Real Estate

JEFF T. DANIEL FAVORED FOR SHUBERT CROWN

January 24, 2025 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: The highest-stakes succession race on Broadway appears to be over. Jeff T. Daniel is being positioned to take the reins at the Shubert Organization, Broadway’s largest landlord, people familiar with the company said.

Daniel joined Shubert in the newly created position of chief strategy officer in September 2023, recruited from the touring giant Broadway Across America. He’s also chairman of the government relations committee of the Broadway League trade association. He’s in line to succeed Robert E. Wankel, Shubert’s 78-year-old chairman and chief executive, who’s been at the company for 50 years.Continue Reading

‘CABARET,’ AT $24 MILLION, IS BROADWAY’S COSTLIEST REVIVAL (EXCLUSIVE)

September 20, 2023 by Philip Boroff

Investing in Cabaret at the August Wilson Theatre this spring might seem like a safe bet, after the success of the Kander & Ebb classic in London and earlier productions in New York.

That’s until you see the price tag: $24.25 million, a record for a Broadway revival.Continue Reading

BROADWAY NONPROFIT COFFERS SWELLED DURING SHUTDOWN (EXCLUSIVE)

March 16, 2022 by Philip Boroff

What started as an existential crisis for Broadway’s nonprofit producers turned into a windfall.

Thanks to a resurgent but fickle stock market, insurance payouts, cost-cutting and emergency grants from the federal government and foundations in response to Covid-19, Lincoln Center Theater and Roundabout Theatre Co. emerged from the 18-month industry shutdown wealthier than when they entered it.Continue Reading

PANDEMIC PUMMELS AMBASSADOR THEATRE GROUP (EXCLUSIVE)

January 28, 2022 by Philip Boroff

The self-described “world’s No. 1 live theater company” has taken a drubbing.

The parent company of U.K.-based Ambassador Theatre Group reported a pretax loss of $202 million for the 12 months ended in March 2021. The holding company attributed the results to Covid-19, which decimated rental income when its theaters shuttered in March 2020.Continue Reading

WOMEN’S PROJECT SEEKS $30,000 PARTY PAYBACK

January 8, 2021 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: The nation’s oldest theater company specializing in nurturing women writers and directors is in a seven-month court battle to recover $30,000, a significant sum for a nonprofit institution trying to survive a pandemic.Continue Reading

BAY STREET THEATER PLANS SAG HARBOR COMPLEX

November 1, 2020 by Philip Boroff

While performing arts spaces in the region remain largely shuttered because of Covid-19, Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater said that it plans to build a permanent home, its first since the Long Island company was founded as a summer theater in 1991.Continue Reading

CHRISTIE’S TO AUCTION TERRY ALLEN KRAMER’S HIRSCHFELDS

August 22, 2019 by Philip Boroff

Christie’s auction house said it will offer three original drawings by the legendary Broadway portraitist Al Hirschfeld that were owned by Terry Allen Kramer, the prolific Broadway producer and Palm Beach doyenne who died in May at 85.Continue Reading

DAVENPORT THEATRE ENDS FIVE-YEAR RUN

February 8, 2019 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: Ken Davenport’s eponymous theater is no more.

“As of the end of January 2019, the Davenport Theatre has closed,” according to an announcement on Davenport Theatrical Enterprise‘s voicemail.

Ken Davenport, the producer-general manager-book writer-marketer-podcaster-blogger-consultant, has told people in the industry that he lost his lease. He declined to comment for this story.

‘BEAUTIFUL’ REAL ESTATE AIDS ROUNDABOUT REVIVAL

March 18, 2016 by Philip Boroff

Todd Haimes at the Tony Awards/Photo by Philip Boroff — Todd Haimes at the 2015 Tonys. Photo: Broadway Journal

EXCLUSIVE: On September 15, 2008, hours after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the Roundabout Theatre Co. signed a lease to take over a third Broadway house. Given the expense of producing and its thinning ranks of subscribers, some in the business questioned whether the company, founded in 1965, overextended itself.

Seven and a half years later, the Roundabout can make a convincing case that adding the Stephen Sondheim Theatre inside the Bank of America tower constituted shrewd investing in a downturn.