| re: Can off-Broadway become viable again | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 07:42 am EST 12/26/18 | |
| In reply to: Can off-Broadway become viable again - Kerick 10:07 am EST 12/25/18 | |
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| Very difficult. Many have posted the various shifts in our business over the past 10-20 years. Back when off-broadway was born, there was almost only commercial off Broadway. People worked for beans doing work that didnt fit the Broadway mold. If your show happened to become a success - you could do well. Not get rich, but do well. But there were great writers writing for off Broadway. Today they still do, but they are writing for NYTW, The Public, The Vineyard, MTC, Lincoln Center, HERE, et al. Every one wants their show, justifiably, to have a protected run a not for profit with members and subscribers - a guaranteed base audience. In commercial off Broadway today, as always, you start from scratch. Through advertising and marketing and social media you have to try to make space for your show, against not only Broadway, but against all the well financed not for profits. The Public (5 Theatres) Roundabout (2 OB theatres) Manhattan Theatre Club (2 OB theatres) The Vineyard HERE (2 theatres) St Annes Warehouse Park Avenue Armory Second Stage The Atlantic (2 theatres) ARS NOVA (2 theatres) Lincoln Center Theatre (2 theatres) Signature Theatre (3 theatres) 59E59 (3 theatres) Primary Stages York Theatre Classic Stage Co Axis The Flea (2 theatres) The Mint (no fixed home) Soho Rep TFANA The New Victory Irish Rep (2 theatres) 39 theatres, subsidized, tooling along. If you want to do a commercial show, you need real estate. Where can you do your show today? New World Stages has the largest off Broadway venues. Which have become homes for Broadway shows that refuse to die. These theatres are almost never available to a producer who just wants to do a Broadway show. And after 92 years, I dont think Altar Boys ever recouped. The Duke will not take commercial tenants. Only one of the Theatre Row theatres will take a commercial tenant. Signature will not take a commercial tenant. The Connelly dioesnt take commerical tenants.The Davenport will but do you really want your show in those dumps? Westside Arts takes commercial tenants in both spaces, but success is elusive there these days. Gym at Judson is very difficult and expensive to use, and you usually cant perform on Mondays or Wednesdays, and they black out some weekends too, because there is no sound separation between the Gym and the Churhc above. Sheen Center isnt really a commercial venue. ARTNY doesnt take commercial runs. So .... where are you going to produce your commercial off Broadway show - which you are going to spend $1 million plus on for a play, $1,5-2.5 million for a musical. Westside arts (2 270 seat venues) Theatre Row (1 199 seat venue) New World (maybe the 199 might be available once in a while) The Davenport (150 and 90 seats) And we are almost out of off-Broadway venues that will contemplate a commercial run. Why, you may ask? Well - most off Broadway venues today have a model where you can only have 6-10 weeks, max. You have to pay your entire rent for the 6-10 weeks, plus a security deposit, before you can move in. At a 199 seat theatre you are paying about $12,000 a week. Do the math. You have to give them $96,000 + a deposit before you move in for an 8 week run. For the landlord its a great deal. You just stack up shows in 6-10 week increments and bank the money. Doesnt matter how well the shows do. What if you take a commercial show? The License Agreement calls for a 2 or 4 week notice of leaving. You make a deposit of 2-4 weeks rent + security deposit. You open. No one wants to see your show. Suddenly you give your 4 weeks notice. The landlord has to find another show, but no sane producer can open a show without 12-16 weeks advance notice - to start sales etc, But that would mean your theatre would be vacant for 8-12 weeks. That;s bad. So you continue to rent to any show that will take your theatre as close as possible to when the previous show closes. Creating a recipe for failure. Which plays out off Broadway all year. So, yeah, commercial off Broadway is kind of dead, more or less. The model is broken, and there are so few possible theatres. Broadway used to have this problem, when shows would close on opening night - and then you have to wait for a new tenant. This was because theater owners used to not charge rent, but rather split the box office with the producer. So if your show wasnt selling, the split wasnt enough to keep the theatre open, so you were tossed out by the theatre. But in the 70's the Shuberts came up with magic pill - make the producer pay rent, pay your property taxes, pay your insurance, pay for all of your employees, pay their payroll taxes, pay to print tickets, pay to use the box office systems which the theatre owns. Suddenly no risk. Which is why flop shows can run on and on and on. They are still paying all the theatre's bllls and staff, so are welcome to stay until a new show is booked. It used to be cheaper to have a flop in your theatre close. Now its better to encourage a producer to throw good money after bad and keep a show running til you have a new one ready to load in. Broadway. Off Broadway. Don't produce. Own theatres. |
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| Previous: | Can off-Broadway become viable again - Kerick 10:07 am EST 12/25/18 |
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