Trends of the Decade: The Down-Sizing of Broadway

Broadway (and theatre in general) has a long history of the “Pendulum Swing”: first, one extreme, then the other, with a few constants thrown into the mix. The first decade of the 21st Century was no different with regards to this one trend: everything seems to be getting smaller.

 

Whether it is the size of the cast, the size of the orchestra, the size (or lack of) the scenery, the length of the run or even the length of the show, Broadway, like corporate America, has down-sized.

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in

A Steady Rain

 

I suppose it was inevitable economically, as we toil through another bone-wearying national recession. Previously, there were just fewer shows during the lean times, but these days the number of shows remains a constant. It is the size of the show that has shrunken like a souvenir head on Bloody Mary’s cart. Fewer cast members and smaller sets which require fewer stage hands can drastically cut a producer’s budget. And when those fewer cast members are beloved film stars, producers can have their cake and eat it, too. It seems no matter how tight the theatre-goer purse is, there’s always room in it to shell out Premium prices to see Nathan and Matthew, Hugh and Daniel, or Denzel and Julia. And the extra bonus here is that 99% of the time, to get your star to play Broadway, you can make all of your money before the buzz dies down because you are forced into an urgent sounding “Limited Engagement! 16 weeks only!” run.

 

Artistically, this trend has its roots in the mid-90’s, when the pendulum was swinging rapidly away from the mega-musical 80’s, and people wanted to connect more with the people on the stage and not so much with the scenery. All it took was the mega-hit status of one Chicago to stimulate the less-is-more trend. That show, which continues to be a phenomenon, is the gold standard for down-sizing. Smaller company than the original, no scenery save for a glitter curtain and some black chairs, and a rotating cast of celebs who can come and go, come back again, and even tour the country. It is everything a producer dreams of: even at 70% capacity, the show is a money machine with low overhead, constant buzz and a name everyone in the country recognizes. Of course, there is a reason that this show continues to flourish and other imitators have failed, by and large: Chicago is timely and timeless; it has a fantastic book, even better songs and superb dancing and staging. Tourists looking for a big-Broadway show don’t even notice the lack of costumes (sexy!) or scenery. Razzle-dazzle, indeed.

 

So just how many ways has Broadway gotten smaller? Here are a few lists to ponder:

Sunday in the Park with George:

Art Isn't Easy - The scenery was projected!

 

• Artistic Success makes it continue to be attractive if not lucrative: Sweeney Todd, Company, La Cage aux Folles (2010), Finian’s Rainbow, A Little Night Music, Spring Awakening. Smaller to medium casts, unit sets and unique staging.
• Small Casts: From 1 person: I Am My Own Wife; 2 people: The Story of My Life, A Steady Rain, RED; 4 people: God of Carnage, Glory Days, [title of show], 6 people: next to normal, less than a dozen: Avenue Q, The 39 Steps, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Xanadu. All but two of these were critically acclaimed and more than half returned their investment.

Spelling Bee: S-M-A-L-L

• Limited Runs with the Stars: Not a new reality show, but still a great source of fast, almost guaranteed profit: Fences, Three Days of Rain, A Steady Rain, A Behanding in Spokane, and many others. Of those 4, three made a significant profit.
• Down-size your theatre: Avenue Q and The 39 Steps continue to thrive going in the opposite direction: from Broadway to Off-Broadway.
• Shorten Your Show: Both The Lion King and Les Miserables shortened the length of their performances. Les Miz did it twice! Towards the end of its original run, the show trimmed several minutes so that it could reduce the cost of paying over time. Somewhere between the original, the continued London run, and the Broadway revival, the time was shortened again slightly, and the cast got a bit smaller, too.

Two Actors + 90 minutes + 16 weeks = RED in the Red

Xanadu: 9 muses played by 7 actors

(and 2 unsuspecting musicians in a 5-piece band)

• Have a Short Show to Start With: Xanadu, Glory Days, The Story of My Life, A Steady Rain, Spelling Bee, God of Carnage, RED, Art, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?... all 2 hours or less, no intermission.
• Make Your Actors Do Double-Duty: It was an artistic choice, born out of necessity. John Doyle wanted to do bigger shows in his native England, but the cost of an orchestra was prohibitive. His resolution to the problem? Make the actors play the instruments, too! And so we have had two excellently re-envisioned masterpieces where the orchestrations took their place right up there with the casts of Sweeney Todd and Company.

