Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Getting Broadway back on the boards
Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach crossing their fingers for return of touring shows
Though it’s bad luck to say “good luck” in the theater world, South Florida’s largest stages are crossing their fingers for a lucky break when it comes to getting Broadway back on the boards.
Best case scenario: The Broadway season that usually starts in the fall will return to this part of the country in the winter, most likely in December.
“The situation is fluid … things could change at any time,” says Susie Krajsa, president of Broadway Across America, a presenter of touring Broadway shows in 44 regional markets, including Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
“However, at this moment, the season is currently set to open with ‘Tootsie’ in December of this year in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center and ‘Wicked’ in Miami at the Arsht Center in February of 2021.”
But the business model for Broadway tours needs full houses, so social distancing with empty seats separating audience members simply doesn’t work, financially. The centers have to wait until they can operate at full capacity again.
With all the flashpoints going on it is easy to see why musicals — even mega-popular titles such as “Hamilton” and “Hairspray” — are not exactly in the spotlight.
But those national tours spawned by the Great White Way pump millions into local economies. That is especially true in South Florida, where road companies make regular stops at three large performing arts centers.
Krajsa, whose office is in Fort Lauderdale, explains, “On show nights, our audiences fill restau
rants, hotels, parking garages and patronize local shops and vendors.
“The economic ripple effect is powerful. The reopening of the Broward Center and the Arsht Center, with Broadway tours arriving to perform on our stage, will be a vital component to restarting our local economy.”
Using a calculator created by the nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts, it is estimated that if you add in ancillary activities such as shopping, dining and drinking that people do before and after catching a curtain, the Broadway productions at one of the region’s three performing arts centers can annually ring up:
■ $26.5 million to Miami-Dade County, according to the Arsht Center.
■ $100 million to Palm Beach County, according to the Kravis Center.
■ $130-$140 million to Broward County, according to the Broward Center.
“Broadway is crucially important because it sells more tickets to more different kinds of people than any other single programming that we have,” says Kelley Shanley, the president and CEO of the Broward Center. “It has the broadest appeal. It’s important to a lot of people. It’s relevant to a lot of people. Because of that … it ends up being a really important driver for our overall budget. It helps a lot of the other things that we do work.”
Johann Zietsman, the president and CEO of the Arsht Center, adds, “Broadway is about 50% of all our box office revenue. And so it is a really big, important part of our schedule.”
He also adds that stages will, in large part, remain dark until the Broadway season can relaunch.
“We are seeing more and more third party users cancel/reschedule their theater bookings for October, November and December,” Zietsman told the Sun Sentinel in an email Wednesday. “And given that, I think it is safe to say we will see no fully ticketed shows before January. We are now also checking with all our January users, and some have also canceled/rescheduled.
However there are still some shows before our first planned Broadway show in mid-February. This may change as time goes by.”
However, the Kravis Center says they have programming that will begin in December that is not Broadway-related. Those events will be posted on their website’s calendar later this month.
The Broward Center has been working with the Cleveland Clinic, the Actors’ Equity Association and the Performing Arts Center Consortium, which recently released a reopening playbook.
“We think rapid testing will become an important tool,” Shanley says. “Pro sports is starting this. We think in the future the audience can be tested at the door … and with rapid testing you will know that everyone seated beside you has been tested.”
What can we expect to see, and when?
As of now, the Broadway season will open at the Broward Center with “Tootsie,” which remains scheduled for Dec. 15-27, 2020. Then the spate of shows will continue with:
■ “The Band’s Visit,” Jan. 12-17, 2021
■ “The Prom,” Feb. 23-28, 2021
■ “Pretty Woman: The Musical,” March 9-21, 2021
■ “Hamilton,” April 13-May 2, 2021
■ The play “To Kill A Mockingbird” was supposed begin the season in October of this year, but has now been moved to sometime in 2021⁄2022. “Cats,” which was going to follow “Mockingbird” in November has been moved to June 15-27, 2021.
Plans for the Arsht Center’s Broadway offerings will now begin with “Wicked” for an unusual threeweek run Feb. 17-March 7, 2021. Next up will be:
■ “Dear Evan Hansen,” March 30-April 4, 2021
■ “Anastasia,” May 18-23, 2021
■ “Jesus Christ Superstar,” June 22-27, 2021 (replacing “The Cher Show”)
■ “Hairspray” was slated for January 2021 but has now been rescheduled for Aug. 3-8, 2021. And “Hadestown,” which was going to originally open the Miami Broadway season in December will now play Sept. 28-Oct. 3, 2021.
