Monday, July 12, 2004

An engine shifting gears

The Washington Post has a great article on the seismic shifts in America's Broadway touring circuit, as seen through the eyes of Equity (ie, unionized) actors, tour producers, and performing arts presenters. The monster touring mega-musicals with Equity casts -- Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera -- are gone now. Taking their place are smaller, non-Equity productions of revivals, mostly, that work on a different economic model.

The piece shows a lot of the plumbing behind the big-show touring market in the U.S., which comprises major markets, secondary markets, and then a full range of smaller cities and towns:

The road is generally divided among venues that can sustain a show for runs of a week or longer; venues that book only split (half) weeks or five-show weekends; and, last and least, those that present one-nighters. Traditionally, licensing to non-Equity tours has been held back until after the major markets have been served. Non-Equity producers, often working with what Gentry calls 'assignees' from the original creative team, then scale down the show so it can be moved more quickly among the split-week and one-night towns.

Nowadays, more big productions are moving directly into non-Equity tours (The Music Man and Oklahoma among them). Equity is angry about it. Producers are claiming that they're only responding to the market. And audiences don't really seem to know the difference.

The shifts underway are seismic because the very force that formed these Broadway-size venues across the nation is shifting under their feet. Many have pegged the huge cultural venue boom of the past two decades on the cash flow and blockbuster sales of the Broadway touring circuit.

It is Gentry's theory that the Mackintosh megamusicals of the 1980s and 1990s changed the touring landscape both literally and figuratively. ''The number of theaters that have been renovated in this country because of 'Phantom' and 'Les Miz' is phenomenal,'' he says. ''Back walls were blown out, new stage houses were put in.''

There are a full range venues still under construction or renovation around the country, all built on the promise and expected revenue of the Broadway touring mega-musical. There will be some interesting aftershocks as the size and scope of the touring productions, the interest of the audience, and the cost structures of the brokers and businessfolk all work to find their new equilibrium.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 | permalink