The Actor-Musicians of Sweeney Todd

Les Cagelles in the Menier Chocolate Factory

production of La Cage aux Folles

• Have a Producing Company Whose Mission is to Do It Small No Matter What: 3 words: Menier Chocolate Factory. 3 shows: Sunday in the Park with George, La Cage aux Folles and A Little Night Music. Say what you want about each show individually, but there is no mistaking that their less-is-more approach begs creatives to be just that: creative.

From the 2003 Broadway Strike

 

• And one particularly troubling trend-within-a-trend: Smaller Orchestras. While the notion of shows like Sweeney Todd and Company are interesting and artistically sound, I think we can say that these are exceptions to the rule. (As it is, the casts were required to join the musician’s union.) A strike by Broadway musicians in 2003 had the effect of guaranteeing minimum sized orchestras per theatre, which was a definite victory for the union, but also, I think, for the theatre going public. The increased popularity of such computerized machines as the Receptor and others like it which create a virtual orchestra sound good, but they are not even close to the real thing. Current shows like American Idiot and next to normal are more rock oriented and are orchestrated purposely for fewer instruments. But older shows - the current La Cage aux Folles, in my opinion - suffer at the hands of a smaller orchestra. And the recent pink-slipping of 5 violinists at West Side Story have stirred this volatile subject up yet again. Just think how a smaller orchestra would have hurt the recent South Pacific revival.

 

The bottom line is that there will always be an audience for truly quality shows no matter who is in them or how big it is. Quality is the key. And while the “big Broadway musical” will probably never fall out of favor - it is still what most of the world expects, especially at “these outrageous ticket prices.” But you know down-sizing has left its mark when the press materials for the upcoming Roundabout Theatre Company production of Anything Goes make a point to let everyone know that it will be a full-scale, large cast production. Take that, Chocolate Factory!

This is the final blog in my series about the Trends in Theatre: The First Decade of the 21st Century.  Click on the tab at the top of the page to see the full list of blogs and links to them.

Comments?  Leave on here, email me at Yahoo, Tweet me or Formspring me!
Jeff

Trends of the Decade: The Internet Takes Centerstage

It was, of all things, a blog which I follow that is the impetus for this entry in my series of articles about the decade just ended.  That blog, "The Broadway Critic," (one of my favorites) and specifically this entry discusses the fallout from a series of Tweets between cast members of American Idiot as well as some announcing its eminent closing.  Both are in the very public AIBway Twitter page.  (Read it; I think you'll find it most interesting.)

Reading that yesterday made me get to really thinking about this topic: the overwhelming influence of computers and the Internet on Broadway shows.  It could very well be the biggest thing to hit Broadway since the advent of microphones. 

"This Must Be the Place":

The Opening Number of Grind

Of course, the use of computers within a Broadway show has been happening for decades, from computerized ticketing, lighting and sound boards to the first completely computerized musical in 1985, Grind.  That show made national news headlines for that very thing, and went on to some infamy as on Opening Night of the try-out in Baltimore, national news cameras rolling, the show started and ground to a halt during the opening number.  (And yes, the headlines read "Broadway Show Grinds to a Halt"!)  What was meant to be a safety feature caused the entire system to crash, and nervous Harold Prince (he directed the show) took to the stage to explain what happened.

But the Internet has really changed the way Broadway and fans of Broadway conduct business.  There is no doubting this influence.  From chat rooms to show websites, to Broadway news websites, shopping sites, to social networking - Twitter, My Space, Facebook, etc. - plays and musicals are more readily accessible and easy to find out about than ever before.  And I can't help but mention blogging!  We wouldn't be here without it!  Gone are the days when you'd have to subscribe to The New York Times to keep up with current Broadway news (even then at least a day or two old), or Playbill Magazine, which was hopelessly out of date by the time it got to your mailbox.  And I've often remarked here about the miraculous changes in ticketing and buying cast recordings, all thanks to Ticketmaster, Telecharge and Amazon.com.

Here is a quick - not all-inclusive - look at the Internet and Broadway, the good the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD:

Blogs: The really good ones are kept by folks who have a passion for the art form, even when things aren't so great.  It would be easy to blog about one show you love (there are dozens of Wicked only blogs), but it is another thing altogether to share your thoughts on many shows and a variety of aspects of the business.  The best blogs are those by people who attend shows of all kinds regularly and those by people actually in the business.  (I am really picky about the ones I follow, hence my short list to the right...)