And at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, the plan so far is to open Kravis On Broadway’s 2020⁄2021 season with “Jimmy Buffett’s Escape To Margaritaville” Dec. 15-20. The musical “An Officer and a Gentleman” has been moved from November to April 21-25, 2021.
As for the rest of the Kravis’ season, there haven’t been any announcements.
What about Broadway at Hard Rock?
Back in January, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood announced that it had entered a partnership with Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment to bring Broadway
shows to the resort property.
The first production was supposed to be the Meat Loaf jukebox musical “Bat Out of Hell” in April.
The Nederlander family has been a major force on New York’s Broadway scene for 108 years, operating theaters. Now the company produces live entertainment on a global scale.
But the breakout of COVID-19 put the kibosh on Broadway programming planned for the resort in South Florida (as well as properties in Tampa and Atlantic City). Neither Hard Rock nor Nederlander commented on future plans.
Is there any other way to get a Broadway fix?
Fans might want to check out other programming being staged at the performing art centers with Broadway themes.
“The Kravis Center will have several Broadway themed programs outside of our main Broadway series including concert artists and special limited run Broadway presentations throughout the season,” says Lee Bell, senior director of programming at the Kravis Center.
At the Arsht Center, there are plans for smaller musicals to be staged through theater partnerships.
“In our Loud and Live [series] they will be doing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ in September [2020],” says Zietsman. “And [theater partner] Zoetic Stage is doing ’A Little
Night Music’ in March. There are other of our venue users that are doing music theater next year and we’ll see how that goes.”
Shanley says that the Broward Center is looking into staging small al fresco productions in the courtyard. “Primarily driven by [resident theater company] Slow Burn — maybe a concert, not a full show, but smaller-space productions, vignettes,” he says.
The Broward Center also has virtual programming that leans on Broadway, such as “In the Green Room Live,” the Broadway Chat Series, the Virtual Broadway Intensive as well as master classes with Broadway talent.
The Broward Center also manages other performance spaces including Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse where concerts from Broadway stars such as Jackie Evancho, Seth Rudetsky and Santino Fontano are scheduled for 2021.
As of now, The Aventura Broadway Concert Series at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center, managed by the Broward Center, still has showtune singers such as Lucie Arnaz, Rachel Bay Jones and Norm Lewis beginning in January.
The biz of showbiz
Because of COVID-19 protocols for mask wearing and social distancing, New York’s globally influential theater district shuttered in March and will remain closed for the remainder of this year.
“It’s unfortunate but not unexpected due to what it will take to reopen Broadway while keeping audiences, actors, stage crews, designers and directors safe during conception, casting, rebuilding and rehearsals prior to opening,” says the Kravis’ Bell. “Broadway will bounce back when effective safety protocols are activated and when audiences and production teams are assured of a healthy environment.”
But the economics of touring can be equally daunting.
Broadway Across America’s Krajsa explains, “The touring industry depends on an interconnected network of cities as shows travel from theater to theater each week. So, just because a city is open for business, does not mean that a tour can safely travel from city to city.”
The Arsht Center’s Zietsman agrees. “If you turn a 2,200 seat concert hall into a 400 seat hall with everyone 6 feet apart … the business model simply doesn’t work. There may be certain experiences that would work with social distancing and restrictions, Broadway is not one of them.”
“Broadway is a very risky business. Investors invest incredible amounts of funds to put a show on the road. Before they would do that, they need to be confident that the budget would work and that requires large attendance and large amounts of ticket sales. “
The finale
And yet, there is hope. “We already have 6,000 subscribers for next year,” says Zietsman. “That speaks loudly. We are experiencing deep loyalty. Our message to them is very simple: We’ll be back. The only thing we can’t answer is when. I think most people understand that.”
Even with all the uncertainty, Shanley is confident that Broadway is coming back to South Florida.
“We just don’t know the timetable yet,” he says. “It makes it hard to imagine when we will all be back together in the theater. But gosh, it’s going to happen. We’re going to be back. That is going to happen. No one should doubt it for a moment. It’s just a long road.”