Behind the scenes
May. 1st, 2006 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerTouring musical theatre is NOT a pretty business. It's all about cutting costs on their end, filling all possible tour dates, and petty negotiations on the other. And who cares about the patrons who shell out $35-$70 for a ticket...here at least.
Of course, the end product isn't really that bleak, but having been working on the presenting end of theatre for five years, rather than PRODUCING local community theatre, that's five years of becoming jaded with the powers that be in the New York based touring world.
"Hairspray" is a perfect example of a great show gone bad for presenters.
'Advancing the show' means letting the local venue know everything that needs to be known about lighting, sight lines, tech notes, ad nauseam.
The "Hairspray" NY office could have cared less...one week out, we found out there were HUGE sight line issues for about 60 seats on the front left and right of the orchestra. The sound and light towers are HUGE for that show, and because of that, they can only use about 2/3 of the prosceneum, but they neglected to tell our tech team, which meant that the word didn't get to the ticket office either. We sold all those seats early on, which meant that each night-of, the ticketing office and front of house had to scramble to find good seating for the 60 or so patrons that had to be reseated so they could actually SEE the show they'd paid up to $65 to see.
The company manager didn't particularly care...their tour was almost over. The same show is coming to Salt Lake City with our partners there, and they have to deal with over 140 seats every performance for reseating. The only mercy is that the show didn't sell well, so SOME seats could be found, but moving patrons around is HUGE in theatres.
I sometimes long for the general admission that movie theatres have...sigh.
Happily, "Hairspray" had been gone for 3 weeks, "Oklahoma" was over this past weekend, and the only B'way show coming up is "Stomp" in June, which won't sell out either.
Of course, the end product isn't really that bleak, but having been working on the presenting end of theatre for five years, rather than PRODUCING local community theatre, that's five years of becoming jaded with the powers that be in the New York based touring world.
"Hairspray" is a perfect example of a great show gone bad for presenters.
'Advancing the show' means letting the local venue know everything that needs to be known about lighting, sight lines, tech notes, ad nauseam.
The "Hairspray" NY office could have cared less...one week out, we found out there were HUGE sight line issues for about 60 seats on the front left and right of the orchestra. The sound and light towers are HUGE for that show, and because of that, they can only use about 2/3 of the prosceneum, but they neglected to tell our tech team, which meant that the word didn't get to the ticket office either. We sold all those seats early on, which meant that each night-of, the ticketing office and front of house had to scramble to find good seating for the 60 or so patrons that had to be reseated so they could actually SEE the show they'd paid up to $65 to see.
The company manager didn't particularly care...their tour was almost over. The same show is coming to Salt Lake City with our partners there, and they have to deal with over 140 seats every performance for reseating. The only mercy is that the show didn't sell well, so SOME seats could be found, but moving patrons around is HUGE in theatres.
I sometimes long for the general admission that movie theatres have...sigh.
Happily, "Hairspray" had been gone for 3 weeks, "Oklahoma" was over this past weekend, and the only B'way show coming up is "Stomp" in June, which won't sell out either.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-02 01:27 pm (UTC)ROFL! $35-$70!
That's a good one. So, 1970's.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-03 06:03 pm (UTC)