Show Websites:  More and more, these sites can really influence whether or not you buy a ticket to that show.  Sure it a fancy advertisement for a production, but that's what it should be.  The best show sites are easy to navigate, have lots of pictures, videos, and cast information.  And the very best ones update with new things to read and look at regularly.  Most have places for fan input, too.

Theatre Websites: Places like Broadway.com, Theatremania.com, and Playbill Online offer up to the minute news, features, pictures and multimedia about all things Broadway.  They have reputable writers, and you can tell they have outstanding reputations because of their content - interviews with the top stars and up and comers, productions send them press releases immediately, and creative and producing teams are as much a part of the site as the Tony winners and movie stars.

Online Ticketing: Now that Ticketmaster allows you to pick your seats like Telecharge does, online ticketing is a breeze and so convenient.  No more waiting for weeks to get tickets; you can print them yourself, and you are sitting where you want to sit!

Ticket Discounts: You no longer have to be in the city itself to enjoy the benefits of services like TKTS.  Now there are multitudes of Broadway discounts at all the big theatre sites, plus places like Broadwaybox.com.  TKTS remains a great venue when you are there, but isn't it nice to live in the sticks and still be able to see a show for less?

Lotteries:  I just saw a show from the front row for cheaper ($25.00) than an orchestra seat in 1983 ($37.50 for Mame and Cats).  I could not see everything, and some things were a little too close, but I am not complaining even a little bit. 

THE BAD:

Blogs:  This could be just a personal preference, and I might even be guilty of this myself from time to time, but... blogs that are full of misinformation or purport to be written by people who go to lots of shows, but really mean to say that they've seen Mamma Mia! 15 times or think they "know" theatre because they've seen Wicked, Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia! make all bloggers, most of whom really put some effort into their work, look really bad.  It adds credence to John Simon's assertion that theatre bloggers are vermin.

Theatre Websites: I love them for all the reasons above, but as each one tries to become all things to all users, they are becoming mind-numbingly complicated and way over crowded.

Show Websites:  When I go to a specific show's site for "More Information," I expect more than a big logo and "Coming Soon" with yet another place to sign up for updates.  If you can't offer more than your show logo, the name of the theatre (sometimes) and a sign-up block, wait to start your site until you have more...

Online Ticketing:  $4.50 for handling?  Are my tickets getting a lap dance from the cast of Sweet Charity?  $2.50 for processing?  Um, excuse me... let me charge you $5.00 for the paper and ink I'm using to print my own ticket to save your staff time and the cost of an envelope and stamp!


THE UGLY:

Social Networking, Message Boards and Chat Rooms:  It is one thing to share news (i.e.: I'm at ComeFlyAway and Twyla's here! or Sad to see Brooks Ashmanskas is out of PP tonight.  I hope his u/s is good!) or a considered opinion (i.e: I really prefer the less-Spanish version of the WSS revival or I can see why people love MM!, but it isn't my thing.).  But completely another to trash performers, performances and shows (i.e: So and So's understudy is a lousy singer and a craptastic dancer!) ESPECIALLY when you offer no explanation as to that opinion.  Still worse, is when people WITHIN a show take the time to call out each other or gossip about their own show.  TACKY. 

And then there is the rumor/scoop mentality.  Watch how fast the influence of Twitter and the like diminishes when a show's producers can positively link poor ticket sales to falsely posted rumors as facts, or someone gets erroneously fired from a show (it happened in our own government, people) over an out of context quote or "edited" YouTube video.  The powers that be will shut the rumor mill down as fast as you can say "widget."  It is because of this type of behavior that I rarely, if ever, mention a certain site or two where message boards are their main stock in trade.

Lotteries/Student/Online Discounts:  Listening to college students and high school students bitch over lottery policies, where the seats are and how they still can't afford the seats REALLY PLUCKS MY NERVES!  Why?  Well, I was in high school and college once, and I was as poor if not poorer than these people.  No lotteries.  No discounts.  Nothing.  So you know what?  I missed a lot of shows I wanted to see, but I saved my money for big, week long trips to NYC.  And you know what?  I appreciated (but not necessarily loved) every single show I saw that much more.  Instead of being grateful that there are lotteries and discounts and student discounts, these people continue to complain.  If anything, people who aren't students (like me) should complain - these policies assume that if you aren't in school, you can afford a pricier seat. 

Then of course, there is also YouTube (which I love, but can see and can not support its more flawed applications).  But that could be a whole other topic... 

Thank you for indulging my tirade!
Jeff