Five years ago, it seemed that the out-of-town pre-Broadway trial run was dead, the victim of high production costs and increasingly devastating critical reaction. But these days, nearly every big-budget Broadway show is getting a trial run outside the Big Apple, with Chicago having replaced the various Northeastern cities that used to host tryouts. “With a metro area of about 9 million, it has the requisite population base. It has a sophisticated theater audience with a track record of interest in new work. It has an ample supply of technical crew and stagehands who, due to union concessions, come considerably cheaper than their counterparts in New York.”
Tag: 01.09.05
And It’s All For Your Convenience
Between the endless maze of automated phone menus and the do-it-yourself ticketing websites, you wouldn’t think that Ticketmaster and its fellow national ticket brokers would even need to employ human beings anymore. So why, exactly, does every ticket still come with a hefty “service fee” slapped on top of the admission price? “Tack-on fees are wrapped up in the larger world of live-entertainment deal-making, which gets particularly shady when it comes to concerts. The service charges are determined not just by Ticketmaster but also the promoter, venue and act, all of which can share in the revenues — and increasingly want to.”
Springer Opera Scores In The Ratings, Sort Of
BBC2 broadcast a live performance of Jerry Springer: The Opera this weekend, and the results were predictable. There were protests, disapproving critical reaction, and at the end of the day, 1.7 million viewers had tuned in to watch the spectacle, nearly double the normal audience for opera on the BBC. Nonetheless, Springer was trounced in the ratings by a popular comedian and a tabloid-style action drama, so the natural order of things seems not to have been disturbed by the choruses of “Jerry ! Jerry!”
Atlanta Arts Exec Salaries Raising Eyebrows
Atlanta’s two largest arts organizations, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the High Museum of Art, have been slashing budgets and negotiating wage freezes in recent years, desperately working to balance their books. But the fiscal austerity apparently doesn’t extend to the executives in charge of the troubled arts groups: High Museum director Michael Shapiro’s salary has jumped $155,000 since 2000, and ASO President Allison Vulgamore’s pay has ballooned from $275,000 to $440,000 in the same period.
Rachmaninov Ruckus
“A legal battle will begin this week to determine who owns an autographed manuscript of Sergei Rachmaninov’s best-loved symphony. The work was found last year after being lost for almost a century. Relatives of the Russian composer will argue that they are entitled to the manuscript of the Second Symphony in E Minor, Op.27, which is worth up to £500,000 and was to have been auctioned by Sotheby’s last month. Sotheby’s, however, is expected to say that it was entitled to sell the manuscript on behalf of a private European collector.”
The Growing Budget Gap
Atlanta’s arts scene is rapidly losing its middle class. Some organizations seem to be flush with cash, mounting hundred million dollar expansions and bolstering already-sizable endowment funds, while the city’s have-nots see their budgets shrink and donations dwindle.
Jarvi In The Garden State
As Neeme Jarvi prepares to leave the Detroit Symphony after 15 years, he has already taken up his next challenge as music director of the embattled New Jersey Symphony. Most observers would consider the NJSO a significant step down from Detroit’s higher-profile orchestra, but for Jarvi, Newark offers a chance to wind down his career with an enthusiastic group of musicians who don’t mind taking a few chances in the programming department, and to do so without all the inherent pressure of a world-famous ensemble. Oh, and he gets to live in Manhattan, and see his grandchildren nearly every day.
Or You Could Just Rent The Movie For $4
How popular is Chicago’s pre-Broadway run of the Monty Python-inspired musical Spamalot? Tickets are going for as much as $450 on ticket-swap web sites, and the best way to get a decent seat may actually be to get a pricey hotel room for the night, and then leave your ticket order in the hands of a professional concierge. “In its first seven-performance week, the show did $778,599 in business, selling virtually every seat.”
Is St. Louis A Canary In The Coal Mine?
The work stoppage at the St. Louis Symphony may be indicative of a larger systemic problem that no one in the industry wants to face: orchestras are very, very expensive, and the majority of cities may simply no longer be able to afford them as they now exist. “Intense and often divisive contract negotiations consumed three of the nation’s top orchestras last fall: Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia… [and] close to 90% of the country’s orchestras ran a budget deficit last year.”
Promoting The Arts Takes A Backseat To Controversy
“San Diego’s cultural tourism program – an aggressive effort to promote the arts community and its creativity as a tourist destination – isn’t quite what it used to be. About a year ago, the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau shut down its cultural tourism office, and its manager, Rick Prickett, moved to Hawaii… A city audit of ConVis’ finances took issue with bonuses, car allowances and how ConVis spent money on entertaining clients… Amid the controversy, the bureau’s budget was slashed by more than 20 percent and it was stripped of responsibility for marketing the San Diego Convention Center.”