew up with this week's giveaway!

There's an awful lot of peeps out there who want to see Nick Jonas strut his stuff in H2$ on the Broadway.  And frankly, I'm one of them, because I hear he's grrrreat.  

So who is the winner?  Who's going with three of their friends and going to be the envy of all their others?  

Congratulations to . . .

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Kidding, kidding.  

The winner is @Mialoves1Dchi.

Congrats, Mia!  Email me and we'll set you up.  

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take a Broadway Road Trip from DC on 2/25!  Click here!

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18.  Only 2 spots left!  Sign up today!

The Sunday Giveaway: 4 Tickets to How to Succeed with Nick Jonas!

You read that right . . . not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 tickets to see Nick Jonas in How To Succeed on Broadway!

You could take all of the Jonas Brothers and still have room to go yourself.  

(By the by, you know what is cool about Nick doing a Broadway show?  It's not that he's doing a show, it's that he is coming back to do a show.  Yep, he started here.  Click here to see his other Broadway creds).

So who wants to have a How To Succeed party?  

Here's how to win:

Below is a tweet-to-be.  I say, to-be, because right now it's just typed.  But you are going to cut, paste and then tweet it out to the twitterverse.  

We'll track those tweets and pick one tweeter randomly to win the twickets . . . I mean, tickets.  

Oh, and if you're not on Twitter, take this opportunity to sign up.  It ain't goin' anywhere, so it's best you join the hundreds of millions of other people that have signed up.

So ready?  Here goes.

- - - - - Begin Tweet - - - - -

Win FOUR tickets to see @NickJonas on Broadway in @H2SBway!  Click here!  http://ow.ly/1FA0sc 

- - - - - End Tweet - - - - -

Tweet it up!

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take a Broadway Road Trip from DC on 2/25!  Click here!

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18.  Only 2 spots left!  Sign up today!

Who won the tickets to Stick Fly?

You know what was great about this week's contest?  The comments were like a mini-talkback focus group.

And what I learned, and what you can learn from looking at all of the comments here, is that most people stumble into a talkback, rather than seek them out.

That tells me:

- We're not doing a good enough job of letting our buyers know that talkbacks are happening.
- Talkbacks primary function is to fuel word of mouth with the audience that is there, not attract new audiences.

But enough with the takeaways, you just want to know who won the free stuff, right?

Congratulations to Amy Engelhardt, you win!  Email me and I'll set up your tickets (and pick that talkback night and come back and let us know what it was).

See you all tomorrow.  We've got a super-sized Broadway giveaway this week.  

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Take a Broadway Road Trip from DC on 2/25!  Click here!

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18. Sign up today!

The Sunday Giveaway: 2 Tickets to Stick Fly on Broadway!

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Tired of winter yet?

Well, the good news is . . . it's the last Sunday in January.  Bad news is . . . February has an extra day this year.

But on one of those February days, one of you will be going to see Stick Fly, the new play by Lydia R. Diamond and presented by Alicia Keys on the Broadway.  Nothing warms you up like a free ticket, so let's play.

To win tickets to Stick Fly, here's what you gotta do.

On February 6th, Ms. Alicia Keys will be hosting a talkback after the performance of Stick Fly.  Cool, right?  I'm a big fan of unique talkbacks.  We did a cool one for Oleanna that David Mamet shut down, and we're doing one right now featuring a cast member a night for three months on Godspell. 

Have you ever gone to a show because of a talkback?  What's the most exciting talkback you've seen?  Done?  Wanted to do?  Comment below on your favorite talkback experience and I'll pick a random winner, and hey, maybe you'll be in the audience to hear what Alicia Keys has to say about Stick Fly!

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- Win tickets to see Stick Fly on Broadway.  Enter here!

- Take a Broadway Road Trip!  From Mass on 2/4 and From DC on 2/25!  Click here!

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18. Sign up today!

Who won the tickets to How I Learned to Drive?

I was going to pick this one randomly, but when I read how Marty Strenczewilk was just as passionately bummed about missing How I Learned the first time around, how could I resist?

Marty, you and I are finally gonna see this sucker!

Email me and we'll set it up.  

Here's to crossing things off the 'To See" bucket list!

And if there's one thing I learned from this contest is . . . man oh man, have we all missed some great theater for one reason or another.  Let this contest serve as a reminder to us all (me included, who almost missed Follies), live theater doesn't happen again.  That's why we love it.

So, when you've got a desire to see something . . . see it.  You'll never have that chance to see that show with that cast in that space ever again.  

And life is too short, and good theater is too rare to miss.

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18. Sign up today!

The Sunday Giveaway: A ticket to see How I Learned To Drive with me.

There are just a few shows that have played on or off Broadway in NY that I have always regretted missing . . . and one of them is the show we're giving away tickets to this weekend.

The winner of today's giveaway is going to see Norbert Leo Butz and Elizabeth Reaser in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize Winning How I Learned To Drive at 2nd Stage!  

How I Learned is one of those Off-Broadway plays that I thought would end up on Broadway the next time around.  But nope, 2nd Stage snapped it up and decided to do it the way it was intended . . . intimate and Off-Broadway.

But here's the little wrinkle.   Since I never saw the original, and since I'm dying to see this one, you have to take me.  :-)

Deal?  Deal.  

How do you win?  

Simple.

Tell me the show that has played Broadway or Off-Broadway that you regret missing . . . and it doesn't matter if you lived here or not when you missed it.  Was it Angels in America (another of mine) or Once On This Island (you missed something incredibly special).   Whatever it was, comment below and you could win a ticket (with me, remember, so get over it) to see the show!

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- TEDX Broadway is tomorrow!  Get tickets today.  

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18. Sign up today!

Who won the free ticket to TedX Broadway?

Wider seats, digital distribution, holograms . . . these were just a few of the answers you came up with for the question, "What will Broadway be like in 20 years?"

You can read them all here . . . but the winner to this week's giveaway, and the guy that's going to Monday's TedX Broadway is . . .

Danny!

Here was Danny's answer, in case you were curious:

In 20 years, it will be the norm for Broadway shows to release a video recording of the show in the way that it is now the norm for a musical to release a cast album. It would be recorded with the original cast but not released until after closing night, so as not to compete with ticket sales. It would be an easy way for producers to continue making money on the property after the show has closed, and a way to preserve amazing performances forever. (And make them accessible to anyone anywhere, unlike the Lincoln Center archives.)

(It was the comparison to the cast recording that I loved about this answer.  I mean, do you think people argued against releasing cast albums years ago?)  

Congratulations, Danny!  Email me and we'll set up your ticket.  We'll see you on Monday.

If you're interested in hearing more of what Broadway will be like in 20 years, then come to TedX Broadway.  There are a few tickets still available, and it's going to be awesome.

Read these articles about the conference in the NY Post and the Associated Press then Buy Your Tickets.

See you there.

 

(Got a comment? I love 'em, so comment below! Email subscribers, click here, then scroll down, to say what's on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

- SEMINAR ALERT: Get Your Show Off the Ground Seminar: 2/18. Sign up today!