PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE Ken Davenport, Broadway Producer, Off-Broadway, Theater

Broadway Grosses w/e 11/08/09

2009-11-09T15:22:22-05:00

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	AvgPdAdm
A STEADY RAIN	$1,201,252	8,663	101.11%	$138.66
AFTER MISS JULIE	$245,254	4,427	74.78%	$55.40
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,381,812	11,246	98.93%	$122.87
BURN THE FLOOR	$294,494	5,030	60.23%	$58.55
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$617,801	7,883	96.04%	$78.37
CHICAGO	$484,255	6,248	72.31%	$77.51
FELA!	$236,019	5,654	78.42%	$41.74
FINIAN'S RAINBOW	$556,349	10,242	75.26%	$54.32
GOD OF CARNAGE	$886,206	7,717	102.27%	$114.84
HAIR	$723,831	8,128	71.95%	$89.05
HAMLET	$880,552	8,683	92.45%	$101.41
IN THE HEIGHTS	$624,046	7,607	69.66%	$82.04
IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY	$142,206	3,569	48.39%	$39.84
JERSEY BOYS	$1,179,345	9,891	101.18%	$119.23
MAMMA MIA!	$965,548	10,723	89.48%	$90.04
MARY POPPINS	$746,047	10,606	73.78%	$70.34
MEMPHIS	$613,717	9,422	80.12%	$65.14
NEXT TO NORMAL	$381,407	4,881	79.03%	$78.14
OLEANNA	$233,311	4,088	63.56%	$57.07
RAGTIME	$463,982	8,086	71.23%	$57.38
ROCK OF AGES	$589,138	6,723	84.29%	$87.63
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$725,297	10,635	76.71%	$68.20
SOUTH PACIFIC	$704,615	7,026	84.37%	$100.29
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$308,457	4,850	61.18%	$63.60
THE 39 STEPS	$180,310	2,923	62.03%	$61.69
THE LION KING	$1,244,389	12,184	92.08%	$102.13
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$768,541	9,681	74.93%	$79.39
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$229,894	4,398	84.58%	$52.27
WEST SIDE STORY	$933,147	10,363	76.33%	$90.05
WICKED	$1,511,167	14,035	96.98%	$107.67
WISHFUL DRINKING	$386,912	6,457	80.39%	$59.92
TOTAL	$20,439,297	242,069	79.81%	$79.51

Time Out becomes a tabloid.

2009-11-09T10:46:59-05:00

In his Time Out New York theater blog, Editor and Reviewer David Cote wrote the following in an article about New World Stages:

Something strange is happening at New World Stages, the five-year-old theater complex on West 50th Street: you can actually see worthwhile shows there. Not so long ago, we'd associate the former Hell's Kitchen cineplex with gimmicky tourist trash (Naked Boys Singing, My First Time, etc.).

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I'm ticked off that Cote called my show "trash."

Well, I'm not angry. I'm confused.

I'm confused, because I don't understand how an editor of a prominent publication can make a derogatory statement about a show that he has never seen.

That's right, my readers, David Cote has never seen My First Time (or Naked Boys Singing for that matter), yet he feels it's appropriate to comment on the quality of the work.

I'm sure you can understand my confusion.

Making insulting and demeaning comments about a show that you have never seen is simply irresponsible journalism.

Now, Adam Feldman, Time Out's other main theatre writer, well, he can call the show anything he wants, and he has! See, Adam actually saw My First Time. He didn't like it, and you've never heard me make a peep. Why? Because not liking My First Time is his right, and it's his responsibility as a theatrical reviewer to let people know what he thinks.

But how the editor of the theater section can make snarky comments with no firsthand knowledge of the product is shocking to me. It's not journalism. It's tabloidism: making bold and exaggerated statements to give your rag personality (and I can call it a rag, because I was a subscriber and an advertiser).

And we wonder why people aren't listening to reviewers anymore.

Oh, and for the record, when I read David's blog, I had my press agent reach out to David and invite him to see the show. Perhaps once he got in to see it, he'd like it? Or perhaps he wouldn't, and he'd cut it up even more (which would then be his right, and the risk that I'd be taking).

He said he was too busy.

Three reasons why Glee is great.

2009-11-06T11:00:00-05:00

There is no question that Glee is great for Broadway. Here are three reasons why I love it:

1. IT PUTS BROADWAY PEEPS TO WORK

The transition from theater to television is a lot more difficult now than it was in the early days of both industries. Look at how many great Broadway actors are out there that you haven't seen headlining in movies and piloting pilots.

