The competition is stiff as usual. The musicals take center stage, the amount of nominations are high. Will this generate ticket sales? Will it amount high viewership for CBS? If you have not seen the productions nominated, will it even matter to you at all? Can James Corden bring it for another year? This and many other questions circle as we are one month away from the big night! Here’s May 2019’s update. Enjoy!
Filed under 2019, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
Spring has sprung. Ah, if only money grew on trees. Well, most of the updates have to do with money because money is always changing. So, between the crazy list of theatrical productions you have planned to see this spring, get out to Central Park and soak up some sun. After all, it’s free! Well, New Yorkers pay taxes for it. Thank a New Yorker! Here’s the April update. Enjoy!
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This month’s update is about theatre owners. We often hear about the production side of things but, the very houses these productions exist in are just as integral to the industry. The focus this month is on accessibility and the efforts in play to ensure accessibility in all Broadway houses.
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Love is in the air and “The Business of Broadway” just loves to bring you updates from “The Great White Way”. If Broadway were your significant other, it would all be about money. Money makes this business. Oh, and the artistry…but, without the money…anyway, here’s February 2019’s update!
Filed under 2019, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
Chapter 5 (Promotion and Marketing):
How important is the Hispanic audience to Broadway? According to Univision Communications, more and more every year. In a report provided to the Broadway League (producers and theatre owners association), Univision stated that nationwide, Hispanics (Spanish-dominant or bilingual) spent $59.6 billion on entertainment in 2017 plus $87 billion on food and alcoholic beverages away from home. And the IHS Global Insight Hispanic Market Monitor anticipates a 40% growth in this figures.
New York Hispanics spent $4.3 billion on entertainment last year and nearly 65% attended a Broadway show. 32% attended an Off-Broadway show. The “average” Hispanic attendee saw 5.1 events in the past year. Non Hispanics saw just 3/9 live events.
Hamilton and John Leguizamo aside, there’s not much Hispanic representation on our stages. And still Hispanic audiences are going to see live entertainment in huge numbers. They are 36% more likely to learn about live events from commercials. And Hispanic Theatregoers tend to skew younger. 39% are between the ages of 18 and 34. This is a serious consideration when discussing building our audiences.
Chapter 10 (Producing & Investing):
Investors in producer Scott Rudin’scelebrated revival of Hello, Dolly! (starring Bette Midler) that ended its intended limited engagement at the end of Summer 2018, have earned a profit of 10 percent, according to two people familiar with the production. (A note said more was on the way.)
For angels seeking prestige, glamour and the satisfaction of helping to create a revival worthy of the iconic, 1964 original, Dolly!delivered and made them money. Others, however, expected more from a production that’s grossed $126 million.
The larger context is the background behind the complaints from investors. In order to get a piece of Dolly’s pie, most investors were required to put money into riskier projects on the producer’s slate, too. According to them, even a 15% profit on Dolly wouldn’t cover half the losses taken on Tony- winner A Doll’s House, Part 2orThe Glass Menagerie (starring Sally Field), both of which closed last year.
An important lesson about “limited runs with famous names leading the cast.” The answer may rest with why investors invest at all. Is it a producer’s charm, the producer’s claims of success, an investor’s gullibility, the inherent risk of a Broadway show, or does the investor really believe they are going to make a lot of money?
Chapter 10 (Producing & Investing):
Lindy’s Deli on 7th Avenue, in Manhattan, is where some Broadway actors discussed their common observation that the longer any single play ran on Broadway, the longer it would run in regional theatres and anywhere off Broadway. It’s believed that this effect is relevant for Bitcoins as well. An asset gains a sort of stamina as it continues to survive against the odds, thereby demonstrating strength and the ability to attain longevity. Broadway, for example, is a competitive environment. People have evolving tastes, there are always different shows vying for the best audiences, and as a show ages it gets more difficult to sustain.
The longer a show has run on Broadway, the more credibility and notoriety is has earned. Off Broadway/Regional stages are eager to reproduce it in their own towns, lending longevity to the play. Both Bitcoin and a Broadway play are “unperishable ideas.” On Broadway, the best shows run for decades regardless of where they are or who plays the main roles. A few prominent blockchain ideas also “survive” in this manner and are able to persist despite increasing friction in the market—but the comparison isn’t perfect.
And so statistician, author, and former trader Nassim Taleb writes in his book “Antifragile.” He calls this “The Lindy Effect” (comparing Broadway shows to Bitcoin evolutionary factors). Just another opinion…
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Filed under 2018, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
“It’s quite uptown”. It’s August and the weather has been weird. Where is all the humidity we hate this time of year. Of course, as I say that, here comes that good old humidity. This update talks about change to the very insider “Gypsy Robe” ceremony, some upgrades to audience tech and who and who not to listen to when producing on Broadway. Enjoy!
