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 “Hairspray†will close Jan. 4 after a six-year run. Bloomberg News Updated: 11/06/08 07:14 AM Staggering economy puts Broadway in a bindBLOOMBERG NEWS NEW YORK –At the new, high-tech TKTS booth in Manhattan’s Father Duffy Square, flashing red LEDs are hawking half-price orchestra seats for “Monty Python’s Spamalot,†“The Phantom of the Opera†and 22 other Broadway shows these days. With the U. S. economy in tatters and neither investors nor ticket buyers rushing to part with cash, Broadway producers are also seeing red: Hit shows are playing to half-filled houses, while investment capital for all but the safest bets is drying up. “It’s been tough even for shows where there were investors already lined up,†said Margo Lion, 64, the lead producer of “Hairspray,†which will close Jan. 4 after a six-year run. “I’m waiting till the election is over to start raising money for my next project. Historically, there’s a bump in the economy after an election.†Early fall is always brutal at Broadway box offices, as summer tourists leave and local patrons wait for the critics’ yeas or nays on new shows. In recent weeks, closings have also been announced for “Spamalot,†“Spring Awakening,†“Xanadu†and “Legally Blonde.†Earlier this week, the producers of “A Tale of Two Cities†announced a Nov. 16 closing, after struggling for two money-losing months. It will have lost its entire $16 million capitalization. Sales for last year’s Tony Award-winning best play, “August: Osage County,†were down 27 percent from the week before according to figures recorded by the Broadway League, the commercial theater’s trade organization. Numbers like that are causing investors to pull back. After all, Broadway is an industry where 80 percent of new shows fail in the best of times. “I have nothing in the pipeline and it’s a very happy state to be in,†said Roger Berlind, 78, a founding partner of investment firm Carter, Berlind & Weill (later Shearson Loeb Rhoades) and, since 1976, one of Broadway’s most prolific producers. He has put his resources behind serious works like Tom Stoppard’s “Rock ’n’ Roll†as well as lighter fare such as revivals of “Guys and Dolls†and “Kiss Me, Kate.†Berlind has had a roller-coaster autumn as producer of three shows: revivals of “Gypsy†and “Equus†and a new musical, “13.†Only “Equus†seems certain to return a profit. It’s a limited run featuring the Broadway debut of Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the movies based on the novels. Since opening Oct. 5 to mixed reviews, “13†has been on deathwatch, playing to less than half-filled houses. Last week, ticket sales for “Gypsy†(whose star, Patti LuPone, won the Tony for best actress in a musical), were down 24 percent from the previous week. As a director of Lehman Brothers Holdings since 1985, Berlind was also an inside witness to the debacle taking place at the other end of Broadway, on Wall Street. He declines to discuss that subject. “We’re all impacted by the economy,†Berlind said. Adam Epstein, a co-producer of “Hairspray,†abandoned plans for a $4.5 million revival of “Godspell†when a key investor pulled out. “The harsh truth,†said producer John Breglio, 62, “is that the statistics will be very sobering and there will be a lot of empty theaters in January. It’s going to be a very tough road in terms of big, expensive new shows. No one’s jumping in, taking risks.†A retired partner in the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Breglio turned producer to mount the profit-making revival of “A Chorus Line†that closed in August. He is now working on a revival of “Dreamgirls†scheduled to open in Seoul in February, before eventually coming to Broadway. The South Korean production is fully capitalized at $5 million, he said, or about one-third of the cost on Broadway, where his only additional expense will be the hiring of an American cast. “Our health on Broadway is much more reflective of what happens with tourism than anything else,†Breglio said. “The mega-hits will survive, but if international tourism goes down, we have a much more serious problem.†Several new musicals are likely to be affected by that forecast, including “Billy Elliot,†with music by Sir Elton John, previewing at the Imperial; “Shrek,†which begins previews Saturday at the Broadway Theatre; and a revival of “West Side Story†that has begun advertising heavily and is scheduled to begin previews at the end of February at the Palace. “Shrek†is promoting deeply discounted tickets available through January. Even as producers struggle to bring costs down, working on Broadway continues to be an expensive roll of the dice, as the novice producers of “Tale of Two Cities†most recently learned. “Spider-Man,†a new musical staged by “Lion King†director Julie Taymor, is in development at a reported cost of $40 million. It features a score by Bono and the Edge, from the Irish rock band U2. Shows like “Spider-Man†and “Shrek†are, to use the favored jargon of the moment, “branded†and stand a better chance at getting capitalized than more obscure titles, said Frederick M. Zollo, 55, a film and theatrical producer with a record of backing risky projects. Zollo recently announced plans to produce a musical version of “Once,†based on the film of the same name about the relationship between a Dublin street singer and a Czech immigrant who begins writing and performing with him. |
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