And then along comes a show like Glee, and the casting directors can't get enough from our pool: Lea Michele, Matt Morrison, Jonathan Groff, John Lloyd Young, Debra Monk and more.

The longer it runs, the more our folks will get a chance to lend their talents and their pipes to that program. And then they'll hopefully come back to Broadway and bring some fans with them.

2. IT PUTS SHOWTUNES NEXT TO POP TUNES

"Where Is Love," "Tonight," "I Could Have Danced All Night," and "Sit Down You're Rockin' The Boat," are just a few of the showtunes featured on Glee, and these classics are smacked right up next to songs like "Can't Fight This Feeling," "Rehab," and "Single Ladies."

The line between pop and showtunes is being blurred.

Who knows, maybe we'll go back to the days when major rock bands like, oh, I don't know, The Beatles, sang showtunes when looking to make a big splash on television.

3. IT PUTS SINGING INTO STORIES

So often I hear people say, "I just don't get musicals. People start singing. What the? People just don't do that!"

For the most part, Glee chose the Jersey Boys model (or Altar Boyz model, for that matter) where the musical numbers are actual performances and not "sung scenes." Still, having a show like Glee helps audiences get used to the fact that music can be incorporated seamlessly into entertainment.

The movie musical has helped Broadway significantly over the past decade, with shows like Hairspray, Chicago, Phantom and Rent ALL adding years to their runs (and millions to their box offices) thanks to their movie counterparts.

Broadway now seems to be making its way into television, in a subtler way, but in a way nonetheless.

Let's hope shows like Glee continue to merge the two mediums.

Meet my interns! And we're looking for more.

2009-11-05T11:00:00-05:00

I've got a great group of interns this season, and I thought they all deserved a shout-out.

So here is the DTE Fall Semester Class of '09.

Matt Fried

Matt came to New York straight out of college in 2006 to be an actor, and quickly found out that he wanted to write and produce. Since then, he's written scripts for ABC/TV and produces his own talk show, The Matt Fried Hour. Working at Davenport has been an invaluable experience for Matt.

Marie Gossman

Marie Gossman is excited to be part of Davenport Theatrical. She is a native of Pensacola, FL and a graduate of the University of West Florida. She is a recent addition to the Big Apple and immediately fell in love with the world of theater. She is now pursuing a career in company management and possibly production. Other interests include seeing the world, new experiences, and winning games of Boggle.

Emily McGill

Emily McGill has a long-standing passion for performing arts. When her brother's first Broadway show closed, Emily shifted focus from performing to producing. Fox Theatricals, (...Charlie Brown; ...Millie; Caroline, or Change; Legally Blonde) provided her introduction to producing, and she has been hooked since. Co-founder of M/E Theatricals with Nick Eilerman, M/E looks to produce commercially viable theater while cultivating new artists and audiences.

Will Norris

Will hails from Griffin, Georgia and recently from Valdosta State University with a BFA in Musical Theatre. While in school, he assisted with public relations and management for the VSU Theatre season and Peach State Summer Theatre, the university’s resident professional theatre. Will has written for the Peach State Summer Theatre newsletter, “The Peach Buzz” and contributed to BackStage.

Danielle Sacks

Danielle is currently pursuing a BFA in Drama at Playwrights Horizons, NYU. Her acting credits have included As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Song’s for a New World, Vote!, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. She also sings in The Point and Swing Big Band. She is very excited to be working with Davenport Enterprises and learning all parts of producing theater!

If you're interested in being a part of the Winter/Spring Semester Class of '10, here's the scoop:
We are seeking interns in all areas of our office: General Management, Marketing and Group Sales, Internet Marketing and Design, and Company Management.

The upcoming Winter/Spring internships will be from January through April, 2010.

You must be willing to commit to at least 20 hours a week (weekdays and weekends are available). A $500 stipend is paid upon successful completion of the internship program.
If you're interested, please send a resume and cover letter to my assistant, Melissa Heller, who may not have gotten a shout-out here, but certainly gets shouted AT every day: melissa@davenporttheatrical.com.

The Neil Simon tragedy.

2009-11-04T11:00:00-05:00

Tragedy.

Now there's a word rarely uttered when speaking of one of the greatest comic minds of the century.

Unfortunately, Broadway hasn't been kind to Mr. Simon lately.

Prior to Brighton Beach, post-9/11 Broadway had seen productions of a the original 45 Seconds From Broadway as well as revivals of Barefoot in the Park, Sweet Charity and The Odd Couple.

The Odd Couple, with Broderick and Lane, is the only one of those that recouped, but it wasn't the smash that everyone had expected it to be.