Filed under 2018, Darnelle Radford, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
It’s July! Where did 2018 go? Did you see any shows? Attend a marathon day of theatre? It’s summertime. The Administration is up to the same antics and we are trying to find escapes that turn off the activist in us for a little bit. This month’s update is about money. Well, every month’s update is about money. So, here’s the update for July!
Filed under 2018, Darnelle Radford, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
May 1, 2018
Chapter 6: (Tony Awards)
Nominations for the past season have just been announced. A little perspective is in order: What is the real effect on the ticket-buying public?
According to a recent study by Utah Professor Russell Warne (all statistic to be taken with a questioning eye, of course), Broadway musicals that are nominated for the top prize are almost 60% less likely to close quickly than the musicals that are not nominated. (Not sure about the time frame since all shows eventually close except perhaps Phantom of the Opera!“ There is one Tony that matters: Best Musical,” Ad exec Nancy Coyne remarked. Publicist Chris Boneau echoed her observation: “The one award that really counts is the one for Best Musical.”
For the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, being nominated is often not enough. The winner might get a longer run, but those who ONLY get a nomination often end up with a shorter run. The public may see the revivals that don’t win an award as “losers”.
Reviewing over 400 shows from between 1988 and 2017, Professor Warne observed, for example, that “nominations for the directing awards are also associated with longer runs of Broadway plays but not for musicals.” He estimated that plays whose directors are recognized are about three times less likely to close than plays whose directors are snubbed.
Positive effects of a Tony nomination on the show’s longevity: 1) lead actor/musical; 2) featured actress/musical; leading actress/play. Negative impact: 1) leading actor/play (strange). No particular effect at all: 1) featured actors/play.
This new research could possibly help Broadway producers and their marketing teams make better decisions when designing expensive marketing campaigns for the Tony Awards. Personally, most Tony campaigns have little effect on good performances, great word of mouth, or a stand-out winner in the public’s eyes.
CHAPTER 6: (Tony Awards plus Pulitzer and other awards)
In 1918, the first Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama went to a forgotten—and forgettable—comedy entitled “Why Marry?” The Pulitzer Drama Prize was so often laughable that in 1935 a group of Broadway reviewers formed the New York Drama Critics Circle expressly to give better awards. One of the founders, Brooks Atkinson, summed up the Circle’s accomplishment almost thirty years after its beginning, writing, “The average taste of the Critics Circle is no more discerning than the average taste of the Pulitzer judges. Neither the Circle nor the Pulitzer prizes can be intimidated by genius.
In the late 1940s, the Tony Awards began as a small event for the theater community sponsored by the American Theatre Wing, a charitable group from the war years. The presentation happened at a banquet with dancing in a hotel ballroom, with the prizes chosen by an ad hoc handful of people. In the first year, a Tony was given to Vincent Sardi, Sr., in thanks for Sardi’s Restaurant!
Twenty years later the Wing was in financial trouble and it joined with the Broadway League to continue the Tony Awards. Within a year, the ceremony morphed into a big television event. That changed everything about the Tonys and a lot about Broadway theater.
Still, the televised Tony Awards has also made major gaffes and provokes debate. For example:
Today, there are six major, very different organizations giving best play and best musical awards, for diverse reasons, chosen by very unalike procedures. It feels great if your show gets one, but does it have any sure, lasting meaning?
In short: so many prizes; so little to celebrate. Even after 100 years.
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(Adapted from Tim Donahue, the author most recently of Playing for Prizes: America’s Awards for Best Play and Best Musical.)
CHAPTER 15 (Actors)
Actors’ Equity votes to change the name of the Gypsy Robe. After hearing concerns about the insensitivity of the name, the union has voted to rename the robe that is awarded to the chorus member with the highest number of Broadway credits on opening night of a show. The 60-year-old tradition of the robe will continue with a new name next season.
BONUS: The nominees for the 2018 Tony Awards
Filed under 2018, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
Apparently, Winter loves to be fashionably late, this year. International travel can be a pain but, it also can connect us on many levels. This month, have some updates to that effect.
http://www.justlearnsomething.us/updates-april-2018/
Filed under 2018, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
March is here! We look forward to new productions moving onto The Great White Way, we spring forward and we eagerly anticipate the change in the weather. Yet, the Business of Broadway continues to change. Here are the updates for March 2018.
Filed under 2018, Just Learn Something, Mitch Weiss, The Business of Broadway, Updates
