Upcoming Broadway Tours Report

Jack Lucas, TicketsWest, and Gary McAvay, Columbia Artists Theatricals, at PAMC in New York. (VT Photo)

REPORTING FROM NEW YORK — “Once,” a new musical based on the Oscar winning film of the same name, begins previews this month in New York, and “Ghost,” a musical adaptation of the movie, which begins previews in early March, are possibly the best hopes for new megahits for the next touring season in the performing arts. The rest of the pack is primarily revivals, which also help the touring circuit down the line, including “Evita” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Gary McAvay, president, Columbia Artists Theatricals, New York, a 32-year veteran of the booking business, made those predictions during a panel at the 20th annual Performing Arts Managers Conference here Feb. 10-14. The conference drew a record 300 participants who toured multiple venues and learned the inner workings of the New York performing arts scene.

Jack Lucas, TicketsWest, chaired the session featuring McAvay. The two are partners in Troika, a company that produces Broadway tours. “Today’s audience has expectations of production values,” Lucas noted. They have been weaned on megahits like “Lion King” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Every year, they are looking for a new “Wicked,” but it isn’t always going to happen.

“The industry has tried to dismiss ‘Spiderman,’” McAvay added. It has had eight months in previews and terrible word of mouth, but it isn’t going away. “It’s still selling 100,000 tickets a week, grossing $1 million - $1.2 million,” he said.

From the producer’s side of the equation, Broadway is a very risky proposition. They are dependent on reviews and star power. Hugh Jackman’s one-man show has come and gone on Broadway, for instance. It played San Francisco and Toronto and 12 weeks in New York, all sold out, but that’s gone because of his film schedule with X-Men. The producer saw great demand but he could not secure the necessary number of weeks.

The “Book of Mormon,” the first megamusical to hit the road since “Jersey Boys,” will vary the usual routine somewhat, McAvay continued. It will open in Denver for a three-week engagement, versus the usual four to six weeks, he said, because producers are not really sure how the subject matter will play in middle America. Keeping such a tight ticket persona assures a big success on the road, McAvay predicted. Demand is high and they will leave each city with a yearning for more. In Cincinnati, the producers are marketing to that pent-up demand by advising purchasers that some material may be offensive and “if you have any concern, please return your ticket. We have a waiting list.”

A new production of “Jekyl & Hyde” will also have an unusual rollout. A revival, the show has not toured in the last 10 years. “We’re doing a pre-Broadway tour, starting in Los Angeles in September,” McAvay said. It will play tight runs in several cities before arriving in New York in April, 2013, where it will sit for only 14 weeks. Then it will return to the road for a strong 2013-14 season “regardless of what happens on Broadway,” McAvay said. “But if it is successful on Broadway, we will mount a second company for the road. If not, we’ll take the same company on the road.”

For the investors, it’s a guaranteed tour before it even gets to Broadway. “I’m confident in the strength of that business model,” McAvay said. “If we have to wait to see what happens on Broadway, it’s automatically two years before it’s on the road.”

Asked by Lucas if shows need the Broadway brand then, McAvay admitted, “I talk about Broadway as being another stop on the road. That’s very unpopular. But I believe if there are the appropriate marketing hooks, it can work on the road if properly produced.”

It costs $5 million-$13 million to mount a production on Broadway and some never make it to the road.

Low end, nonunion shows can cost $250,000-$400,000 to mount before opening night, McAvay said. Lucas noted that there is a big difference between nonequity, which is the actors union, and non-union, which is everything else. A megashow like Jersey Boys or Wicked costs $10 million-$15 million to mount. That cost has to be amortized over several weeks and usually isn’t recouped in total until the show tours.

Rogue projects are also of interest to Columbia. “We are having discussions with Blue Man Group,” McAvay said. Originally they were not interested in expanding beyond their 200-seat home theater, and then they successfully set up shows in Boston, Las Vegas and Orlando. All of those companies are still running today. And then they staged an arena tour.

“Eighteen years later, we’re routing out a tour for proscenium theaters, 2,500 seats,” McAvay said.

When buying shows, McAvay suggested a backbone of revivals, with openings for new product. He also noted “guarantees do have limits.”

“Young Frankenstein” was asking $345,000 plus 10 percent when it hit the road. In three months, the price dropped to $325,000, and then it dropped again and again and again. “Then it was reproduced as a nonunion show for one and a half seasons and went to a low of $225,000 a week,” McAvay recalled. “Any show can be produced on different levels.” It’s wise to research who is producing the show and whether they understand your market, he advised.

Another innovation, which was discussed last year at PAMC, is “inflatable sets.” This is a method of manufacturing sets that do not have the weight and moving parts of the standard tour. Michael Jenkins, also a partner in Troika, described it last year at PAMC in Dallas and the audience asked what happened to the idea.

They learned to lose the term “inflatable” and call it a “soft production,” McAvay said. And it works. A tour of “Cats” with soft production cut the number of trucks on the road from five or six to one and a half, he said. Setup is under five hours and therefore stagehand and rigging costs are greatly reduced. “The soft production allowed us to pick up 65 new markets.”

Lucas was one of the first to use a soft production with “Cats” in Billings, Mont. “I sat in the audience and I could not tell the difference,” Lucas said.

Interviewed for this story: Gary McAvay, (917) 206-4609; Jack Lucas, (509) 459-6100