Sweet Charity sneaked out a seven month run, but Barefoot, and now Brighton and Broadway, were unfortunate disappointments.

Why?

Well, Mr. Simon, to use hackneyed break-up phraseology, it's not you. It's us.

Our tastes have changed. In fact, perhaps it was 9/11, or perhaps it was Jon and Kate plus Stupid, or perhaps it's the economic crisis, that turned our taste buds a little more acidic.

Neil Simon's plays are classics, but no matter how great the productions may be (and I heard Brighton was fantastic, especially under the gentle hand of David Cromer), today's audiences just don't take to them the way they used to.

Our taste in television comedies has changed over the last twenty-five years, so as much as I was pulling for this double-feature, it's no surprise to me that our taste in theatrical comedies has changed as well.

In my opinion . . . Yasmina Reza is the modern day Neil Simon. Belly laugh funny with a bite.

Now let's see if Promises, Promises can break this streak. I know I'm pulling for it. I mean, come on, it's got a song called, "She Likes Basketball!"

What and who is an impresario?

2009-11-03T11:00:00-05:00

Merrick, Mackintosh, Drabinsky . . .

All of these producers have been called impresarios during their careers (Drabinsky has been called a few other names most recently).

But what exactly is an "impresario?"

Thanks to one of my favorite readers, Laura M., for sending me this article that appeared in a Minneapolis paper with some great quotes about what impresarios do. (BTW, Minneapolis is one of the greatest non-big-city theater towns in the country. I'd even take it over my hometown of Boston and over LA. NYC, Chicago and then Minneapolis, IMHO.)

Now that you know what an impresario is, you have to ask yourself if you really want to be one?

Broadway Grosses w/e 11/1/09

2009-11-02T15:23:53-05:00

Show Name	GrossGross	TotalAttn	%Cap	AvgPdAdm
A STEADY RAIN	$1,187,455	8,667	101.16%	$137.01
AFTER MISS JULIE	$212,498	4,368	73.78%	$48.65
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL	$1,357,268	11,261	99.06%	$120.53
BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS	$119,561	4,272	44.46%	$27.99
BURN THE FLOOR	$199,039	4,224	50.57%	$47.12
BYE BYE BIRDIE	$558,758	7,543	91.90%	$74.08
CHICAGO	$452,812	5,707	66.05%	$79.34
FELA!	$200,810	5,609	77.79%	$35.80
FINIAN'S RAINBOW	$371,003	10,032	73.72%	$36.98
GOD OF CARNAGE	$991,204	8,767	101.66%	$113.06
HAIR	$627,172	7,413	65.63%	$84.60
HAMLET	$751,526	7,754	82.56%	$96.92
IN THE HEIGHTS	$492,463	6,463	59.18%	$76.20
IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY	$120,650	3,336	45.23%	$36.17
JERSEY BOYS	$1,112,351	9,784	100.08%	$113.69
MAMMA MIA!	$922,676	10,845	90.50%	$85.08
MARY POPPINS	$570,206	8,751	60.87%	$65.16
MEMPHIS	$485,106	7,077	60.18%	$68.55
NEXT TO NORMAL	$311,150	4,644	75.19%	$67.00
OLEANNA	$192,932	3,404	52.92%	$56.68
RAGTIME	$364,924	7,012	61.77%	$52.04
ROCK OF AGES	$454,427	6,275	78.67%	$72.42
SHREK THE MUSICAL	$445,417	7,704	55.57%	$57.82
SOUTH PACIFIC	$609,001	6,154	73.90%	$98.96
SUPERIOR DONUTS	$278,966	4,742	59.81%	$58.83
THE 39 STEPS	$138,621	2,617	55.54%	$52.97
THE LION KING	$1,136,368	11,671	88.20%	$97.37
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA	$742,415	10,128	78.39%	$73.30
THE ROYAL FAMILY	$217,833	3,715	71.44%	$58.64
WEST SIDE STORY	$857,501	9,822	72.35%	$87.30
WICKED	$1,489,548	14,302	98.83%	$104.15
WISHFUL DRINKING	$330,654	5,540	68.97%	$59.68
TOTAL	$18,302,311	229,603	73.00%	$73.25

Thanks to Tom Ray of Woodbridge, VA.

2009-11-02T11:00:00-05:00

This week's Entertainment Weekly rag, uh, sorry, I mean mag, had the following letter to the editor:

More theater reviews, please! I enjoyed this issue but I want - need - more!

- Tom Ray, Woodbridge, VA

Thanks for speaking out, Tom. And thanks for reminding a major media outlet that there are Broadway theater lovers all over the country who are looking for more theater representation in what they read.

With the numbers of mega-stars stepping their star-studded shoes on Broadway stages these days (Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Scarlett Johannson, Will Ferrell, etc.), we have a chance to break into more mainstream publications.

Let's hope EW and everyone else listens to folks like Tom . . . and folks like you.

In fact, why don't we show Tom some support?

Write to Entertainment Weekly at ew_letters@ew.com or snail mail 'em at Entertainment Weekly, 135 West 50th St., New York, NY 10020.

Tell 'em you want more theater.

I'm serious. Click it. Tell 'em you agree with Tom.

It'll take 30 seconds tops.

And tell 'em Ken sent you. :-)

Oh, and Tom, if you read this, drop me a note. I tried to look you up in the 2009 version of the phone book (aka facebook) but came up empty. I'd love for you to be my guest at one of my shows the next time you are in town. We need more and more folks like you.

Favorite Quotes Vol. XXIII: Only in New York. Kids.

2009-10-30T12:00:00-04:00

Here's some fun for a Friday:

I was getting my hair cut yesterday, and I found myself in the chair next to a talkative tween.

At one point, I was staring down at my iPhone, cursing AT&T, wondering how in the heck I could not have any service in the middle of Manhattan, when the tween screamed.

We're talking a Halloween is coming, blood curdling, "I See Dead People" scream.

Everyone in the salon turned to look at her just in time to see her start to cry. And cry. Her eyes were like sprinklers, and someone had obviously pulled the tween alarm.

"What's the matter?" said the stylist.

The tween was staring straight in the mirror. For the first time, she caught a glimpse of her new haircut.

"It's too short! What happened to my hair? I hate it!!!"

The rest of us in the salon smirked. It was sort of sweet (sort of). Here was a kid that thought she got a bad haircut and wasn't afraid to tell the stylist exactly how she felt.

The stylist tried to calm her, as did everyone else in the place.

"It looks great, hon. You look so pretty. It's not too short. It's so stylish! You're adorable!"

"No, no, you don't understand, " said the tween. "I'm going to have to get a whole new headshot now!"

Now there's something I'd never hear if I were getting my haircut in Sturbridge!

Netflix for theater. It's here.

2009-10-29T12:00:00-04:00

Ok. It's not here here. It's over there here. Like in the UK.

The Brits beat us to the screen this week when www.DigitalTheatre.com went online with a few titles of taped theatrical productions that can be viewed in the privacy of your own home.

DigitalTheatre's plan is to create a "library of diverse and acclaimed productions from some of the finest theatre talent around."

They've got a production of Far From The Madding Crowd up right now available for 8.99 GBP (or about $15 bucks) and are promising more in the future.

Here are a couple of statements from the contributing theatres:

We’re always looking for ways to bring our work to the largest possible number of people. And the potential of digital technology to connect with a worldwide audience is genuinely exciting.
- Dominic Cooke, Royal Court

There needs to be a revolutionising of the capture of live theatre, and we are enjoying the pursuit of that ambition with Digital Theatre.
- Michael Boyd, Royal Shakespeare Company.

These guys have got it right. A video revolution is coming. It has to be. Our attendance is waning. A new audience isn't being born. It's getting harder to pull people away from screens and get them into a theater.

So perhaps we use what has been our greatest fear (those screens) and turn it into an asset.

PBS has done it in the past. And seeing Into The Woods and Sweeney on TV certainly didn't deter me from seeing those shows live when they came back to Broadway.

The Met has been successful in putting operas in movie theaters around the country. My 80-year-old Dad loves them, and now he wants to come to NYC to see an opera more than ever.

- Legally Blonde didn't lose all of its business here in NYC after a couple of plays on MTV. And the tour is doing quite well . . . hmmmm.

- The Rent final performance DVD was pretty dang cool (I bought it), and even better than the movie in my opinion.

Of all of the options out there now, I think the Rent model is what could work the best. Take a show that is closing, memorialize it, market it and use it to get people excited about another show live.

It's like distributing a DVD after the movie has left the theaters.

The unions would have to play ball to make this financially feasible, but if the show is closing, shouldn't they be more inclined to do it? If all of the employees who worked on the show while it was being taped got a piece of future sales? It's found money for the employees (and the union benefit funds), and since the show would be closing, there shouldn't be any fear that the Producers would be benefiting from the taped production as a promotional tool for Broadway (there is a question about using it to promote sub rights and tours, but certainly a profit participation for the union employees could make up for it).

The Digital Theatre folks are on to something. And we better get on it as well, and stop guarding what we do like it's the Queen.

Because this could be one of the few ways we have left to get what we do out to the masses.