Happy spring Sunday, Producer’s Perspective readers!
On this rainy spring day, we’re going to give away tickets to a deliciously dark musical . . . Murder Ballad!
Murder Ballad was a surprise hit earlier this season at Manhattan Theatre Club’s newly re-opened Off Broadway underground space, and now it’s back downtown at the Union Square Theatre for an uber cool commercial run.
It’s got a “killer” cast (get it? Murder Ballad? Killer? I made a “punny”) – Will Swenson, Caissie Levy, John Ellison Conlee, Rebecca Naomi Jones. And they’ve modified the Union Square Theatre to make the show “environmental.”
Environmental shows seem to be all the rage these days, with Sleep No More, and more recently, Here Lies Love and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 amongst others.
What is it about environmental productions? Is it a generational thing? Has the modern theater reached an age where our audiences (or our creators) are bored with seeing the same shows in such similar spaces that they’ve busted down the fourth wall and created fifth and sixth walls? Is it even neater if it doesn’t take place in a theater? Can any show be environmental?
While I encourage your comments on all those questions, it’s the last one that is the subject of this Giveaway. Pick a show, any show, and set it in an environment specific to the production (ex. Little Shop of Horrors in a Flower Shop) and I’ll pick one winner . . . and that winner will get two tickets to Murder Ballad!
Good luck! Happy Murder!
(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:
- Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad. Click here to enter and win!
- Only 49 performances of Macbeth remain! Get tix.
JJ Gatesman, come on down, cuz you won the tickets to ModROCK!
And let those of us on the Right Coast know how it is. I’m a big believer in LA’s theater scene sending more and more shows our way, so we need to keep our eyes and spies on what’s going on in H-Town.
So, JJ (and the rest of you out there in La-La Land), we’re counting on you.
(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:
- Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad. Click here to enter and win!
- Only 50 performances of Macbeth remain! Get tix.
I’m not smart enough to read The Economist.
Thankfully, I have some friends that are . . . and one of them sent me a great article featured in this month’s issue that talked about The Broadway! (I get all oogly inside when publications outside of our industry pay attention to what we do . . . because it means people who don’t normally pay attention to us, might do just that.)
The thesis of the article was something that you and I have known for a loooong time: ”Answers to almost all the world’s problems can be found on Broadway.”
It’s a fun article that calls for Kim Jong-un to listen to the lyrics of West Side Story, for Google to listen to Fagin, and more.
Read it here.
And then let’s hope that our Congress listens to this lyric:
You can drive a person crazy.
You can drive a person mad.
Now stop acting like a bunch of tubas and start working together and pass some laws that people actually want.
Huh. I might be remembering that incorrectly. But something tells me Sondheim will forgive me.
(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:
– Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad. Click here to enter and win!
- Win two tickets to ModROCK! Click here!
- Only 51 performances of Macbeth remain! Get tix.
I got a lot of emails about last month’s “What The Tuck” blog and Broadway theater availability in general . . . which got me wondering . . . which Broadway Theaters are booked the most often?
Because if we’re facing an availability crisis then it would make sense that Producers should look at the theaters that are likely to be free, right? (Hmmmm, maybe “free” isn’t the right word.)
And at the same time, if a theater has a low occupancy, then perhaps the location, location, location of that specific theater isn’t prime for recoupment, recoupment, recoupment. Right?
So, I dove deep into the archives of the Playbill Vault and IBDB and counted up the number of days that theaters were booked vs. dark over the past 30 years (from January 1, 1983-May 1, 2013), and listed them below, in order of the “most popular.”
Before you look . . . guess. Go ahead. Guess which theaters you think have been the most booked, and which have been the least booked (oh – one note – I took out all the Non-Profit theaters, because, well, they have to book their theaters to stay in business).
Did you guess? No peeking!
