In an addendum to yesterday’s post about the Boston Ballet being bumped for the Rockettes holiday spectacular, the Boston Globe now reports that its a national phenomenon.
Since 1994, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular has entered 17 markets nationwide, with five units now touring to eight cities. Denver and Boston are the next in line for the invasion.
In many cities, the local production of The Nutcracker has been the main holiday spectacular, generating lots of ticket sales and cash that supported the ballet companies for the rest of their seasons. The competition from a major touring production has hit these organizations right in the budget. In Arizona, for example, the Nutcracker revenues dropped 40 percent when the Rockettes kicked into the market.
What are ballet companies doing to respond? In many cases, they are focusing efforts on more marketing, more hype, and less emphasis on the ballet’s classical traditions. Martin Fredmann, the CEO and Artistic Director of Denver’s Colorado Ballet, is gearing up for the fight:
