Happy Thanksgiving!As we celebrate the proud American tradition that was first observed in 1621 when English settlers in Plymouth (in what is now Massachusetts) gave thanks for their harvest, I'd like to offer my Happy Thanksgiving greeting.
In looking back over the past year, which has been very disconcerting economically, to say the least, my sincere appreciation goes to my family and friends for your unconditional love. As I hope anyone who knows me personally appreciates, my loved ones mean the world to me. To those who have been impacted by this recession, please never lose sight of the fact that we'll never forget about you or leave you behind -- we'll continue trying to help you in any way we can.
I'm also using this Thanksgiving to harken back to what I stated in this space back in 2006:
I'm particularly grateful to live in a nation where freedom of speech enables us to share our points of view with each other. Thankfully, dissent is alive and well, and often finds its roots in the arts.
Theatre contributes tremendously to the national discourse, and whether we agree or disagree with its messages, we should cherish and never take for granted the critical role theatre traditionally plays in often shaping and leading the discussion.
Please accept my best wishes for a very Happy Thanksgiving!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route information.Labels: Economy, Freedom Of Speech, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Recession, Special Messages, Thanksgiving
The Ups And Downs Of BroadwayAs those of you who follow
my tweets on Twitter know, I follow Broadway box office totals the way sports fans follow the scores. I like knowing what's up and what's down, the shows that are making the most gains, as well as those teetering on the edge of closing notices.
Fortunately, I supplement watching those box office totals by reading some exceptional blogs, including theatre impresario Ken Davenport's
The Producer's Perspective.
Yesterday, like the professional he is,
he took note of the bottom line earnings for the second quarter of the current Broadway season. He crunched the numbers and found that year-over-year gross sales were up 5.9% over last year to $242,217,564 for a grand total of $500,376.907 to date for the entire season.
Not too bad, considering the awful economy, right?
Well, bubbling beneath those numbers is a much more ominous trend: fewer theatregoers.
Davenport forthrightly acknowledges that overall attendance is down to 5,806,155 -- a year-over-year loss of 319,717 from last year's 6,125,872. That's a 5.2% loss of warm bodies and the proverbial "butts in seats."
What's going on here?
For starters, plays like
God Of Carnage and
A Steady Rain have attracted audiences who might not have otherwise come to Broadway thanks to their powerful star wattage. Many in those audiences have been willing to pay a premium for their tickets, thus helping escalate the overall box office earnings (it should be noted here that
God Of Carnage saw its fortunes dim considerably last week when a replacement cast took over from the original; on the other hand,
A Steady Rain remained Broadway's toughest ticket last week with an average ticket price of $135.44).
Second, popular musicals including
Wicked (average ticket: $107.17)
, Billy Elliot (average ticket: $120.46)
, The Lion King (average ticket: $102.37 )
, Jersey Boys (average ticket: $117.03),
South Pacific (average ticket: $100.07 ) and to a lesser extent
Mamma Mia! (average ticket: $83.05 )
, The Phantom Of The Opera (average ticket: $77.93) and
West Side Story (average ticket: $93.46), have succeeded in drawing crowds no matter what. Think of them as mini-New York City tourist attractions unto themselves. It's no wonder that among that first tier, those shows regularly boast weekly grosses of over $1 million each.
I give enormous credit to Davenport for laying out the numbers, but as he and other producers seek ways to build audiences, there's a solution that may be almost too novel for them to consider: reducing the price of tickets.
Earlier this fall, it was announced that the government's
cost-of-living adjustments or COLA is not scheduled to increase for the first time since they began providing them in 1975. That's because in addition to being in a severe recession, the United States has entered a deflationary period in which overall prices have
decreased by 1.5% year-over-year, as of September.
Not only does that mean Social Security recipients won't receive any additional dollars in 2010 (retirees are a core Broadway constituency), but it also portends negatively for millions of Americans whose employers figure they don't have to provide any pay increases, if they're not already contemplating reductions in pay.
All this seems to have been lost on Broadway, which has largely been oblivious to the economic pain everywhere around it. Broadway is increasingly being viewed as a luxury, something for the elites, rather than an art form to be enjoyed by the masses.
As
I've said before, we can lament all we want about the declining butts in seats, but until ticket prices come back down to earth (or even hold steady), it's likely that the overall grosses will decline along with the audience numbers.
Is Broadway bold enough to respond appropriately?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, Cost-of-Living Adjustment, deflation, Economy, Ken Davenport, Recession, The Producer's Perspective, Ticket Prices