Here’s the list of the most popular Broadway Theaters:
| Theater Name | Occupancy Percentage |
| Winter Garden | 96.49% |
| New Amsterdam | 94.27% *Since theater re-opened in 1997 |
| Imperial | 87.42% |
| Majestic | 83.45% |
| Gerald Schoenfeld | 80.00% |
| Broadway | 78.19% |
| Richard Rodgers | 76.70% |
| Palace | 76.53% |
| Foxwoods | 74.55% *Since theater opened in 1997 |
| Helen Hayes | 74.25% |
| Eugene O’Neill | 71.50% |
| Gershwin | 71.27% |
| Al Hirschfeld | 70.64% |
| August Wilson | 70.54% |
| St. James | 70.12% |
| Booth | 68.19% |
| Minskoff | 67.76% |
| Broadhurst | 66.01% |
| Marquis | 66.00% |
| Shubert | 65.44% |
| Neil Simon | 64.06% |
| Walter Kerr | 63.23% |
| Bernard B. Jacobs | 62.14% |
| John Golden | 59.55% |
| Ambassador | 58.92% |
| Ethel Barrymore | 58.80% |
| Lunt-Fontanne | 58.35% |
| Circle in the Square | 57.67% |
| Brooks Atkinson | 55.46% |
| Nederlander | 54.59% |
| Music Box | 52.27% |
| Cort | 37.72% |
| Lyceum | 37.18% |
| Longacre | 27.38% |
| Belasco | 26.21% |
So, how’d you do? Did you guess right?
There’s a lot to derive from the data on this chart, but of course the most obvious bit is at the end:
Three of out of the last four occupied theaters are East of 7th Avenue.
Oh, and here’s the other thing . . . if this were a list of apartment buildings in New York City, the rent would be lower for the buildings towards the bottom, right?
Hint, hint. And you know who you are.
(Shout out to my Super Assistant, Kayla, and her Super Intern, Kate, for the hours compiling this super-duper data.)
UPDATE: Here are a few fun facts that we unearthed during our data digging:
-The only show in the past 30 years that ran longer than a year in the Longacre Theatre was the 2010 revival of La Cage Aux Folles
-The Majestic has had just 1 show and the Winter Garden has had just 2 shows since 1983
-Godspell was the 5th longest running show at Circle in the Square in the past 30 years
-The American Airline’s Theatre has had the most productions is the shortest span of time, 40 shows in 13 years
-In the past 30 years the theater with the most shows has been Circle in the Square with 51 shows
-12 theaters still have their original name
(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!)
_ _
FUN STUFF:
– Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad. Click here to enter and win!
- Win two tickets to ModROCK! Click here!
- Only 52 performances of Macbeth remain! Get tix.
An up-and-coming Producer sent me an email the other day asking me how I developed my own producing style.
And I answered, “What style?”
Like a fashion style, I don’t think one wakes up and says, “This is how I’m going to produce,” or “This is how I’m going to write,” or “This is how I’m going to practice law, lay a foundation for a house, or make a pizza.”
You just do it.
Well, that’s not exactly true. You don’t just wake up and make pizzas or produce shows. You learn from other Producers/Pizza makers.
And this is where your own personal style emerges.
For me specifically, I developed my own producing style in the way that I started to study acting. At first, I was thrown into the world of the Strasberg “Feel The Coffee Cup” Method. And it was good. But then I took a Meisner class or two. Some good stuff there as well. But have you heard about Adler? Or Practical Aesthetics?
There were elements of all of them that I loved. And some I could leave behind.
So, like making a great stew (and I say that like I cook – which I don’t – but I’ve heard about it), I took the best ingredients from each of those styles and . . . well . . . made my own style.
And that’s what I did with Producing as well. As I was coming up through the ranks as a PA, Stage Manager, Company Manager, General Manager and more, I had the incredible opp to work with some great Producers with amazing skills. I learned from The Weisslers, Fox Theatricals, and Garth Drabinsky (and from him I learned some things to do, and a lot of what not to do). I learned from Hal Luftig (who I’m honored to be producing with now on KB), Ken Gentry and a whole host of others.
As I worked, and learned, I subconsciously gathered the ingredients that I loved from those Producers, and created the way that I produce shows today . . . my own Producing Style Stew.
And I hope that what I’ve come up with is something hearty, tasty, nutritious and filling . . . with a spicy kicker as well.
(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!)
_ _
FUN STUFF:
– Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad. Click here to enter and win!
- Win two tickets to ModROCK! Click here!
- Only 52 performances of Macbeth remain! Get tix.
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