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hesAll of these little articles just before the Tony awards... :)
Broader than Broadway: Theater has spread across U.S.
POSTED: 6:30 p.m. EDT, June 7, 2007
By Jonathan Mandell
CNN
Story Highlights
• Years ago, N.Y.-based-theater dominant, says chief of nonprofit theaters group
• Now, it's estimated there are professional theaters in about 800 cities, in all states
• On road, Broadway shows draw more people, earn more cash than on Broadway
(CNN) -- The first Broadway show that Christine Ebersole ever saw was not on Broadway, but in the auditorium of Skokie Junior High School in Winnetka, Illinois. It was Finian's Rainbow, and she sat in the orchestra pit, a dutiful student, violin at the ready. "I was so busy watching, it ended my career as a violinist," Ebersole says.
It began another, more rewarding career. Ebersole is the most talked-about diva on Broadway this year, and she is likely to be discussed even more after millions of television viewers tune in to the 61st annual Tony Awards on Sunday.
A veteran of a dozen Broadway shows, and the winner of a 2001 Tony Award for her leading role in the musical 42nd Street, Ebersole is widely expected to best some formidable competition and win another leading actress Tony for her dual roles in "Grey Gardens," the musical based on a documentary about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' reclusive aunt and niece. She plays the high-toned aunt in the first act and the deranged niece 32 years later in the second.
"Watching this performance," theater critic Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times, "is the best argument I can think of for the survival of the American musical."
At Tony time, attention turns to what Broadway aficionados have referred to for many, many years -- with a mixture of defeat and defiance -- as the fabulous invalid. Yes, attendance is up, revenues are up, and live theater still has the power to move, amuse and amaze. But put together all the money from all the tickets sold on Broadway for an entire season, and it doesn't equal the grosses for one blockbuster film.
For all her success on Broadway, Ebersole is probably still best-known as a cast member on the television show "Saturday Night Live" ... 25 years ago.
But there is a reality about theater overlooked at Tony time -- American theater is far broader than Broadway.
"Broadway is the most highly visible and the most celebrated theater, and it generates the most money; in some ways, it's the center of American theater," Ebersole says. "But there are so many other kinds of theater."
Professional theater in 800 cities
A hundred years ago, "Broadway and New York based-theater defined the U.S. theater because that's really all there was," says Teresa Eyring, executive director of Theatre Communications Group, a national organization of nonprofit theaters that publishes American Theatre Magazine. "But that shifted in the latter part of the 20th century."
Eyring calculates that there are now professional theaters in at least 800 cities, in all 50 states. Many are now the source of the most creative work in American theater. (See a gallery of some Tony-winning regional theaters)
"If you look at where the new works for the American stage are being developed, they are at the not-for-profit theaters, in New York and throughout the country," says Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, co-sponsors of the Tony Awards. "Fifty years ago, they were on Broadway."
"Broadway is increasingly a showcase for finished work, because it's so expensive to put something on there," says Chris Jones, the theater critic for the Chicago Tribune.
If the Tonys honor Broadway, even they acknowledge the shift. Jones is the head of the committee of the American Theater Critics Association that every year since 1976 has selected one American theater outside New York City to award a Tony, the so-called Regional Tony Award.
In addition to professional theater, "there may be as many as 50,000 productions a year done of musicals in high schools, middle schools, church groups, dance studios, community theaters," says Drew Cohen of Music Theater International, one of the four firms that license Broadway musicals. "There are 8,000 community theaters throughout the country."
Broadway beyond Broadway
Even professional Broadway productions go way beyond Broadway's 39 theaters. Ebersole spent years on the road touring Broadway shows like "Camelot" (opposite Richard Burton) and "Oklahoma".
In April, she agreed to preside in a Times Square hotel over the Touring Broadway Awards, an obscure, untelevised event. Begun seven years ago, the awards are given to the touring companies of Broadway shows, which visit as many as 240 cities each year across North America -- a great expansion in the number of cities from even a decade ago.
Monty Python's "Spamalot" (which has five different productions -- on Broadway, in Las Vegas, London and Australia, and one touring North America) won best new musical, as it had at the Tonys two years ago. "Doubt" won the best touring play, and it won the Tony for best play two years ago. One category unique to the Touring Broadway Award -- Best Long-Running Musical -- was given to "Chicago: The Musical" which has been on Broadway, and on the road, for 10 years.
If judged strictly on financial terms, the Touring Broadway Awards deserve more attention than the Tony Awards: On the road, Broadway shows are seen by more people, and earn more money, than they do on Broadway.
In the 2005-06 season, 12 million tickets were sold for shows on Broadway, for a gross of $862 million, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers, the other co-sponsors of the Tony Awards. During that same season, the league says, 17.1 million tickets were sold for touring Broadway shows for a gross of $915 million.
What happens on the road, though, is guided by what has happened in New York, especially at the Tony Awards show, since the production numbers performed on national television, and the imprimatur of a Tony, help pre-sell any show.
"We're all interested in what's going on up there, because this is what we'll be doing in the next couple of years," says Judy Lisi, head of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and by "we," she means some 200 "presenters" of Broadway shows across the country.
Whether on Broadway or on the road, or on a junior high school stage, "I don't think theater is in any danger of collapsing," Christine Ebersole says. "If there is no other way to experience it, people will do it in their back yards. There's always a need for people to express themselves in a live way."
