After 33 days, Actors’ Equity has ended its limited strike against the Broadway League over how its members are compensated for developing new work.
Actors had sought profit share and a raise from the current $1,000 weekly salary when participating in a developmental lab, which are multi-week workshops to create new plays and musicals.Continue Reading
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.
EXCLUSIVE: Ticketmaster and Telecharge say they refund theatergoers for cancelled performances.
It’s a different story for investors in shows that get cancelled before opening night. Exhibit A: Nerds, the musical.
In early 2016, Nerds Broadway LLC collected $606,000 from 13 angels who wanted in on the comedy about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Four days after receiving the last of the checks and less than two months before the scheduled Broadway opening, lead producer Carl Levin announced Nerds’ indefinite postponement. He cited the loss of a major backer.
Until recent years, a production company that abandoned a show was obligated to make investors whole, except the investors who waived their right to a refund.Continue Reading
Fans of HBO’s Succession might be surprised that Stewy, the conniving cocaine-snorting private equity operator, is played by an emigré from Iran who co-founded a civic-minded theater company that teaches drama to public school students at New York’s Professional Performing Arts School. Its graduates have gone on to Juilliard and Yale.
The Courtroom is the latest project by Arian Moayed and his company, Waterwell. Created from courtroom transcripts that Moayed edited, the play concerns a recent Filipino immigrant named Elizabeth Keathley (Kristin Villanueva) who, while getting a driver’s license, illegally registers to vote at the behest of a careless government bureaucrat. Issued a voter registration card, she votes in a congressional election and faces deportation.Continue Reading
Actors’ Equity Association, which has been negotiating a new contract for play and musical development, authorized a strike today to halt collaboration in rehearsal rooms known as developmental labs.
Broadway celebrated 2019 with a slew of milestones: highest-grossing week and year in history and best-attended week and year since at least 1984, according to the Broadway League.
Long-running shows such as Wicked ($3.4 million), The Lion King ($3.7 million) and Hamilton ($4 million) recorded their best sales last week and charged their highest average prices, with tourists continuing to flock to Broadway’s biggest brands.
Hamilton, whose composer-lyricist, Lin-Manuel Miranda, returns to the show next week for a short engagement in San Juan, Puerto Rico, became the first Broadway show to clear $4 million over eight performances.Continue Reading
EXCLUSIVE: Ben Sprecher raised and spent millions on a Broadway musical version of Rebecca that never opened. For his next act, he wants to recreate an Old World family restaurant, updated for the Instagram age.
Will investors pick up the tab?
Early in The Cher Show, Sonny Bono reprimands Cher when she complains about the rigors of stardom. “You bought the ticket; take the ride.”
The target audience at the Neil Simon Theatre is onboard.
Book writer Rick Elice (Jersey Boys), director Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and choreographer Christopher Gattelli have created a celebratory jukebox musical that has energy and style. Continue Reading
Broadway sold $43 million of tickets in the week ending on Sunday, up 10 percent from a year ago for its best Thanksgiving ever.
In an ugly week for stocks but fine one for tourism and premium pricing, most shows bounced, especially musicals that performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.Continue Reading
Mike Birbiglia likes lists. Early in his irresistible one-man comedy The New One, he cites seven reasons why he never wanted a child.
“Number 1: I’ve never felt like there should be more of me in the world.” That leads to a roundup of his horrific medical history, which includes a life-threatening sleep disorder, which he depicted in an earlier show, book and indie movie called Sleepwalk with Me.Continue Reading