Broader than Broadway: Theater has spread across U.S.
POSTED: 6:30 p.m. EDT, June 7, 2007
By Jonathan Mandell
CNN
Story Highlights
• Years ago, N.Y.-based-theater dominant, says chief of nonprofit theaters group
• Now, it's estimated there are professional theaters in about 800 cities, in all states
• On road, Broadway shows draw more people, earn more cash than on Broadway
(CNN) -- The first Broadway show that Christine Ebersole ever saw was not on Broadway, but in the auditorium of Skokie Junior High School in Winnetka, Illinois. It was Finian's Rainbow, and she sat in the orchestra pit, a dutiful student, violin at the ready. "I was so busy watching, it ended my career as a violinist," Ebersole says.
It began another, more rewarding career. Ebersole is the most talked-about diva on Broadway this year, and she is likely to be discussed even more after millions of television viewers tune in to the 61st annual Tony Awards on Sunday.
A veteran of a dozen Broadway shows, and the winner of a 2001 Tony Award for her leading role in the musical 42nd Street, Ebersole is widely expected to best some formidable competition and win another leading actress Tony for her dual roles in "Grey Gardens," the musical based on a documentary about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' reclusive aunt and niece. She plays the high-toned aunt in the first act and the deranged niece 32 years later in the second.
"Watching this performance," theater critic Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times, "is the best argument I can think of for the survival of the American musical."
At Tony time, attention turns to what Broadway aficionados have referred to for many, many years -- with a mixture of defeat and defiance -- as the fabulous invalid. Yes, attendance is up, revenues are up, and live theater still has the power to move, amuse and amaze. But put together all the money from all the tickets sold on Broadway for an entire season, and it doesn't equal the grosses for one blockbuster film.
For all her success on Broadway, Ebersole is probably still best-known as a cast member on the television show "Saturday Night Live" ... 25 years ago.
But there is a reality about theater overlooked at Tony time -- American theater is far broader than Broadway.
"Broadway is the most highly visible and the most celebrated theater, and it generates the most money; in some ways, it's the center of American theater," Ebersole says. "But there are so many other kinds of theater."
Professional theater in 800 cities
A hundred years ago, "Broadway and New York based-theater defined the U.S. theater because that's really all there was," says Teresa Eyring, executive director of Theatre Communications Group, a national organization of nonprofit theaters that publishes American Theatre Magazine. "But that shifted in the latter part of the 20th century."
Eyring calculates that there are now professional theaters in at least 800 cities, in all 50 states. Many are now the source of the most creative work in American theater. (See a gallery of some Tony-winning regional theaters)
"If you look at where the new works for the American stage are being developed, they are at the not-for-profit theaters, in New York and throughout the country," says Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, co-sponsors of the Tony Awards. "Fifty years ago, they were on Broadway."
"Broadway is increasingly a showcase for finished work, because it's so expensive to put something on there," says Chris Jones, the theater critic for the Chicago Tribune.
If the Tonys honor Broadway, even they acknowledge the shift. Jones is the head of the committee of the American Theater Critics Association that every year since 1976 has selected one American theater outside New York City to award a Tony, the so-called Regional Tony Award.
In addition to professional theater, "there may be as many as 50,000 productions a year done of musicals in high schools, middle schools, church groups, dance studios, community theaters," says Drew Cohen of Music Theater International, one of the four firms that license Broadway musicals. "There are 8,000 community theaters throughout the country."
Broadway beyond Broadway
Even professional Broadway productions go way beyond Broadway's 39 theaters. Ebersole spent years on the road touring Broadway shows like "Camelot" (opposite Richard Burton) and "Oklahoma".
In April, she agreed to preside in a Times Square hotel over the Touring Broadway Awards, an obscure, untelevised event. Begun seven years ago, the awards are given to the touring companies of Broadway shows, which visit as many as 240 cities each year across North America -- a great expansion in the number of cities from even a decade ago.
Monty Python's "Spamalot" (which has five different productions -- on Broadway, in Las Vegas, London and Australia, and one touring North America) won best new musical, as it had at the Tonys two years ago. "Doubt" won the best touring play, and it won the Tony for best play two years ago. One category unique to the Touring Broadway Award -- Best Long-Running Musical -- was given to "Chicago: The Musical" which has been on Broadway, and on the road, for 10 years.
If judged strictly on financial terms, the Touring Broadway Awards deserve more attention than the Tony Awards: On the road, Broadway shows are seen by more people, and earn more money, than they do on Broadway.
In the 2005-06 season, 12 million tickets were sold for shows on Broadway, for a gross of $862 million, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers, the other co-sponsors of the Tony Awards. During that same season, the league says, 17.1 million tickets were sold for touring Broadway shows for a gross of $915 million.
What happens on the road, though, is guided by what has happened in New York, especially at the Tony Awards show, since the production numbers performed on national television, and the imprimatur of a Tony, help pre-sell any show.
"We're all interested in what's going on up there, because this is what we'll be doing in the next couple of years," says Judy Lisi, head of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and by "we," she means some 200 "presenters" of Broadway shows across the country.
Whether on Broadway or on the road, or on a junior high school stage, "I don't think theater is in any danger of collapsing," Christine Ebersole says. "If there is no other way to experience it, people will do it in their back yards. There's always a need for people to express themselves in a live way."